Nelson Conversion Magazine

I have several magazines that slightly touch the conversion ejector. Have filed the magazine notch which lowers magazine. Looking at where the magazine touches on ejector, could the top of the magazine be filed where it contacts instead of filing magazine notch?

If it is on a dedicated frame, get a lower mag release.

The magazine tuning method recommended by Nelson Custom is to slightly lower the mag by carefully filing the upper edge of the mag release notch.  Looking at the top of a Nelson mag, it appears to me (an amateur gun tinkerer) that it would be easy to adversely affect the presentation of the top round in the mag if too much material was removed up there.  That said, I would suggest you give a call to the folks at Nelson to get the official answer to your question.  They check voicemails regularly and will get back to within a day or so.

Thanks 
Will call Larry N

I'm not sure if it is possible to do but when I made my conversion slide I copied the bottom section rear of the cartridge rim from the Nelson slide. I modified the 1911 ejector (made another) so that the top flags over to hit the rim and eject the case. However on mine I cut the slot the full length of the rear of the slide but it may be possible to shorten the "flag" length so that it will work on a Nelson slide and the Nelson ejector removed. One problem is the ejector will have to be changed if putting a 1911 slide on the frame but not much of a problem if using a dedicated slide like I am. Main difference in my slide is I moved the barrel back 1/4" so the rear of the slide needed to be shortened. If anyone is interested let me know and I'll look into it.

DK wrote:The magazine tuning method recommended by Nelson Custom is to slightly lower the mag by carefully filing the upper edge of the mag release notch.  Looking at the top of a Nelson mag, it appears to me (an amateur gun tinkerer) that it would be easy to adversely affect the presentation of the top round in the mag if too much material was removed up there.  That said, I would suggest you give a call to the folks at Nelson to get the official answer to your question.  They check voicemails regularly and will get back to within a day or so.

Filing the top of the notch to lower the mag will put the mag in the proper position to make sure you get proper stripping of the top round.

Is there a recommended clearance between magazine and ejector? Possible to remove too much from notch and magazine sits too low?

The way Larry demonstrated it to a few of us at Perry last year was to insert an empty mag into the pistol with the slide locked open.  Then, carefully observe the ejector to see if it moves downward AT ALL when the mag is released.  There isn’t a specified clearance per se, just that the top of the mag should nestle up under the ejector and just kiss it without exerting any upward pressure on the ejector.  Note that you will see the ejector flex upward just a bit as you insert the mag.  The key is to observe the ejector at the moment the mag is released to be sure it doesn’t move downward.

Yes, it is possible to remove too much material from the mag release notch such that the mag has a sloppy fit.  Just go slowly and file, check fit; file, check fit; etc. and you’ll get there just fine.

Thanks much for all the input and I have a better understanding of what to look for on modifying the magazine.