First off, this is a bit dumb: you can buy 5 round Garand clips new for like $5. But, hunting season was upon me and I forgot and I had lots of 8 round en-block Garand clips and I needed a few 5 round clips for hunting. DIY it is! Some people use little wood or plastic blocks inside the clip to block them to 5. I kind of dislike those because they’re easy to lose. Another technique that you can use is to silver solder a nut or something into your clip to stop rounds. For myself, I wanted a really clear way to see which were the 5 round clips, and I wanted something more permanent and robust than a silver solder job that I was capable of.
Video
Tools Needed
- Dremel with cutoff wheel and stone/sander attachment
- Safety glasses
- Calipers
- 5 dummy rounds for testing
- Propane torch
- Straight nose pliers
Steps
- Your first cut should be vertical down the clip. I started mine where the lips of the clip started to curl over.
- Cut 2 is to reduce the length of steel left over. You wouldn’t be able to bend and do step 3 if you didn’t trim the metal a bit.
- Heat the steel where you’re going to bend with a propane torch until it’s red hot (you removed the rounds already, right??). Bend the lip over to 90 degrees. You’ll need it hot to bend the metal, otherwise it might just break.
- Cool the clip and test for fit. If fit is good, trip the lips so that the opening between them is wider and they will let the follower get through.
- Optional: diagonally trip the top so that it doesn’t catch on anything.
