SVT-40 Aftermarket Magazine (FAIL)

[@dancortes3062]

I bought a Sarco reproduction mag not that long ago just to try it out. It seemed like a good deal for $40. It required some fitting, but the lockup was even tighter than my original mag that came with the rifle. I took it to the range and there would be a failure to feed about every other round. The dimensions of the feed lips and follower seem to be off and affecting reliability. There might be a way to reverse engineer these mags to get them working but it seems like more trouble than it's worth. I have an original mag that works fine so I will just stick with that. I also ran into trouble with poorly heat treated 7.62x54r reproduction stripper clips. Not really a problem for Mosins but the double stacked mag of the SVT-40 seems to hate them. I poneyed up and got some surplus eastern European clips and they work fine and that's what I would recommend for loading SVT-40s.

[@hobofactory]

I ended up replacing the broken rivet/stud on this mag with a machine tiny screw and nut (used loctite to hopefully prevent it from vibrating loose) and blued it so it doesn’t look as out of place. Haven’t tested to see how well it actually holds up with use yet.

[@Mr.9x19mm]

Sweet SVT-40

[@hobofactory]

It’s odd in a way. It’s 1943-dated, but is actually surprisingly refined as far as its machining and finishing, compared to Mosins which got more crude during the war years.

[@dancortes3062]

@@hobofactory According to Chumak's book. If it's dated 1943 then it's an ex AVT-40. After 1941 the Soviets slowed SVT-40 production way down since the rifles was so expensive and stopped making SVT-40s entirely by the end of 1942. They continued making AVT-40s from the beginning of 1943 to January 1945. Many AVT-40s were converted to semi-auto only especially during refurbishment.

[@hobofactory]

@@dancortes3062 interesting! I really should do more reading on these things.