On the subject of mags, I noticed today during assembly and tuning that I have two different Vudoo mags.
The feed ramp on the mag pictured right is much more shallow, and functions flawlessly, while the mag pictured left does not feed as consistently. I can’t imagine that would be wear, is there multiple generations?
Per usual, thanks in advance!
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I appreciate you posting this as it's been something I've wanted to address due to some questions and comments I've received. The profile on the right is the legacy profile. The one on the left is an alteration after the fact. Due to the departure angle of the follower, altering the legacy profile does nothing for the path of the round on the way to the chamber. High speed video shows that the round is nowhere close to touching any part of the "U" shaped legacy profile.
The altered profile is like chasing Bigfoot and some of this chasing occurred at VGW, mostly due to too much forward tilting movement as the bolt nose pushed a round from the magazine. The result of the tilting was an overall lower presentation angle of the round to the chamber, so the futzing around process started; "ramps" were filed into the U shape, followers were touched to a belt sander by hand with no idea what the angle was being changed to or why. All along, the issue had nothing to do with the magazine or any of its components, and this includes the feeding of Eley ammo.
I'll also say that later production of the magazines had degraded quality. Tool design occurred in 2009, and tool production was in 2010. Limited production of magazines started soon after, but no big numbers; the case halves were epoxied together. Production really cranked up in 2015 when I moved my tools to a facility in Madison, Alabama and bought the first Branson tools for their ultrasonic welder. Once in Alabama, lots of parts were pumped out while I was doing 40X Conversions and even more after VGW stood up. All the ultrasonic welding moved to my shop where welding and QA occurred, then I shipped welded bodies to St. George. Then, for no good reason, molding tools were moved to a facility in St. George and quality went down while a new facility, that molded ammo cans, learned how to make magazines.
After a while, the new facility did ok, but the magazine parts were never as good as what came out of the Alabama facility. I spent two days in the facility in Alabama to dial things in. I spent literally weeks, cumulatively, in the facility in St. George. While all this evolved, little issues cropped up. So, when I say "legacy" magazine, I'm referring to the Alabama magazines. The "futzed" magazines were from St. George. The moving of the tools, filing, grinding, "improved" third party followers and so on, were all manufactured issues in an effort to fix something until it was broken.
MB
