When I first held the Ruger PC Carbine at SHOT all those years back the first thing I said after leaving the shooting line was, “I want one.”
Having already owned the Ruger 10/22 Takedown I knew they could make a solid takedown rifle. What sold me though was the promise for other magwells like the one for Glock magazines instead of the Ruger SR9 magazines it comes with. Now it’s quite a few years later, and Ruger only has three different magwells, adding the Ruger American to the other listed.
Every so often since selling my beloved Glock I have been on the lookout hoping someone would release a magwell that would take CZ-75B magazines. Since these magazines work in my Archon Type B I continued my search, low and behold the search finally bore fruit. Innovation Armoury, a company I had never heard of before that (like me) is from Canada, designed and sells a magwell conversion that does just that.
Installing the Magwell
Let’s dig into the installation and what I feel are some brilliant design choices.
First things first—clear your rifle and lock the bolt to the rear. Now you will need to remove the barrel section like you would if you are taking the rifle down. Once you do that set it aside and grab a 5/32″ hex bit like the one found in the Fix It Sticks Torque Limiter Kit that I used to do all the work on this rifle.
On the underside of the back half of the rifle, you will find the two screws you need to use to take the receiver out of the stock. If you had already installed the Glock magwell when you got the rifle like I imagine most of you have, this is old news. Once these are unscrewed (but not removed from the stock) you should be able to pull the receiver out so you can set it aside.
Removing the magwell is as simple as pushing in the magazine release and pulling the magwell conversion out of the top of the stock.
You will need the magazine stop and last round bolt hold open for a later step so don’t put it too far away. Now take a 5/64″ hex bit and remove the magazine release from the stock. You will need to reuse the spring and the non-button side of the magazine release with this magwell so the button and screw can be put in a bag in case you ever need it.
Now take your Glock magwell that came with the rifle and pop out the last round hold open and depress the little catch on the magazine stop to slide it out the bottom. These parts will go into the new magwell exactly as they came out.
The new magwell is now ready to be plopped into the stock so that you can finish the assembly. Innovation Armoury was really clever here by using the other half of the magazine catch as the new magazine release, which cuts down on the overall cost of this conversion.
The new magazine catch is labeled L or R depending on what side you want it to catch the magazine on (dirty lefties can rejoice). The button and spring go on the opposite side of the stock from the catch and the provided screw is installed. My gripe is that this button which used to be the magazine catch is now smooth with no texture or scalloping on it. I would have liked to get a small bag with a couple of pieces of laser-cut grip tape to stick on it (hint hint).
Now assemble everything in the opposite order you just did. Ensure to torque the two bolts holding the receiver into the stock at 65 in/lbs. If you have an issue with the last round hold open after torquing as we did with the provided Glock conversion, check out our super simple fix.
When you buy the conversion, the packaging is simple but efficient. It’s a small bag with everything in it. Pictures for installation are at the top of the hanger paper when opened. It might have been handy for a quick YouTube video for those who might be slightly less mechanically inclined, but in all, this conversion took a few minutes to complete.
Now onto the good part—shooting it. The magazine well adapter worked as expected and we had absolutely no issues with the CZ75 magazines (there was much rejoicing).
