Salem Six 10 Round Magazine Extension Review

[eod1 4]

Ok well since I've been waiting for Arms of America to catch up on orders with the sneaking suspicion that I might not recieve them before a magazine ban of some kind comes into effect I figured I would try out the Salem 6 10 Round Magazine Extensions for the standard MKA 1919 5 round magazines. I had heard that some people had problems with them only taking 8 rounds and that the stock 5 round springs won't work so I will touch on that later in the review. Since I'm a pretty handy guy with a well stocked workshop I though ehhhh I can make this work so here's my take on the whole deal.

Dealing with Salem 6:

I ordered Tuesday night on the 15th of January and paid with paypal. The next day I recieved an email that they had processed my order. They shipped them out the same day through the USPS and I recieved them Saturday the 19th of January. Well with all the shipping deals and everything being sold out that right there impressed me throughly.

 

Unpackaging:

They were packed nicely in the shipping box, well cushioned to avoid damage. They come in plastic ziplock bags. Inside the bags are the two halfs and the 6 screws to assemble them. Standard, nothing special on first look. My first impression was that there were pretty nicely made. There were no weird mold marks on them. I did notice that 1 or 2 of the halves had some little strips of left over plastic about as thick as a piece of string, my guess left over from the final manufactering process. No big deal I just pulled them out with my fingers. There were no instructions but they are available on Salem's website.

 

Alright on to assembly. The first thing I did was take apart the four 5 round magazines I had. I have one that was one of the original mka mags, 2 I guess from the second round of 1919's after they removed the jeweled safety and fixed the rail size on the upper, and one that I just bought recently. I followed salem's instructions to see if the shell would fall out of the bottom of the magazine freely. none of my magazines would allow the shell to fall out freely so I just got the file out and followed their recommendations till it would pass through freely. I also noticed some differences between my 5 round magazines.

The first generation 5 round magazine's spring was about 2 to 3 inches shorter in free length. So I ruled using that spring out in any of my extensions. Also with the first generation mag the little triangle that holds the bolt open after the last round was thinner, made of metal, and was easier to push in then the newer ones. This piece of information was key to helping me work out getting them to work right.

The second generation mag followers were the same shape but had plastic pieces to hold the bolt open. They were significantly harder to push in. Also the magazine follwers in the first and second generation had held the magazine spring with extensions that come down in the front and rear of the follower. The third generation mag had the same plastic piece to hold the bolt open after the last round but the skirt on the follower was longer encompassing the entire magazine spring on the front, back, and sides. Also the angle of the magazine follower had a steeper angle then the older generations that hold the front of the shell up a few degrees more. I guess that is to help feeding the shell into the chamber.

So I started out using one of the second gen mags to test fit every thing. I assembled it and fed some shells into it. I immediately noticed loading that at around round 7 or 8 it would bind up then with some pressure go farther allowing the other 2 rounds to be put in. Then I attempted to feed the 10 rounds out with my thumb. At round 8 the magazine stopped feeding the rounds up and I had to take it apart. So I disassembled it and and put the magazine and half the magazine extension on the table. I then put the follower in the bottom of the extension half and tried to push it up. It would bind on the back side of the magazine because of the bolt holder and the transition from the extension to the magazine was not smooth. The metal of the magazine has a detent in it so get some space between the shell primer and the magazine. The extension does not have that, the follower was binding at that transition so I radiused that edge on the magazine and tried it again. It still was not smooth but better. I then radiused all the edges of the 5 round magazine and all the indents were smoothed out with a simple metal file. After that I tried it again and it was 100% better but still was not as smooth as I thought it should be. When I tried it with the 1st generation magazine follower it was like butter. The reason being was the stiffer springs on the bolt holder of the later generation mags was to stiff forcing the follower to nose first and creating to much friction on the front and rear of the magazine body. My solution was to push the pin out holding the bolt hold on the follower and cut the spring that pushes it out down so that there was no tension on the bolt holder when it was fully extened. To do that I removed alittle around 3/16th of an inch off the spring of all the followers I was going to use. I assembled all my mags and tested them again. The stock 5 round magazine springs were feeding everything out just fine but felt like there were a little to soft when there were only 3 or 2 rounds left in the mag. I disassembled them again and simply pulled the spring at both ends increasing the free spring length a couple of inches and put it back together. Loaded it again with 10 rounds then pushed them out with my thumb. Everything worked great so I decided to test them in the shotgun.

