Savage Mark II Magazine - Feeding Issues and Jams - Cause Found

[thegazelle]

I know that not everyone has this problem and for a while I thought it was me, but as my CZ rimfire bolt action feeds and extracts flawlessly, I was wondering if it was the Mark II, since I have the original OEM magazine for the Mark II as well as two new aluminum ones I bought earlier (10 rounders). All have the same problem, which is failure to feed / jams. Doesn't matter how fast or slow I cycle the bolt, most of the rounds get jammed on feeding. Tried different types of .22LR ammo. Same thing.

Based on a CGNer here posting a solution for this with steel epoxying the magazines, presumably due to them falling apart:

https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/1974321-Simple-fix-for-Savage-MkII-22lr-mags

I took a look at what the fix was doing and then I took a look at mine and tried something different to confirm the cause.

Symptom - rounds get jammed when feeding. This is 80-90% of the time.

Action I tried - it appears there is a lot of play with back and forth rocking of the magazine - doesn't matter if it was steel or aluminum. What I tried, after the magazine was inserted and secured, was to hold the magazine UP with pressure while at the same time pushing the magazine BACK with one hand, while the other hand, cycling the bolt (I used snap caps). To my surprise, all 10 rounds fed and ejected flawlessly. I tried again with both my OEM magazine and the new aluminum ones, hold the magazine up and back. Every single round fed and ejected with no problems (up to 80 times flawlessly). I then took my hand off each mag and tried to cycle the rounds. Every mag started jamming again.

Cause - turns out without manual intervention, the round sits at a very very slight angle due to the play in the magazine (up and down and front and back) and as such, will not feed, causing the jam. It is the slight play that is causing this. I don't know whether the problem is the magazine or gun, but based on Mystic Precision's solution, that epoxy will essentially fill in the gaps and cause a more secure fit, thereby eliminating the movement, forcing the magazine to be at the level it needs to be so that the rounds can feed.

 

[sk8snwmx]

What ammo? aluminum ones? never seen them... have your magazines ever been dropped and stepped on? if so, just get some new black steel ones.

 

[thegazelle]

No, the magazines never been dropped or stepped on - no abuse or mis-use whatsoever. I bought two new OEM aluminum ones earlier this year and out of the package it was the same thing.

.22LR ammo tried include CCI Mini Mags, CCI Stingers, Eley Sport, Eley Tenet, S&B, Remington CBee, CCI CB Long, Remington Thunderbolt, Federal Champion, SK Standard, and RWS Target Pistol Sport.

Holding the inserted mag UP and pressure BACK has ensured 100% successful feeding.

 

[ALBERTA BOY]

I dunno man. I've had about 6 mark IIs pass through my hands over the years. They all feed flawlessly. There have been various receivers over the years, some longer than others. I believe you have an older one that's shorter. Maybe this is something that's worked out in newer production. All I can tell you, for sure, is it's not a universal problem.

I've got my son working up for project mapleseed with his Mark II-F (2009 vintage) and he/we can run the bolt gently or very hard/fast from the bench or various field positions. I honestly can't remember a single feeding error. Same for my fancy target model and all the others we've had over the years.

Maybe it's just your rifle man. Enough torque on the action screws? Maybe just a lemon rifle. Who knows.

 

[ALBERTA BOY]

What ammo? aluminum ones? never seen them... have your magazines ever been dropped and stepped on? if so, just get some new black steel ones.

They're not aluminum. They're either stainless steel or steel with a nickle finish. The package claims "stainless steel" but it sure looks like a nickle finish to me. I suspect they just mean it has the look of stainless or is a match for the stainless rifles. In any event, it's not aluminum. Same weight as the black steel one.

 

[thegazelle]

I dunno man. I've had about 6 mark IIs pass through my hands over the years. They all feed flawlessly. There have been various receivers over the years, some longer than others. I believe you have an older one that's shorter. Maybe this is something that's worked out in newer production. All I can tell you, for sure, is it's not a universal problem.

I've got my son working up for project mapleseed with his Mark II-F (2009 vintage) and he/we can run the bolt gently or very hard from the bench or various feeding positions. I honestly can't remember a single feeding error. Same for my fancy target model and all the others we've had over the years.

Maybe it's just your rifle man. Enough torque on the action screws?

Yes, I am thinking it may be the rifle, because other people have not reported the same thing. You are correct - mine is from older - 2005. Plus the SS magazines were bought this year. Hard to believe that current production magazines are all out of spec.

 

[thegazelle]

They're not aluminum. They're either stainless steel or steel with a nickle finish. The package claims "stainless steel" but it sure looks like a nickle finish to me. I suspect they just mean it has the look of stainless or is a match for the stainless rifles. In any even, it's not aluminum.

Sorry, my mistake. Stainless steel is what it said on the package.

 

[cheechako]

Did you ever figure anything out for this? I have the same issue with mine. Doesn't happen all the time, usually mid way through to the last few rounds in the magazine. I have tried a little bit of tape wrapped around the magazine, which helped a little.

 

[CDF]

I've put a few thousand rounds through my Mark II and have had some failure to feed issues, but very few. In my opinion the mags are too flexible given their construction and you can see them distort with little pressure applied. Some are worse than others. I re-peined all of my mags to tighten them up and this greatly reduced any problems that I'd had. Also some .22LR are very sticky, the lead projectiles are covered in a wax, these never feed as well as a copper plated round. CCIs are almost polished and feed flawlessly.

 

[OkayShooter]

Did you ever figure anything out for this? I have the same issue with mine. Doesn't happen all the time, usually mid way through to the last few rounds in the magazine. I have tried a little bit of tape wrapped around the magazine, which helped a little.

Likely the tabs that stamp them together loosened.

You can try center punch in the center of the tab lock.

 

[cheechako]

I found another thread that mentioned it primarily happens with hollow tips. I pretty much only shoot hollow tips, that little flat nose of the bullet could be part of it. My magazines seem fine, they are just a little sloppy sitting in the gun. I am going to try tweaking the little metal tab that holds the magazine into the gun.

 

[mckutzy]

One tip I found that makes for the most reliability of my MK 2 TRR-SR, is that I had taped the magwell with fibertape, so the mag is just loose enough to extract without too much force.
I took out the action from the stock, empty mag in well, and used a strip wound tightly a few wraps around. They are a sheetmetal "wings" that form the well to hold the mag...it flexes way too much. The mag was loose before and this sigificantly improved feeding.

Another thing I did, was carefully peened over the cinch marks of the sheetmetal mag. The feed wings were opening up a bit... after peening, they hold the rounds tightly and consistantly feeding nicely...

 

[Jabol]

I had the same problem with the Savage Mk2, I had to push the mags up from underneath and only then they fed well enough. I tried that with various mags. All had a lot of play in every direction, up, down, sideways left to right and front to back. When shooting off bench, I had a small sandbag on which I rested the rifle with the magazine inserted and the weight of the rifle pushed the mag up and it made it feed fine. But off hand it was pita. My solution was to switch to CZ, initially 455 and now 457 and I never had feeding issues specially with the plastic mags. They do seem a bit flimsy but do they ever work well and so far I had not worn out any of them yet. I never looked back at Savage again.

 

[johNTO]

I've had my MKII TR a few years now still using the original 10rnd mags and while they are a bit loose never had problems with feeding/jams.
I always shot the rifle off the bench with no contact to the mags, usually on a bag or bi-pod. This might have helped to keep things in spec.
I just picked up a couple more 10rnd mags and don't expect to have any issues with them......