Is anyone running the ARC mag with a 10 rd AICS follower and spring? I just swapped one into an ARC mag. 10th round was tight but I managed to cycle all ten without issue. Going to try it in live fire the next time I'm at the range.
ARC mag modification
- Thread starter broke_again
- Start date
I use a Defiance AW cut with Manners mini-chassis and still get the occasional hang up. If the round moves forward at all it will bind.
I tried them in a bighorn TL2 with MPA Chassis, 6 dasher. Had no issues with practice but shot in a match (260 rounds over 2 days) and had several failures occur. Couple times rounds were nosediving, and couple times the follower was simply sticking low down in the mag body. I tried cleaning but continued to have the issue, finally switched to AICS mags after dropping more points than I was comfortable dropping. I really like them though, and am going to play with the follower to see if I can get it to work better.
I've been running a 6 BR with one, but dremeled it down a little in places. It has run 100% thus far in practice at the range. Defiance AIAT chassis gun.
Couple matches under my belt with the ARC mag in my TL3 Manners mini-chassis shooting 6 Dasher. No issues thus far. Last match was really dusty too. I've seen other actions have issues though...
My TL2 runs great with AICS mags. I just prefer the shorter ARC mags. I am going to mess with them some more as I do think they will be fine with minimal tinkering. They ran great just practicing at the range, but recent match revealed minor issues that shoudn't be too tough to fix. I do think they may require a little more vigilance during matches keeping clean. Ted is interested in hearing about his new mags, and I can imagine him making a change to the follower/spring. But he's pretty busy - don't think that will happen real soon.
Having ran my buddies TL2 in 6.5x47 with ARC mags, we found it requires you to work the bolt opening and closing vigorously. Otherwise the rounds have a tendency to work forward in the magazine.
Both our TL3's (his a Dasher and mine in 6BR) run great with no problems.
Both our TL3's (his a Dasher and mine in 6BR) run great with no problems.
Quick questions then - You using the whole assembly from the AICS mag ? i.e. the follower and the spring ? with no other mods ?
I have 2 ARC mags, running in 6 dasher with MPA chassis and Bighorn TL2. Initially had no issues but in 2 consecutive matches have had issues with just about everything - bolt running over rounds, nose diving, rounds catching under feed ramp. I have replaced the follower/spring with 5 rd guts from AICS mag, still had some issues this weekend. Last night opened feed lips a bit, and tweeked the spring to give little more pressure on back end of follower. Hoping this finally gets them running. Have several shooting friends that are essentially running them with little to no mods and no issues at all, so it seems to be hit and miss depending on your setup.
Dropped my TL-3 barreled action out from a Manners min-chassis into a MPA chassis last week. The ARC mags ran flawless in the Manners but in the MPA I got a couple nosedives. I've pulled the follower out and filed off the "wings" that seemed to be contributing to the binding. That seems to have helped, at least it's hard to nosedive the follower by hand. We'll see how it runs at the range.
Dropped it with no mods. Stretched the spring slightly just cause I felt like doing so
I have a 6 Dasher TL3 in an MPA and finally ordered an ARC mag from PVA. I really hope it works. I have been running AICS mags with the Dasher kits and they have given me trouble at matches, whereby the follower gets stuck halfway through and the remaining rounds rattle around on top loosely and won't feed.
I really need to find a solid working solution. Too many lost points at matches due to gear. Fingers crossed.
I really need to find a solid working solution. Too many lost points at matches due to gear. Fingers crossed.
Other than trashing an AICS mag for the follower and spring is there a source for the followers - my google skilz are not returning me anything
Not that I know of, I just had a couple 5 round AICS lying around and tried it. Much better than the ARC stock follower unfortunately. I even had my feed ramp opened up, but the rounds would still nose dive, so I gave this a try and it has worked well since.
Guys, I want to solve this problem. While we could mill a new follower, I think our high strength printing abilities can solve this at a great cost. I'm awaiting some pieces to test with...but could someone go into detail about what could be done to help feeding via the follower?
Tyler Kemp
The follower issue (now if you have done the "cut the ears off" mod, function and perform OK on a longer cartridge like .260 Rem / .308), just some minor messing around with the feed lips - but with a 6.5x47L and other shorter cases, as you have heard, they tend to nose dive and jam - pizfiz found a fix , which seems to be - try AICS 5 round follower /spring combo - you have to stretch the spring a bit and of course you mess up a 5 round AICS mag, however he got them to function well enough to use. Suggest you start there -
Now I really like the mag - it works well as I said with .260 and 308 also 6.5cm, however I would absolutely buy a lot more if the nosediving issue was resolved - I would also gladly pay for new followers (as long as it resolved the issue) as your mags are not scratching up brass like others do. As a thought you could offer an exchange program that means you get to re-use springs etc,
Hope this helps
Tim
The follower issue (now if you have done the "cut the ears off" mod, function and perform OK on a longer cartridge like .260 Rem / .308), just some minor messing around with the feed lips - but with a 6.5x47L and other shorter cases, as you have heard, they tend to nose dive and jam - pizfiz found a fix , which seems to be - try AICS 5 round follower /spring combo - you have to stretch the spring a bit and of course you mess up a 5 round AICS mag, however he got them to function well enough to use. Suggest you start there -
Now I really like the mag - it works well as I said with .260 and 308 also 6.5cm, however I would absolutely buy a lot more if the nosediving issue was resolved - I would also gladly pay for new followers (as long as it resolved the issue) as your mags are not scratching up brass like others do. As a thought you could offer an exchange program that means you get to re-use springs etc,
Hope this helps
Tim
If it's simply an AICS follower needed (can it be attached to ARC spring?) I've already printed those. Or if it could be an AICS follower but modified for the ARC spring, even better. Making springs is best done in huge quantities and I don't really wanna drop 5k on some springs for ARC mags haha.
Modify the base of the AICS type follower to use the ARC spring - send a few out - I'll test one