 

The test:

I loaded the three magazines with 10 rounds each and inserted them into the 1919. Let the bolt go forward and let it eat. It feed great with no problems through all ten rounds in every mag as fast as I could pull the trigger.

 

Conclusion:

Do they work? YES, but it takes some work to make it right. Nothing hard just some time filing and testing to get it right. Tools required a file and a pair of dykes to cut the bolt holder spring.

Will they work with the stock 5 round magazine springs? Yes and I hate to say but one more time lol. But you have to make sure that you have later generation mags that have the longer spring inside it.

Is it worth 20 bucks? HECK YEA in this crazy market with outrageous price gouging ( gunbroker has factory 10 rounders for 125 and up ) and waiting 2 months or more possibly, 20 bucks with quick shipping and a little bit of personal time making it work right is a bargain in my book.

In my opinion also which you can take with a grain of salt. They should be pretty durable. I'm pretty rough on my mags so we'll see what happens after I throw them on the ground a few times during mag drops. Also they don't add much weight to the factory 5 round magazine at all. I like the ribbing on the mags because it allows a better grip on them pulling them out of the gun and putting a new one in. Finally I really like the way they look in the gun. It adds a really nice touch in my eyes instead of the bland look of the factory magazines if you're into asethics. I really don't care what something looks like as long as it works but looking good is a plus in this case. I'll upload pics tomorrow after I shoot get a few hundred rounds though them and see if they really will hold up.

 

The only question I have is does this count as a 922r part? If the magazine base plates do why wouldn't this since it's made in the US?

Edited January 20, 2013 by eod1

[gunfun 3,931]

thanks for the write up.

[McJenkins1 0]

Yes thank you! I just ordered 3. I checked my mags and only 3 had the long springs.

[Trappnguns 1]

I like mine. The took very little work to make good. Haven't put them to use at the range yet though...

 

CSS has 10rd factory mag springs, They might do the trick, of course thats ten bucks more. Still $70 for a ten rounder is better than anything else out there.

[Venomous 1]

Thanks for the great review!

[TheStalker 0]

Great review! Mine had the short springs and wouldn't work. Looks like Salem 6 is now developing a new spring to go with the mag extensions. I ordered some 10rnd mag springs from CSS to try when I get back home.

 

I think the Salem 6 mag extension are of great quality.

 

Chris

[KIRCH76 12]

CSS has the mag springs on sale for $10

[ec4321 113]

Nice. Great contribution.

[eod1 4]

Put 200 rounds through them, I had one FTF where the shell went straight into the feed ramp instead of nose up, I also had FTE. I using Winchester AA 7 1/2 shot target loads. There was no problem with feeding during rapid fire so that answers that question, going to buy some more. Oh one more note they are about 1" shorter then the factory 10 rd mags.

[ec4321 113]

can someone link the extended springs at CSS?

Sorry to be so helpless, I just cannot find the dang things on their site.

Disregard.

[KIRCH76 12]

http://store.carolinashooterssupply.com/servlet/-strse-1644/MKA-magazine-spring-Firebird/Detail

[voonman 133]

Very nice write up..I bought four of these salem6 ext but i havent tried them out yet since i dont have my mka 1919..i am waiting until next week to pick it up..But from what i gather they are made of good quality synthetic plastic material that feels like the same material that is used to make the md20 drum.I really like the feel and look of the ribbed configuration of the mag..it feels and grips very well and i prefer this over the factor 10 round mag ..as mentioned before it is also about 1inch shorter than the akdal mka factory 10 rounder...My 5 round mka mags were the newer generation so i did not get the long spring..I had to end up buying the 10 round agp springs..but for some reason when i load them up ..i am only getting nine rounds to fit..maybe i am doing something wrong or they may need to be broken in.not sure as of yet.Will do a follow up when i get my shotgun and take this bad boy out to the range..here are a few pics below..

