Reising to Uzi Magazine Conversion Magwell - a fun project I completed

[bandanabandit1]

Hi everyone, I thought some of you would enjoy hearing about a recent project I have finally completed that I started earlier in the year with just a concept. Like many that are familiar with the Reising family of firearms (M50, M55, and M60) you are probably aware that one of the BIGGEST complaints is magazine availability - there just aren't a lot of magazines around. This problem planted a seed that turned from just a concept in my head to an actual product (that works!). I wanted something that would solve the issues of trying to find some original magazines (good luck, and not to mention the price) or trying to jerry-rig a modern magazine to fit in the original magwell and hoping that it will function reliably. I present to you - my Reising to Uzi magazine Conversion Magwell.

This magwell is CNC machined from a solid piece of steel and later hardened for superior durability. I set out with the goal of creating a magwell that will not only run (and run and run) but will also utilize modern machining and heat treating processes to make a product that will last - compare this to the nearly 80 year old original H&R magwells that are just blued steel or parkerized. While comparing, you will see that the magazine release is also much improved over the original factory method of releasing a magazine. Simply press the button with your left thumb and pull out the magazine - as it should be. This is especially true on the earlier Reisings where you had to pull back the magazine release lever and then pull down the magazine.

With the issue of magazine availability (and parts for that matter) at the forefront of this project, I carefully considered what magazines I wanted to make as the foundation of this project. I settled on newly manufactured .45 Uzi magazines from ProMag. From all of my testing I have not had a single malfunction induced from the magazines - and I tested quite a few. Not to mention that ProMag also offers a lifetime warranty on each magazine! Once this magwell is installed, it is essentially "Plug-and-Play" - you can just insert a standard .45acp Uzi magazine without modification and you're ready to go. As you can see the advantages over the original H&R magazines that are almost all 80+ years old is something significant to consider. Aside from that, the parts used in the magwell assembly themselves are widely available if someone wanted to pick up some replacements (it uses standard military issue Uzi parts; mag release button, mag release button pin, mag release button spring, and 2 6/32 stainless set screws you could probably find at any hardware store). Really any original Reising replacement parts are difficult to come by so again this is a significant improvement for anyone that owns a Reising. Again, with wanting to design a durable magwell, I also increased the thickness on the portion that contacts the bottom of the action bar itself. With this, I have also redesigned the taper pins that connect the magwell to the action in the instance that I had to fit the pins to the specific action (ALL Reisings vary slightly in tolerances so this was another hurdle that I had to overcome). On that note;Thank you to all of the members here that provided me with dimensional feedback from their own Reisings!!! The pins that attach the magwell to the action are also precision CNC machined and made out of 300 series stainless. All together, this magwell is about 3x the weight of the original factory magwell (~13.5oz vs ~4.7oz), the added weight under the action does add to enhanced recoil mitigation which is another positive in itself.

Here is a video of it being demonstrated (sorry it's just semi - my range doesn't allow for FA fire)

 

Here is a customer running a few magazines through his new magwell on FA!

And another user;

From all of my testing I have NOT HAD A SINGLE MALFUNCTION! That includes with the action feeding or extracting and with the actual magazines themselves. Other Reising owners that have used these have reported similar results back to me (once tuned to their specific gun). And in some cases even make the gun run MORE reliably.

I do want to reiterate that there may be some minor fitting involved to get the magwell tuned to your specific gun. The most common issue I am seeing so far seems to be with the newer ProMag Uzi magazines having feedlips that are not as wide as the older magazines that they produced. This is an easy fix that only takes a minute to slightly bend them outwards so they are wider, this lets the bolt strip off the round easier to feed. Once this is done performance should be flawless. If you have a question about this please see the below link to a guide on how this is done that was created by a customer. I recommend running some of the dummy rounds to make sure the magwell is compatible with your specific action before altering your stock. I will try to update this paragraph with any potential issues as I gather feedback from other users. If you have any questions or are interested in learning more about these magwells, my inbox is open.

