AR in 9mm: Pre-ban UZI mags

[thepossiblehuman]

I was thinking of building/buying an AR in 9mm. Obviously I'd like to get hi-cap mags for the thing, so I figured I'd have to get one that accepts pre-ban uzi mags. Do most 9mm AR's take them, or is it only certain brands? Do I need to get a special mag-well insert in order to do this? Thanks!

 

[Ripach]

There are basically two common types of 9 mm AR. The Olympic arms style (uses sten mags) or the colt style (uses uzi mags) Rock River makes a nice colt style AR. You will need either a mag well adapter or a lower that was factory built to use 9mm mags. My 9mm AR is a milspec lower with a RRA upper, I use a VM hytech magwell adapter that allows the use of unmodified uzi mags. It works pretty good, but sometimes has FTF issues. Look on Ar15.com, they have a couple of threads with a boat load of info on pistol caliber EBR's. I hope this helped.
-Rick

 

[qmmo]

The Olympic 9mm upper takes a modified Sten mag - there is a "block" welded onto the mag to fill a std AR's mag well. These modified Stens hold 32 rds and I've seen them fit both Colt and Bushmaster lowers. Plus side to this is you don't have to have a dedicated lower and you don't have to monkey around with a filler block (I've seen those blocks fall out of the gun followed by the mag dropping to the ground while being fired). YMMV

 

[thepossiblehuman]

Thanks guys. How do the modified mags work with AWB compliance though? If the part is welded on, then doesn't that constitute the creation of a new large capacity feeding device since it will no longer work in the firearm it was intended for?

 

[vellnueve]

Correct - modifying the mag in that manner would make it most likely in violation of the AWB.