New Gevarm E1's.....

CCI MiniMags
and
Federal Bulk

It's hard to see in that diagram but the part I'm refering to had one end that was bigger and cone shaped, I put this to the rear. Then going away from the larger cone shaped end the piece is thinner and this went inside the spring like a guide rod....

Sounds like you did it right. If the ammo is only ejecting 1 inch I'd look for burs in the chamber?
 
I had a chance to shoot the Gevarm today.

The 20 round mag is fun to load(not)......I'm glad I de-tuned the sharp serrated edges at the top of the mag before going to the range! Not exactly what I'd call a quality mag.
I also had a 15 round and 8 round mag with me from Western Gun Parts.

Yeah that 20rdis sharp as hell, my thumbs are cut to s**t. Though I will say the mag feels like it could almost be 30rds. I had 25 in at one point and it looked like there was still tons of room.

I was shooting bulk Federal and CCI Mini Mags.

The 2 aftermarket mags seemed to work on par with the 20 rounder.
Had failures to eject (stovepipes) with all the mags every 5 shots or so but it seemed to work better if I was rapid firing for some reason?
When the shells did eject, they basically just sort of dribbled out of the action and a few of the failures actually found their way back under the bolt and required a bit of wiggling and jiggling to get out from under the bolt.

Can anyone else with a Gevarm tell me how theirs ejects? Strong or weak?

Cheers CD


I had this happen and was ready to trash the rifle. I had the 20rd factory, and the 8rd aftermarket from WGP. Upon closer inspection, I realized the lips of the 20rd were way wide, and that was causing a lot of jamming., i tightened them up, and it went back to the occasional stovepiping. Sometimes as often as every shot, sometimes I'd get 5, 6 or 8 shots off no problem.

The aftermarket mag is worse, seems like every 2nd shot easy results in a stovepipe/case jammed beside/under the bolt. Frustrating.

Sometimes, the ejections are epic movie style case throwing launches, other times they just sorta fall out, and other times after that they just seem to go straight back and either sit on top of the next round, or wiggle underneath the works.


I was talking to the gunsmith at the range, and in comparing the factory mag and the aftermarket mag, he said "no amount of smithing/fitting is going to make this aftermarket mag look like a factory mag". There just isn't the same amount of metal/lip on the aftermarket one.. Maybe I just got a bunk mag or something.

I tried Bulk federal, CCI Minimags, Winchester super X, Remington Standard Velocity and American Eagle through it, CCI Minimags were the best performer by far, but still did not avoid the stovepiping issues. My spring is currently set with the rod at the back of the rifle, with the spring overtop of it like a paper towel roll on a holder. I'm going to try flipping it around tomorrow and see if that makes it work better, though it seems like making the spring more tense might be counter productive.

Will post follow up tomorrow morning when I get a chance to go out. I'd like to be able to shoot this without worrying about the ejection issues so I can start looking at the accuracy of the damn thing properly.

It's a sweet rifle and I want to love it but it's just so frustrating.
 
Mine are here, but never got them picked up yet.
asked about the orignal packaging and Anthony told
me that customs (----) ripped them all open to inspect
and trashed all the boxes - Why am I not supprised?
 
OK I think I see what you are saying and I think thats the way I had it...
Here's a picture showing how I had it today.
Gevarmmainspring-1.jpg

Here's a picture of the three mags, 20 round and 15 (took 14) and the 8
the 20 rounder is the one with the lower follower.
Gevarmmag1.jpg

Gevarmmag2.jpg

Gevarmmag3.jpg
 
Hey Johnny, Welcome to CGN!

Were you able to use your iron sights?

Like I said mine were hitting 2 feet high at 50 yards with the rear sight bottomed out!

The mags are different for sure as seen by the follower height difference but I'm not sure they are to blame for the weak ejection?
 
Sounds like you did it right. If the ammo is only ejecting 1 inch I'd look for burs in the chamber?

I think buffing the chamber can't hurt as there is pitting in the barrel.... the chamber looks pretty good but I can see a couple of minor pits.
 
Regarding the mags, my index finger is healing pretty well now... the edges are SHARP!

Loading a 20 round is not at all simple. I will order a 15 rounder from WGP.
Have not had a chance to shoot mine as yet. Maybe tomorrow night.
 
