We have a customer with a classic Browning Buck Mark. He has purchased several Mark IV Rugers from us, but still goes back to that pistol. There were a few things that made it less than ideal and he asked if we could address them. 1) The magazines are recessed into the magazine well making it difficult to set them. 2) The bolt is hard to grasp and pull back especially in cold weather or with a gloved hand.
We saw that Tandemkross offered bumpers and halos to solve that for the new Browning Buck Mark but specifically called out that they wouldn’t fit the older generation. It seemed like the best starting point though. I mean how much could change in 50 years?
The other issue was precuring magazines. The owner would like the option to shoot steel challenge with the pistol so he needed more magazines. We found they are being reproduced by a company out San Diego by the name of Triple K. They weren’t cheap but were very heavy duty.
The first part was to develop a 3d model to convert the existing magazine over to the bumpers. We modeled this in Fusion 360 and printed a prototype on our Resin 3D Printer. The model sits in between the bumper and the magazine. It uses an engineering resin with similar properties to Nylon so fairly impact resistant but can maintain resolutions sub .002″.
After some fine tuning and 2 models later we printed a batch, painted them and proceeded to hand fit them to each magazine. The magazines while heavy duty were not uniform. The sheet metal was uneven at the base and the floor plates look to be rough forgings that were spot welded in place. They were never intended for this. We used the model as a template and a transfer punch to mark it. Then each magazine body was drilled and tapped for an 8-32 x 5/8″ button head screw. Each magazine and bumper were hand fit to ensure they interface well with the pistol.
Next we got lucky on the Halo. The new Buck Mark seems to share the profile of the older generation. It only required having about 2/3 of it’s locking grooves removed to fit into the slots on the older Buck Mark’s slide. It fit right on, but due to the slight taper of the slide as tightened it would walk up the slide. We solved this by adding retention screws along the bottom of the slide. It is now on there rock solid.
We hope these updates help keep this pistol in service for another 50 years.