 

 

 

Edited January 24, 2013 by voonman

[eod1 4]

The nine rounds might be because some mags have a longer follower then others. I had three different types of followers in my mags. This is one out of the newer mags that I didn't use. The older ones were shorter.

[voonman 133]

where would i find older followers?And can i shave these followers down to fit 10 rounds?

[eod1 4]

I took some pics of the two different types next to each other. The old follower on the right and the newer one on the left with a terciary measurement.

 

Then with 10 shells in the extension without the spring

- You notice the length difference so you may have a spring binding.

- Notice the different angle the shells are held at. The older one matches the angle of the shells perfectly while the newer follower does not.

 

The photos of the magazine is so you can see everywhere I filed. The follower was catching the most on the back side of the mag (primer side of the shell). So I gave it a few love taps with a small hammer and filed it so the transition from the mag extenstion to the magazine was smooth. I also filed the small indents on the side of the magazine for a smooth transistion also.

Ill shave mine down and let you know if I can get it to work. That way you don't destroy what you have first

[eod1 4]

I just tried 10 rounds in mine with the bigger follower ( I didn't cut anything off it yet) and it held them no problem.

Edited January 25, 2013 by eod1

[Trappnguns 1]

Good info! Keep it up!

[voonman 133]

dude you are a great help..this should be a sticky..So you didnt cut anything off.? how were you able to get 10rounds in it?did you use the original 5 round spring? or did you order 10round agp springs? When i use the 10 round agp spring i can only 9rounds to fit comfortably...I have already done the necessary filing down on the bottom of the mag so the shells would feed probably into the salem6 ext..but it still refuses to take the 10th round

[eod1 4]

No I didn't cut the bigger follower I just swapped it into one of my extensions real quick. I used the longer standard 5 round magazine spring and the bigger follower, it just fit 10 rounds in no problem. Measure the free length of your 10 round mag spring and let me know. I suspect that the 10 round spring is longer then my 5 round spring or has more coils. So it is binding up your follower when it's compressed. Because of the extra length it gets trapped under the follower and stops it from going down all the way since the spring bows out a bit when it's compressed trapping itself under the follower.

[mydearas 0]

I ordered 2 of these. I followed your directions with regards to cutting down the small bolt catch spring. Thanks! I did not however have to file anything. The shells would not pass through, but rather than file I put a small prybar inside and bent the magazine so that it bulged out slightly near the bottom where it was catching and she feeds great now! I did have to play with the spring a bit, stretched it to make it an inch or two longer. Just figured I'd throw this out there incase someone wants to try to spread the mag a little first before going to town with a file. Rob

 

Been following for a long time, finally joined

[mjohn11 2]

I just got some new magazines for my MKA 1919 (see pictures below). I've got the OEM 5-round, Salem6 10-round, OEM 10-round, Firebird F15 15-round, and Roulette Tactical 18-round. I haven't had a chance to test the last two (I recently received them), but I'll try to make a video as soon as I do.

 

I placed a 30-round AK47 magazine and 15-round .40 pistol magazine on both sides so that you could see the relative size of the magazines.

 

 

 

[toothandnail 275]

Does the S6 only hold 9 ?

 

About 70% of our factory 10's hold 11

[turbobuick 3]

 

Thanks, got my answer

Edited June 17, 2013 by turbobuick

[toothandnail 275]

We were at a 3gun match all day Sat.

You should have gotten one from Fedex when it shipped.

I will send you another.