Hey Johnny, Welcome to CGN!

Were you able to use your iron sights?

Like I said mine were hitting 2 feet high at 50 yards with the rear sight bottomed out!

The mags are different for sure as seen by the follower height difference but I'm not sure they are to blame for the weak ejection?

The ejecting lips on both aftermarket mags are rounded off :eek:and the one on the Gevarm original (?) is smashed. Ejection will always be aleatory. There is a fix tough.

Eject lip on original mag:

GevE2.JPG
 
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OK I think I see what you are saying and I think thats the way I had it...
Here's a picture showing how I had it today.
Gevarmmainspring-1.jpg

Here's a picture of the three mags, 20 round and 15 (took 14) and the 8
the 20 rounder is the one with the lower follower.
Gevarmmag1.jpg

Gevarmmag2.jpg

Gevarmmag3.jpg

Ok, your aftermarket mags look exactly the same as mine, but still, if you compare the lips of the factory mag to the aftermarket ones, I don't see how the aftermarket ones could ever hope to work properly?

Oh well. Off to the range shortly.
 
Ok, your aftermarket mags look exactly the same as mine, but still, if you compare the lips of the factory mag to the aftermarket ones, I don't see how the aftermarket ones could ever hope to work properly?

Oh well. Off to the range shortly.

The thing about Gevarms is, the magazine lip is the ejector...:eek:..they are dead simple, very few parts, but the mags have to be just right.

I had similar issues with the factory 20 and aftermarket 20's I had.

The only mag I ever had that worked well were the factory 8's.

I hope whoever repopped these mags took the requirement for ejection into account in their design.
 
The thing about Gevarms is, the magazine lip is the ejector...:eek:..they are dead simple, very few parts, but the mags have to be just right.

I had similar issues with the factory 20 and aftermarket 20's I had.

The only mag I ever had that worked well were the factory 8's.

I hope whoever repopped these mags took the requirement for ejection into account in their design.

Yeah, that's my concern. The aftermarket ones look NOTHING like the factory mag, and while the aftermarket ones are sold as "some gunsmithing required", i don't see how you could make the AM mag look anything like a factory mag, unless you were a wizard.
 
I've had 2 gevarms for the last 25 years now. One in .22 l.r. and the other .22 short. Like them immensely for the simplicity, accuracy with some ammo and the overall design.
But here's where the positives stop and precautionary measures should prevail. Most buyers of these rifles are unaware that the recievers are made of an alloy that when fed the hyper-velocity ammo such as Stingers, Vipers and others, the recievers can and do fail (blow up) because the bolts travel at momentums the recievers can't tolerate. I have personally seen 4 such recievers hanging on the walls of various gun shops where all that was salvageable were the barrel, stocks and possibly the mags. This is no lame issue here iether as some of the blown specimens seriously suggest some harm to the shooter did happen and if you shoot from the port side (left handed) you are at even MORE risk for injury to eyes and face. These rifle designs were never intended for hyper velocity ammo regardless of the adjustable buffer. That design feature was to accommodate standard velocity ammo AND lower velocity (read sub-sonic) ammo so that users in countries such as France could use the rifle for urban pest control WITH an add-on muzzle suppressor which is legal in France and even regarded as being civic minded so as to not disturb neighbours while say dispatching rodents that were a huge problem in France.
So to all Gunnutz thinking of a Gevarm acquisition, great! But do so knowing full well that that these rimfire rifles DO in fact have design limits and those limits should be heeded by not using hyper-velocity ammo. Should you try the ammo anyway and say it's fine with no problems is simply testing fate as no one can predict if and when a blown reciever will occur and I rather doubt that Gevarms design engineers even took into account the use of hyper ammo as it was not available back in the days when this design first appeared in Europe. I personally know of 2 gunsmiths who would not even consider owning a Gevarm for this reason and both had wallhangers brought in by customers who unknowingly tested fate and lost.
 
I think Triple K makes the aftermarket mags.

They don't have any pics on their site, but when I phoned they said they'd work in an E1/2 without gunsmithing... of course, the rep might not be correct....

The aftermarket mags that people have- is there a manufacturer's marking on them?
 
