Tikka T3 3D Printed Extended Magazine

[HollowPoint]

My Tikka T3 re-barreling job has been put on hold while I await the arrival of a small four-jaw chuck for the 4th-Axis of my mill. Another thing that has this re-barreling project held up is that last Thursday a pin-headed teenager crashed his momma's car through my back yard fence, leaving me with a gaping hole that needs patching up. Just waiting on an insurance check to get started with that.

In the evenings as I've been waiting for one thing or another I've been working on some CAD models of the 3D printed extended magazine in question. I printed up a prototype a couple of days ago. It turned out OK but I could clearly see room for improvement in both the design and also to make the thing quicker to print. That initial prototype print out was a 17 hour print.

I have alot of patience but even I don't have that much patience. I now have the print time down to just under 14 hours. This means I can start such a print just before bed time and by the time I'm done eating breakfast the next morning it's just about ready for me to handle. (in theory)

Anyway; here are some pics of the 3D printed Tikka T3 extended magazine in question. I was hoping to increase the capacity to three additional rounds but after making up my mag-spring and putting it all together I found that it held 9 rounds with six additional rounds being held in the Side-Saddle straps I integrated along the sides of the mag-walls.

I know that alot of folks are apposed to this but when I'm in the field I generally have a round in the chamber with the safety engaged. That gives me 16 total rounds readily available. 10 of those 16 rounds accessible by cycling the bolt. The other six require some fumbling around but they're right at my finger tips.

HollowPoint

[samari46]

My advice which is worth about two cents is patent your idea. You already have the prototype, printer and verified or prooved your idea that it works. Gtank

[HollowPoint]

Thank you samari46:

You're not the only person to have suggested this in the last few days. There are no markings on the factory magazines suggesting that Tikka already has a patent or a patent-pending on these magazines but honestly, I think that going through the process of attaining a patent would cost far more money than any financial gain that one might see if this particular item were to sell to the average Joe-Tikka-Shooter with a 3D printer.

Still it is something that I've considered with this and some of my other designs and mods. Most folks I've dealt with have enough integrity to be trust worthy with the sale to and the agreement with that buying the STL files to print themselves out one or two iterations of this Tikka Extended Magazine for their own personal use can be trusted to do so. There will always be those who will inevitably take it upon themselves to mass produce them for their own profit even though the purchase agreement states otherwise.

I'm going to wait and see what comes of any interest that may arise around these 3D printed magazines. Many of todays newer rifles and even some handguns are beginning to be shipped with plastic magazines. This make them ideal candidates for 3D printing if one knows how to do so.

HollowPoint