Here is my modified S12 drum

[Matthew Hopkins 1,065]

Cbass started a thread on his modified drum, for loading shells from the back, so here is mine.

 

what I did was to mimic the Chinese AKM drum, by using a hinge at the bottom and using draw latch with safety catch, so that there is no way the latch can be unhooked accidentally by the recoil of the SG.

 

I also used a pieces of bar stock and contoured it for opening the back.

 

 

 

for the inside, I used a pull draw and attached it to the inner drum, to make is easy on the fingers to wind

the drum, rather then grabbing the "shell holders"

 

 

 

 

next, was how to keep the inner drum fully wound. Cbass used a shell and stuck it in the top "shell holder" and the feed tower, which works fine. but I thought about doing something a bit different, and decideced to use a spring loaded index pin with lock out feature. so I drilled a hole and threaded it and screwed in the index pin.

 

so now, when I wind the drum, I just set the pin in front of the follower and it keeps it in place.

 

 

 

 

now that the screw won't be needed, I cut off the "tits" from the drum, and the back plate.

 

 

so that is my modification.

Edited May 10, 2013 by Matthew Hopkins

[Terminator03 18]

Very nice ideas. Thanks for sharing!

[JESS1344 508]

MATT,

WOW, WHAT WOULD YOU CHARGE TO MOD AN MD DRUM?

 

IS THIS APPLICABLE TO THE PRO-MAG DRUMS?

 

THANKS,

JESS1344

[thebuns1 4,323]

Cool shit Matt.

[Matthew Hopkins 1,065]

I'm not going to be charging anything, because I don't want to take the risk of screwing up someone else drum. if I screw up doing something of my stuff, then that's on me. but for someone's drum, I'm not going to take that chance. hope you understand. as for the PRO-MAG drum, I can't say exactly, because I don't have one to study.

 

however, I can give you some pointers on how I did it and the web address of the places I bought the index pin and the latches. I used the draw handle from a old dresser I had in my basement that holds my power tools, the hinge also I found in my basement in my junk drawer.

 

 

I bought the index pin from J.W. WINCO, link below, when I screwed it in, it was a tad long so I had to grind it down a bit so that it was flush to the inside drum. there is still plenty of thread and pin left to do the job of holding the inner drum

 

 

822.6-4.73-3/8X24-C

 

as for the draw latch, I got it from McMASTERS &CARR, since they are located in Aurora, Oh. JRSUDS and myself, drove down there, me to buy it, and he went along to get something else. it comes with 4 striker plates, the one on there is the one that works great, I tried one of the other ones, and it didn't work as excepted, so I screwed up the smokey back plate I had. luckily a FFL buddy of mine had a spare solid backplate.

 

the item number is 6139A28, make sure you click on that item number to order 2, the non-locking with safety catch one, at $10.97ea. it's the 3rd line

 

Nonlocking with Safety Catch

A 1 3/8" 3 15/16" 1 5/8" 11/16" 61 #6 4 6139A28 10.97

 

 

http://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/119/2927/=mp0buw

 

 

it has a curved latch to it, which I didn't like all that well, so I cut that one out and I bent the one you see that is on there, I used a wire coat hanger to make it.

Edited May 10, 2013 by Matthew Hopkins

[Sdustin 578]

Very cool. MD should work something up and offer this as an option.

 

I mean it's Not like he's working on double stack 12 mags is it?

[Matthew Hopkins 1,065]

Very cool. MD should work something up and offer this as an option.

 

I mean it's Not like he's working on double stack 12 mags is it?

 

 

like I said a few times on this board; if you are going to wait on someone else to make something you want/like to have, you are going to be waiting 'till they plant you. even after that it's still not going to happen.

[Sdustin 578]

I was just fucking around. I could care less. I really think it would be cool if he offered his drum as a load back drum.

[TYBOY 33]

Why?

 

What is the advantage of this mod?

[HighPlainsDrifter 466]

Why?

 

What is the advantage of this mod?

 

Faster reloads.

[Mullet Man 2,114]

Faster reloads? Really?

 

Hey Matthew, next up is a video comparo of loading your modded drum vs. a stock MD20.

[TYBOY 33]

I got to be honest here.

 

That looks like shit.

 

You just Bubba'd a perfectly good drum.

[Matthew Hopkins 1,065]

my intent was not to make reloads faster, but easier. pushing each and every 20 shells in through the feed tower, against the spring, doing that after a couple of drum loads, gets tedious. now, I can just drop 2 shells at a time in the "shell slots". close it up and insert it in the shotgun

Edited May 11, 2013 by Matthew Hopkins

[Sdustin 578]

Oh it is ugly. If it works I'm sure you could use smaller hardware and get it coated in phosphate and it would look fine. Use a real Handel inside or some sort. This could be made to look awesome.