.... Most buyers of these rifles are unaware that the recievers are made of an alloy that when fed the hyper-velocity ammo such as Stingers, Vipers and others, the recievers can and do fail (blow up) because the bolts travel at momentums the recievers can't tolerate. I have personally seen 4 such recievers hanging on the walls of various gun shops where all that was salvageable were the barrel, stocks and possibly the mags. This is no lame issue here iether as some of the blown specimens seriously suggest some harm to the shooter did happen and if you shoot from the port side (left handed) you are at even MORE risk for injury to eyes and face. These rifle designs were never intended for hyper velocity ammo regardless of the adjustable buffer. That design feature was to accommodate standard velocity ammo AND lower velocity (read sub-sonic) ammo ..

Great quote- thanks!

... so are you saying even HIGH velocity is questionable in these rifles?


And in your experience, what ammo works well?
 
I think Triple K makes the aftermarket mags.

They don't have any pics on their site, but when I phoned they said they'd work in an E1/2 without gunsmithing... of course, the rep might not be correct....

The aftermarket mags that people have- is there a manufacturer's marking on them?

Nothing on the outside of the mag and I am way too gunshy to try and force the baseplate off to see if there's anything inside.

I wonder if it's the same company, because WGP made an extra obvious point about saying "YOU DO KNOW THESE REQUIRE GUNSMITH FITTING, RIGHT?"
In the same vein as someone saying THIS CONVERSATION IS BEING RECORDED.

re: high velocity ammo, I'm almost positive HV will be fine, minimags and the like, but jackpine is suggesting HYPER velocity stuff, like stingers, are playing with fire. I may be incorrect. I definitely had the best luck with minimags out of the 5 different ammo types I tried.


Re: jackpine: how about ejection issues? Is that just a cross gevarms bear? Did we get a bad batch?
 
CGNer Mauser, who was communicating with me via email, said he never had an ejection problem with a number of E1/E2s over the years. So I don't think it's necessarily a Gevarm thing...
 
Wow...hadn't heard this before. :eek:

The Gevarm model of my preference is the steel bodied A6 series. That's the last one I owned. (although the rifle was old, the bolt and internals looked brand new, not a scratch on the bolt)

The white metal of the E1-E2 isn't my preference. I actually had one that was bent years ago, as in, the barrel was at like 3 degrees to the receiver...like a banana.

Sounds like good advice for the owners of alloy receiver Gevarms- standard velocity ammo only!

GevarmmodelsLarge.jpg




I've had 2 gevarms for the last 25 years now. One in .22 l.r. and the other .22 short. Like them immensely for the simplicity, accuracy with some ammo and the overall design.
But here's where the positives stop and precautionary measures should prevail. Most buyers of these rifles are unaware that the recievers are made of an alloy that when fed the hyper-velocity ammo such as Stingers, Vipers and others, the recievers can and do fail (blow up) because the bolts travel at momentums the recievers can't tolerate. I have personally seen 4 such recievers hanging on the walls of various gun shops where all that was salvageable were the barrel, stocks and possibly the mags. This is no lame issue here iether as some of the blown specimens seriously suggest some harm to the shooter did happen and if you shoot from the port side (left handed) you are at even MORE risk for injury to eyes and face. These rifle designs were never intended for hyper velocity ammo regardless of the adjustable buffer. That design feature was to accommodate standard velocity ammo AND lower velocity (read sub-sonic) ammo so that users in countries such as France could use the rifle for urban pest control WITH an add-on muzzle suppressor which is legal in France and even regarded as being civic minded so as to not disturb neighbours while say dispatching rodents that were a huge problem in France.
So to all Gunnutz thinking of a Gevarm acquisition, great! But do so knowing full well that that these rimfire rifles DO in fact have design limits and those limits should be heeded by not using hyper-velocity ammo. Should you try the ammo anyway and say it's fine with no problems is simply testing fate as no one can predict if and when a blown reciever will occur and I rather doubt that Gevarms design engineers even took into account the use of hyper ammo as it was not available back in the days when this design first appeared in Europe. I personally know of 2 gunsmiths who would not even consider owning a Gevarm for this reason and both had wallhangers brought in by customers who unknowingly tested fate and lost.
 
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