BAR mid-cap conversion

[2nd Bat]

I noticed as i did more of these that the main grooves could be angled just slightly toward the rear of the m16 mag. Which allows the inner magazine to line up slightly more easily with the slots in the BAR magazine. This means the m16 magazine angles in a little bit. The front bottom corner touches the front wall and the rear bottom corner is flush with the BAR base plate when slid into place. Either approach works but the last ones i made didn't need the plastic spacers added at the bottom. One other observation is that unless you gouge the groove out deep enough the bar metal housing will bulge a bit making loading and unloading a bit tight. One other comment is that as you dremel out the groove take care not to penetrate the wall but if you nick through in a few places everything still works fine. I ended up doing up 10 of these which should be enough for my BAR gunners. They all work flawlessly. The take out hi cap m16 guts are perfect for driving the box magazine for my M1919A6 and my RPDs.

[2nd Bat]

These modified mid caps continue to work fine with no missfeeds or issues. As with any low cap or midcap be sure not to store them loaded as the pressure of a full magazine quickly weakens the springs. If someone is anticipating doing this project and would like a tutorial with pictures showing the steps just PM me with your direct email and I'll send it over. It's really pretty straight forward but the revision to the slightly angled groove is easier to show then explain.

[2nd Bat]

Fired 3 complete cycles of all 10 magazines today with no missfeeds or missfires. I literally pounded the magazine side to remove the bulges that had occured in some and swapping mags in and out of the BAR was way easier. WW2 guns are certainly not as ergonomic (muscle movment friendly) as modern weapons. All are awkward and non fluid when compared with an AK, P90, M4, MP 5 etc. The thomson is imbalanced the BAR bulky and challenging and the Garand took a ton of training and practice to get used to. For Ww2 skirmishing there is a lot to be said for settling on one main weapon and then really getting good and comfortable with it. I have loving a diverse armory of WW2 weapons but I have to say after spending so much recent time firing both my 2nd Bat Garands and the new ICS, I really find it challenging to swap mags and fire the Thompson and BAR. At least initially. It wasn't until many hundreds of rounds into them that it started getting easier.

Weapons designs have really come a long way in 60 years. The awkwardness and challenges of these historic replicas is a huge part of the fun for me. I can't imagine what it would have been like to haul 30 magazines or so for the BAR and having to swap them out every 20 rounds. At least now I sort of have an idea. These modified mid caps at 110 rounds are tough enough!

[stuka]

Yeah and the realse itself is really hard to do one handed

[2nd Bat]

I shot nearly 3000 rounds yesterday with the BAR. (Think what that would have cost if the ammo was real!). For this endeavor I definitely used the bipod which absolutely facilitates the swapping of magsand spares the body. I did several loads, fires and reloads without the bipod when upright and it definitely takes some skill to do well. The BAR is an absolute monster . Lots of six inch rubber army men died yesterday. Most called their hits!

[roadwarrior]

Apr 8, 2013 8:10:25 GMT -5 stuka said:

No problem but now I hotta fix my BAR trigger contact is well iffy

The receiving trigger contacts are most likely bent out of shape, I noticed on mine that they're kinda flimsy.

[brownien]

Just a quick question about this conversion. Do you guys think this could be done with M14 midcaps, instead of m16 midcaps? I think the gearbox in my custom BAR prematurely sh!t the bed. Very dissapointed in it now, and over the summer I may look into getting the Echo 1 BAR. Thing is, I have 20 brand new m14 midcaps that I can't use now :/ Unless someone would like them, I may try to use them in conversions similar to what you guys did with RS BAR mags.

My BAR may end up just being a prop gun now

[shiftysgarand]

I would think so. It would be a tighter fit, but I bet it'll work.

[2nd Bat]

Pretty much anything CAN be done the question is whether the return on effort is worth it. The reason we used M16 mid caps is because M16 highcap innards are what are used in the ECHO BAR so once installed everything fits, lines up and works. The m16 magazine top has a lip and ridge that aren't on the m14 magazine which is flat. I am not at all sure how one might fabricate such a thing. I think your best bet would be to buy a boneyard M14 and replace your guts in your DIY BAR with it or buy just the gearboxes which come up for sale from time to time.

[brownien]

Thanks for the input. Since I've been dealing with trying to get it working properly for the longest time, I'm not really sure what I want to do with it. I'm on the fence as to whether or not I should try to grab up a spare gearbox to fix it, or to just sell it as a prop. Besides the gearbox, I have had compression problems with it too, and that has become a nightmare. I'll sit on what I want to do with it for now though.

[2nd Bat]

With the metal and visual fabrication you did, it would be a great prop if that is what you decided to do. Oddly enough you could probably get nearly as much for it selling it that way. List it under film prop replicas rather than a non working airsoft gun. Before you do that have a tech give it a quick once over to see if it's something simple.

[2nd Bat]

An update on this thread. These modified midcaps worked great even in very cold temperatures. The magazines actually held up better then the guns did I am afraid. I got all mine back from loan to Brownian and just loaded and fired them all in my ECHO 1 BAR with no stoppages. I like mid caps so much better then high caps and highly recommen this project.

[Steven Friday]

Did you use the M16VN Short full plastic magazine for the replace from the MAG mfg.? (My question for 2nd Bat.)
I already bought 14 piece of short plastic mag to convert them.
Please let me know! Thank you!

[2nd Bat]

Indeed i used the short VN M16 mags with the plastic outer shells. I have scrubbed all my process pictures since i did this project so long ago but STUKAs pictures are still up and will provide a nice tutorial. I use a dremel to create the channel groove in the plastic. You'll be able to see in the BAR magazine shell why this groove is required.

[<2>nd Rangers M/Sgt. Tom]

Yea I had to tighten all the clips up on the squads BAR also before the damn things would work correctly also.

[2nd Bat]

To keep the short inner magazines from sliding down into the BAR outer shell you should fill the lower area with something that provides a spacer. This will hold them flush. I used resin paste (my go to solution for almost everything) but wood, foam or plastic would work also.

[2nd Bat]

There is some discussion as to whether the "plastic" rear stocks ended up in use during WW2. I had one dated 1943 so clearly it was possible but probably not until late in the war. I have seen lots of pictures (post D-Day) that sure look like BARs with composite stocks.