How to adjust feedlips (post 6&7): https://www.uzitalk.com/forums/index.php?threads/reising-to-uzi-magazine-conversion-magwell-a-fun-project-i-completed.99746/#post-874237

Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoyed seeing my project - I spent a lot of time bringing it to reality. Stay tuned, I plan on continuing to develop and produce other exciting upgrades for the Reising in the future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 6, 2024 by bandanabandit1

[Kevin Bartlett]

It looks a bit bulky compared to the original.  Are any alterations to the stock needed to make it fit?

Kevin in NC  

[bandanabandit1]

9 minutes ago, Kevin Bartlett said:

It looks a bit bulky compared to the original.  Are any alterations to the stock needed to make it fit?

Kevin in NC  

Hi Kevin, it is bulkier but has to be to work with the uzi magazine. Some stocks may need some slight sanding on the inside of the magwell cutout to make it wide enough to accept the new magwell. The ideal sweet spot is about 30.5mm wide if you wanted to measure to see what your stock is. The good thing is that you can't even see the sanding from the outside of the stock. You can also stain the sanded area as well if that's something you wanted to do.

 

Also here is a link on how to install so you can see what you would need to do;

https://imgur.com/a/7HrWELS

Edited December 24, 2023 by bandanabandit1

[SGT Fish]

I didn't realize that the magazine wells were so easily swapped on these guns. That is pretty awesome! 

[bandanabandit1]

6 minutes ago, SGT Fish said:

I didn't realize that the magazine wells were so easily swapped on these guns. That is pretty awesome! 

Yeah they're pretty simple, pop the pins out, put new magwell in + pins, done. Only takes a few minutes.

[Noble20]

Do you have any for sale currently?

[Shotshow1986]

Will gladly take one if still availible please and thank you

[silentmumbles]

I purchased one about a month ago and the difference is amazing. Using factory and Christy aftermarket magazines I was able to get maybe 5-6 shots before encountering a stoppage. Now with the magwell conversion I am emptying magazines with a single trigger pull. Last range trip I went through ~200 rounds before a stoppage because the gun was getting dirty.

 

All in all, this was an excellent investment- greatly improved reliability and magazines that cost less than 10% of the factory mags.

 

10/10 Strongly Recommended!

[Christof Stehpinkler]

On 12/23/2023 at 7:48 PM, bandanabandit1 said:

Hi Kevin, it is bulkier but has to be to work with the uzi magazine. Some stocks may need some slight sanding on the inside of the magwell cutout to make it wide enough to accept the new magwell. The ideal sweet spot is about 30.5mm wide if you wanted to measure to see what your stock is. The good thing is that you can't even see the sanding from the outside of the stock. You can also stain the sanded area as well if that's something you wanted to do.

 

Also here is a link on how to install so you can see what you would need to do;

https://imgur.com/a/7HrWELS

Maybe you could do a shorter magwell that required a new retention notch to be cut somewhat higher in a regular .45 Uzi mag.  It probably wouldn't even affect the usability of the magazine if you put it back in an Uzi.  Or perhaps you could create a bullpup stock to envelop the new Uzi mag well.

In any case, a long magazine well shouldn't be a major problem. A lot of guns have had pretty obtrusive mag wells over the years: Sten guns, Owen guns, the Sterling, the Lithgow F1, M3 grease guns, and Stemples come to mind.

Nice to see it doesn't require any machining or other modification apart from maybe a little sanding.  I'm not one to care too much about collectibility if I had a beat-up Reising to use as a shooter all the time, but there are some Fudds who would. Everyone else with a Reising is surely going to want one. This is a really cool modification and may do for all the cheap Reisings out there what Lage did for the MAC-10.

Now to find some way to make a Thompson drum work with the Reising receiver, or graft an Uzi mag tower to a Thompson drum like the Vector/C&S Metalwerkes devices. (oh, but wouldn't that REALLY wind up the collectors?)  I have a few of those 9mm drums for my FA Uzi and they are a kick in the ass.

[turtleguy]

Are these still available? I would really like one.