Uzi drums?

redweirdbeard

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In my own personal experience I haven’t had good luck with drum magazines except the magpul for my ar-15. Are there any drum magazines that reliably run in the Uzi platform? Thanks
 

Brian in MASS

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I have had great luck with the old C&S Metal Werks drums ,the MP5 and Uzi versions. I sold them both off because of the law changes in Massachusetts and the insane cash offers before the effective date . Just big and heavy, the mag dump novelty wore off really fast 20++ years ago
 

SecondAmend

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Both of the Vector Uzi 72 round single drum magazines that I own are of the so-called later vintage with the dummy rounds instead of copper tubing segments, and both drums work well. I don't have any experience with either them, but C & Metal Werkes 72 round single drums are generally well regarded, while Beta double drum, 100 round magazines appear to be considered finicky and in need of a lot of graphite powered added for each loading.
MHO, YMMV, etc.
 

nklf

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I have three of the metal 72 round drums. Can't remember if they are vector or C&S. They worked in practice but jammed in match. I have not had time to mess with them and see if spring tension or graphite will solve the problem. That is a project I will get to when I have more time. However, in the meantime, I would not recommend them to anyone. I have never tried a Beta mag
 

SecondAmend

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I have three of the metal 72 round drums. Can't remember if they are Vector or C&S. They worked in practice but jammed in match. I have not had time to mess with them and see if spring tension or graphite will solve the problem. That is a project I will get to when I have more time. However, in the meantime, I would not recommend them to anyone. I have never tried a Beta mag
Vector welded a ring on around the winding release button. The ring prevents inadvertent winding spring release (and spewing ammo all over). C & S drum mags did not have that feature.
Best of luck getting your drum mags working properly. It's well worth it. Uzi ROF is slow enough that one can actually aim and hit targets while doing a 72 round drum dump.
MHO, YMMV, etc.

ETA: Drums, including attempts at calibers in addition to 9mm models, are discussed and pictured in RoverDave's "The Uzi Submachinegun Examined" book.
Also, I've successfully used one of my Vector 9mm drums a couple of times in connection with a VM-Hytech magwell adapter in my M16. But one must hold or have a rest for the drum as the magwell adapter mag latch is not capable of retaining the heavy weight of a loaded drum.
 
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gorillastomp

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I have a new Beta C drum that I haven’t used I would be willing to sell if interested send me a PM.
 

amphibian

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I documented the difference between the Vector and C&S drums a long time ago and it is on my website: https://c3junkie.com/?page_id=498
As mentioned on my site, my Vector drum was never as reliable as my C&S.
All that said, I rarely ever use it as I really like using my extended mag release for fast mag changes and the drums interfere with them.
magcatches-2.jpg

I mentioned on my site how the C&S drum would keep up with the faster cyclic rate of my Mini UZI and I think that was in closed bolt which I've clocked over 1500 RPM. This is where a drum really shines at that high of a cyclic rate having double the capacity really helps when you also have more than double the typical cyclic rate. However, I really don't like cyclic rates that high either. More of an occasional novelty.
 

mike

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I had a vector drum many years ago. It ran OK but I did have issues. I’ve been using for the last 15 years two IMI 32 round magazines, welded together and the springs welded together. And all the years I had it I never had a failure with it. it’s definitely a range toy just for mag dumps, but boy it’s fun. I loaded to 60 rounds.
 

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redweirdbeard

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I had a vector drum many years ago. It ran OK but I did have issues. I’ve been using for the last 15 years two IMI 32 round magazines, welded together and the springs welded together. And all the years I had it I never had a failure with it. it’s definitely a range toy just for mag dumps, but boy it’s fun. I loaded to 60 rounds.
Now that's what I'm talking about. I need one of those. Thanks
 

redweirdbeard

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I documented the difference between the Vector and C&S drums a long time ago and it is on my website: https://c3junkie.com/?page_id=498
As mentioned on my site, my Vector drum was never as reliable as my C&S.
All that said, I rarely ever use it as I really like using my extended mag release for fast mag changes and the drums interfere with them.
magcatches-2.jpg