[raidersfan_5544 57]

Mine loads just fine...Thanks

[Turbo.M777 11]

Looks like a lot of effort. Cool concept, but not something I would ever want to do. I don't see how it would save much time after considering the time to operate the latches. Pushing the shells in isnt too bothersome for me. Its cool to see other people experimenting though

 

On second thought, I can see how it could save a chunk of time. Still wouldn't do it though

Edited May 12, 2013 by Turbo.M777

[Matthew Hopkins 1,065]

I don't see how it would save much time after considering the time to operate the latches.

 

 

again, for me it wasn't about time, but ease of loading, dropping 2 shells at a time, rather then pushing each shell through the feed tower.

 

every rifle I have I load by stripper clips, rather then pushing each and every round in the mag, or manipulating some loading device. if a loader doesn't exist for the type of rifle I have, I modify a loader for something else for that rifle, like I did for my 5.56 AK, HK53.

Edited May 12, 2013 by Matthew Hopkins

[haugpatr 972]

It is always nice to see innovation, nice job!

[Terminator03 18]

I got to be honest here.

 

That looks like shit.

 

You just Bubba'd a perfectly good drum.

Well, I get what you are saying, but you have to look at this as a "proof of concept", or prototype if you will. Once the op establishes that it functions as intended, he can always research to find hardware that is better suited to replace the "Bubba" parts. I really like the concept and can see past the hokey hardware.

[HighPlainsDrifter 466]

I got to be honest here.

 

That looks like shit.

 

You just Bubba'd a perfectly good drum.

 

I got to be honest as well. It's easy to sit behind a screen and be judgmental of someone's work. Didn't your momma ever tell you if you don't have anything good to say then don't say anything at all?

 

For what it's worth I enjoy threads like this one. I call this a contribution to the forum. I can't remember FordGuy ever doing the same.

 

Good work Mat...

[Nailbomb 10,221]

Very cool mod. Good ideas.

[Matthew Hopkins 1,065]

thanks guys for your thumbs up.

 

 

JRUDS gave me a idea on enamel baking the hardware, he sent me a YOUTUBE on it, and tweaking the latch up so it doesn't protrude past the front of the drum, which is doable as there will still be enough metal on it so it won't compromise any stress integrity. I really don't want to go small on the latches, the recoil of firing 12GA/slug shells and you'll see why, large shells +recoil against the back plate is far more then rifle rounds+recoil. Newton's Third Law of Motion

 

 

I will tweak the things on the S12 drum later, as now I went back to my other work in progress; modifying a Korean 100 round BETA drum for the AK74. I got the feed tower completed, and changed out the follower to 5.45. I have to work on the inside now, I know what has to be done on the inside, namely putting a spacer on the front "sprocket" wheel and re-contouring the inside of the drum body specifically for the 5.45 cartridge; I have a couple ideas on that

Edited May 16, 2013 by Matthew Hopkins

[gunfun 3,931]

FYI, I tried reloading my MD 20 the normal way 3 times while timing it and not rushing too hard. It took 40 seconds, 43 and 40.

 

I tried it the modified way, and did not time it, but I actually had a malfunction because the back plate flexed at the top when not held by screws. The shell rim hung up when entering the feed chute because it was too far toward the back. when I pushed on the plate, it went into the chute and fed.

 

I do not think this mod is appreciably faster, and it reduces the strength of the drum. I think if it is going to be only held by the center clip, the back plate needs reinforcement for greater rigidity.

 

I don't like raining on experimentation, but I do believe in publishing both positive and negative results.

[Matthew Hopkins 1,065]

FYI, I tried reloading my MD 20 the normal way 3 times while timing it and not rushing too hard. It took 40 seconds, 43 and 40.

 

 

 

I tried it the modified way, and did not time it, but I actually had a malfunction because the back plate flexed at the top when not held by screws. The shell rim hung up when entering the feed chute because it was too far toward the back. when I pushed on the plate, it went into the chute and fed.

 

I do not think this mod is appreciably faster, and it reduces the strength of the drum. I think if it is going to be only held by the center clip, the back plate needs reinforcement for greater rigidity.

 

I don't like raining on experimentation, but I do believe in publishing both positive and negative results.

 

 

once again, for me it isn't about speed of loading, but ease of loading.

 

as for "raining on the experimentation", you're not raining on the experimentation, I found that out myself when I fired it just using the center clip only, it's post 16 on Cbass's thread

 

http://forum.saiga-12.com/index.php?/topic/87119-md-20-mod/

Edited May 17, 2013 by Matthew Hopkins

[gunfun 3,931]

I missed with that one.