Dawson Ice Magwell Problems

[tobydog]

I recently tried to put a Dawson Ice Magwell on my Para P16-40 Limited gun. Fit good, liked the way it felt. Until I tried to put a mag in. Mags won't lock into the gun. I have Arrendondo base pads on them. With them off, there is so little room between the mag lip and the well I'm not sure if anything will fit on them. Dawsons websight mentions something about certain basepads not fitting on the older shorter mag tubes. Are there 2 different tube lengths in Paras? I tried a search here, but didn't come up with any straight forward answers as to what might fit. Sent Dawson an email, but haven't heard back yet. Thought maybe someone here may have run into this before. Any comments or suggestions appreciated, Thanks. Tobydog.

[BrianATL]

You are going to need the Dawson basepads. Or take your dremel to the basepads you have they can be made to work.

[Darianis]

Are your mags factory Para or aftermarket? I had a set of metgar mags and even with the dawsons base pads they wouldn't engage the mag release but my factory para tubes work fine. They are about 1.5-2mm longer than the metgars

[tobydog]

Darianis, they all have "made in Canada" on them, so they must be Para tubes I assume.

BrianATL, as far as dremeling the basepads, it looks like they would be so thin, I don't know if they would hold up. May try it on one to see though. Checked Dawsons web, the aluminum basepads say not for earlier shorter mags. Does anyone know where the "earlier" break-point is? Or a length measurement on the tubes?

Edited March 18, 2006 by tobydog

[Bill Rosenthal]

I went through the same problem myself...

I threw the "Ice" in the garbage after putting it on and finding out the mags would't seat. I wished Dawson would have been up front in their requirements for the use of their product. You need their basepads to make it work. There is no mention of this on their website and the directions that would have let me known of the requirement were missing from the packaging. The best way for a Para is to get a welded on magwell.

Edited March 24, 2006 by Bill Rosenthal

[wide45]

Try this thread

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=30533

[tobydog]

Wide45, Thanks for the link, hadn't seen that one. Sounds like I need to buy the Dawson basepads if I want to use the magwell. It would be nice if Dawson mentioned this on the ad for the magwell though! Thanks for the replys! Tobydog.

[Chris Spiess]

The Dawson catalog mentions it for both the ICE and the standard Para magwell, but you're right it's not on the web site, and probably should be. When i got my ICE magwell, it included 'instructions' for modifying Arredondo base pads to fit in the well. I tried modifying one of the base pads I was using at the time and got it to work just fine....for a match and a half. The lip broke while i was loading the mag. I have since collected enough Dawson base pads for all my mags. I must admit though, I do like the dawson pads better anyway, and am glad to have them over others I have used.

Presently I am using post-ban Para mag bodies with dawson pads and do not have any problems with magazine insertion. I do have one magazine out of five that does not reliably fall free when released, but at this point I attribute it to the mag body. I have not had a opportuinty to really examine the issue closely though. I have also tried mec-gar bodies as well as older Para mag bodies that I had with a first generation Para and neither were long enough. I did return one of the mags that came with the pistol to Para b/c it would not seat into the psitol even before I installed the magwell.

[mmcnx2]

I also have a new(2006 model) 1640 limited and ordered the dawson ice magwell and baseplates. The magazines will not lock in on any of the three. I filed the edges of the aluminum base plate on one to see if I could get them to fit and that seemed to work. I think its kinda ridiculous Dawsons own products don't work togehter.