K22 Long Barrel Pistol from Caledonian Classic Arms- initial review plus Youtube vid

[Hairydavey]

My 19 round extended mags turned up today. My initial impressions are very good

The extended mags are simply a 13 round magazine with the delrin (posh pretty unbreakable plastic) magazine bumper and rubber washer attached to the bottom. The delrin bumper is hollowed out to allow the spring and magazine follower extra travel in order to increase the magazine capacity.

10 and 19 round mags side by side:

http://i978.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps0d34a595.jpg

The magazine bumper/extension is well finished. It's not just been moulded and stuck on, but has been finished by machine and has a Caledonian Classic Arms logo etched onto its rear. The base has been turned on a lathe.

http://i978.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps0c049913.jpg

http://i978.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps887bfb8b.jpg

http://i978.photobucket.com/albums/a...psfbc0fe5d.jpg

If you got 13 round magazines with your pistols then you have lucked in as you will only need the upgrade kit, which is less than half the price of a complete extended magazine.

Bad news for 10 round mag owners (these are the mags with the buttons on the followers), the magazine bodies and followers are of completely different dimensions internally and will not fit, you'll have to buy the entire magazine!

Comparing them to the 10 round magazines that came with my pistol is like comparing night and day. The mag follower is nice and smooth, and the channel which the spring and front of the follower rides in appears to have been finished by hand, as I can see file marks which have ground down any raised moulding to prevent the spring and follower from binding against the magazine body. The 10 round magazine body is shiny whereas the extended magazine (also read the 13 round mag on which it's based) are a matt finish and less cheap looking to the eye.

The more I look at these mags, the more I have come to the conclusion that the 10 round magazines currently supplied with the pistol are junk. I had to do a lot of fitting in order to make the followers run smoothly, and these magazines which are based on the original 13 round mag are streets ahead. Granted, my 10 round magazines may have been lemons, but to have three magazines all subpar from new is a lot of lemons!

That isn't Caledonian Classic Arms fault, they have been excellent to deal with and I would recommend them to anyone, the problems I had with the original 10 rounders were to do with design and build issues.

These are a good buy in my eyes, I'll give them a run in at the range Thursday. I feel quite confident that these will run well.