Cartridge feeding.
- Thread starter chuck nelson
- Start date
No you didn't. Go back and actually read the thread. Just so you're clear.
Unlike several others I asked politely.
I have read the thread and went back to see if/where I missed your ultimate point because maybe I might learn something new.
If you're not willing to clarify .......
This is of course correct. Do rifles need to feed empty cases? Of course not. But if they will feed empties they will generally feed most anything else. This cartridge even wears the dreaded belt.
I think this is where he "clarified". However his bedside manner lately is rather gruff. Chuck needs to be medicated I think lol.
I have long believed that 100% feeding (and ejection!) is much more important than the half-inch internet accuracy that is banted around so much.
I am also often surprised at how poorly many rifles feed, in spite of their owners insistence that they are perfect. In the defense of many however, they have never held a true "perfect feeding" rifle.
What Chuck is talking about is a margin for error. If a rifle will feed empties with 100% smooth certaincy, it will feed differently shaped bullets as well. And to be a stickler, one round in the mag doesn't mean much. Most rifles will do that. