Magazines for Early Nygord/Pardini SP

So I'm considering bidding on an older Nygord Pardini SP 22 but it's missing the magazine. I've been looking online but from my reading it looks like the Pardini USA stock might not work in them. For you Pardini experts out there, any hints about where to find a couple of magazines otherwise I'll pass and wait for a complete one to come along. Thanks.

Try calling (or even an email) to Pardini USA and ask the question.

It's been a while since I've dealt with this, and hopefully someone can verify my recollection.

I believe the big difference is that the "feed ramp" tab at the front of the newer magazines is a bit longer than on the older ones.  That prevents the new magazines from going into the older pistols, but I think you can modify the new ones to fit by just filing down the front tab.

There is an old thread on the TargetTalk Olympic pistol forum that has some info, but it's a little hard to decipher.  It sounds like you may need to work on more than the tab:

I have a Fiocchi Pardini .22 ( the precursor of the SP) and the current mags work with it.

Hiya,
Actually, Don Nygord Pardini’s were the second and third variations of the SP line. The original version was imported by Fiochii in Arkansas. These had the most problematic mags for American ammo. Of the popular low cost brands at the time (1980’s) Remington “blue box” Target, Federal white box target and CCI STD only the Remington was short enough to feed reliably in these mags. Ammo from Europe fit just fine. You could get The others to fit if you removed a little of the nose of the bullet or if you used a round file and relieved the inside front of the mag body about .010.

The mag well in these early pistols had 90 degree corners and the mag corners were folded to sharp corners. These pistols won’t normally take a layer type mag without some fitting as the corners will drag. Starting with the second gen SP, (the first of the Nygord series with the “fat” barrel shroud but no weights in it) the mags and mag well had less “sharp” corners but the mags were still “short” for American ammo. The third series (Nygord’s second series where he introduced “The Bullseye package) is where the major updates to the platform happened, frame ribs, bolts, mags, frames and barrel shrouds were changed to what we have today, recoil weights in the shroud, thicker frame with external ribs to stop cracking issues, thicker webs on the bolt “handles”, mags that are slightly longer front to back internally, more rounded corners in the mag well and mags, longer “tongue” and the “dimple” at the top rear to start the round forward as it elevates. These mags will fit the very early frames but you may have to use a small round file to break the 90 degree corners in the 1st gen frames. All of the recoil weight Nygord and Larry’s guns should be able to use new mags from Vlad and Alex without issue.
I did this from memory, I think it’s correct but I could be wrong, call Vlad or Alex to be sure.
Tom

For anyone who is having issues with long ammo (like CCI) in their older Pardinis, I highly recommend Aguila Standard Velocity ammo.   The length is similar to a lot of much more expensive European ammo.

The one caveat is that it has slightly softer recoil than CCI, and you may get malfunctions if the slide doesn't come back all the way.  The usual symptom is that the 2nd round won't load after the pistol gets a little dirty.  The fix is to take an old recoil spring and cut it down to ~ 111 to 112 mm long.  

In addition to my and my wife's SPs, I've modified seven Pardinis this way for the college team I help coach.  Aguila is less expensive, the ignition is FAR more reliable than CCI, and the lube doesn't gunk up the magazines nearly as fast.