I mentioned on my site how the C&S drum would keep up with the faster cyclic rate of my Mini UZI and I think that was in closed bolt which I've clocked over 1500 RPM. This is where a drum really shines at that high of a cyclic rate having double the capacity really helps when you also have more than double the typical cyclic rate. However, I really don't like cyclic rates that high either. More of an occasional novelty.
That's the information that I needed. Thanks for sharing that website. There was a vector one on GB but they wanted 675 and like I said I have not had any luck with drum. So I passed
 

amphibian

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I had a vector drum many years ago. It ran OK but I did have issues. I’ve been using for the last 15 years two IMI 32 round magazines, welded together and the springs welded together. And all the years I had it I never had a failure with it. it’s definitely a range toy just for mag dumps, but boy it’s fun. I loaded to 60 rounds.
I need to get off my butt and do that!! Thanks for giving me another item for my to do list!
 

Jack007

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I got my C&S drum back during the 94 ban directly from them. I will say that it's run hundreds of rounds without a jam in my Mini.
Yes, it's a range toy. Don't know if today I'd drop 6-700 bucks for one today.
 

mike

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I need to get off my butt and do that!! Thanks for giving me another item for my to do list!
You’re welcome. I bought that off. Someone who was making them. He went by the name of bustoff. I don’t know if any of you guys remember him.
 

SecondAmend

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You’re welcome. I bought that off. Someone who was making them. He went by the name of bustoff. I don’t know if any of you guys remember him.
Yeah, I even met 'bustoff' once at "The Pit" when he still lived here in MI, and "The Pit" was an "Open Range". He and attorney Kerry Morgan were very influential in getting MI opened up to allowing silencers, SBRs, and all registered, not just C&R, machine guns allowed to private citizens in MI.

I've never cared for monopod mags. I've got a couple 40 round (conversions of some sort) Uzi mags that IIRC I shot once to make sure that they worked and haven't shot since then. I've also got a USA brand 50 round Uzi mag that has metal so soft the lips have to be reshaped each time it's shot, so I haven't shot that in many years.

MHO, YMMV, etc.
 

amphibian

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You’re welcome. I bought that off. Someone who was making them. He went by the name of bustoff. I don’t know if any of you guys remember him.
Yes, I remember 'bustoff' was selling them back in the subguns.com days.
 

mike

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Yes, I remember 'bustoff' was selling them back in the subguns.com days.
Yep that’s where I bought it. It’s really well made you see a lot of 40 and 50 rounders on GunBroker that are junk. He took the time to even weld the two springs together like I said it’s been running like a top for years now I took it apart one time just to wipe the inside and put the springs back if you can start making them I’m sure you will have a lot of customers me being one of them.
 

amphibian

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Yep that’s where I bought it. It’s really well made you see a lot of 40 and 50 rounders on GunBroker that are junk. He took the time to even weld the two springs together like I said it’s been running like a top for years now I took it apart one time just to wipe the inside and put the springs back if you can start making them I’m sure you will have a lot of customers me being one of them.
Yeah, I'm going to try making some. I also have two 50 round GG mag that I got from Craig Wheatley I bought back in the day. It has always run 100%. I took one apart and looked at how he did the springs and he crimped them together instead of welding.
 

SecondAmend

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Some time ago, TACCOM sold a kit with a clip arrangement for attaching two Uzi mag bodies bottom-to-bottom and another clip to attach the recoil springs together. I suppose one could have clipped together any two mags together; so it was theoretically possible to assemble two 50 round sticks to make a 100 round stick Uzi mag. You'd probably have to bring a step ladder to the range to shoot it, though.
ETA: Or take up two stations at the range and shoot 'gangsta' style.
 
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mike

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Yeah, I even met 'bustoff' once at "The Pit" when he still lived here in MI, and "The Pit" was an "Open Range". He and attorney Kerry Morgan were very influential in getting MI opened up to allowing silencers, SBRs, and all registered, not just C&R, machine guns allowed to private citizens in MI.

I've never cared for monopod mags. I've got a couple 40 round (conversions of some sort) Uzi mags that IIRC I shot once to make sure that they worked and haven't shot since then. I've also got a USA brand 50 round Uzi mag that has metal so soft the lips have to be reshaped each time it's shot, so I haven't shot that in many years.

MHO, YMMV, etc.
We did meet some great people along the way.
 

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