The old mans back from the lake. By the response from this post I figured Id pick his brain about this whole thing. Heres the skinny according to "old wise one":
The replacement floorplates were not "home made", at least by him. He removed them from magazines off of a Walther P-38. I did a google search among other things and the general consenus is they were never offered by Walther so someone, somewhere, put them on before the oldtimer got the gun in on a trade deal. I cant figure out WHY they were on thier as a Walther P-38s grip is certainly large enough without a finger extension unless.....maybe the original floorplates were lost/damaged? At anyrate, he had originals and swaped em out for the finger extensions per my original request because he "figured theyd fit".
After the first "transplant", he noted what he thought was excessive play between the magazine catch and the factory floorplate which, in his opinion could have induced reliability issues. When I returned and stated I wanted one of the mags to be "flush fit" he simply ground the extension down on one of the floorplates to facilitate this, and sugested I try it as well to see if thier was any improvements in reliability. Since this modification is easily reversed by simply re-installing the factory floorplates which obviously were retained I figured it couldnt hurt.
I explained to him since his floorplate modification my pup has had a significant increase in reliability. His response was a half grin, followed by a "thought so" remark. I asked him what the big deal was behind all this and basicaly he stated metalurgy, measurements, etc. can be fickle, but bottom line the mags do not move being "shimmed" in tighter, under recoil, thus providing a stable platform in an admittedly tight, high recoiling weapon, and do in fact sit HIGHER in the well, do to the floorplate flanges "thickness" allowing a tighter AND higher "rail" for the mag tubes grooves to slide in to.
He also stated that a more powerful spring, modified follower, etc. may improve performance but that this was in his (and my) opinion the best alternative considering warranty, availability of aftermarket springs, etc. As such, the springs, followers, and subfloorplate in my mags are factory original, the only modification being the exterior floorplates themselves.
I too, am curious what Bros R would think of this. Does anybody have any pull with them to maybe drop em a line?
Please note I do not claim to have found the dali lamma here, nor am I trying to promote "snake-oil". Those that have had reliability issues may benefit from an attempt at "shimming" up the mag, as has been stated, folks in the know with feeler gauges, etc. could easily duplicate this. I do know the old man used a Micrometer to "mic" the tollerance disparity but he also said without looking at proprietary blueprints from the factory, each particular pup could have signifigant tolerance disparitys making an exact "recipe" for future floorplates a tricky liability prone difficulty although I did secure more of them, "just in case" I need em for a new STEALTH!
This post is getting long so I better cut it short. I have a camera phone, so if anyone REALY wants pics, I could take them an e-mail them to you. Im sorry I dont understand the whole posting pics process, (maybe someone could do it from thier e-mail?)
