Carpetsahib, When you cut down a magazine how do you treat the magazine spring?. Cut it down? or some other way. I have an old sante fe 5 round magazine which will get refinished when the rest of the rifle gets done. Blueing is starting to fade as well as a few "uh o's". Funny thing about the milling attachement. Got the lathe when I got out of the navy in '64. Bought the attachment a few years later. Used it exactly once. Because of the rigidity of the set up you can only take small cuts. No blazing away like a bridgeport. And its limited as to how long a cut you can take. Did use it to take the ears off a 1917 enfield for a friend. Now that took awhile. Was thinking of getting some 1/4" flat stock and after cutting off the bottom of the magazine, file the flat stock to fill the opening and slight belly in it. I may not be much with a lathe, but am pretty decent with a file. Good old norwegian milling machine. That also builds muscle and patience although maybe not in equal proportions. A lot of file here, try it and file some more. The action body hat I'm using is not a #4 MKI as origionally thought. Its a #5 made by BSA in 1945. Marked M47C Has england stamped on the left side of the butt socket. Since it was given to me quite a few years ago, finally decided it was time to use it. Would prefer a martini henry .303 action but they are kinda scarce here in louisiana. Ah well one can only dream. Frank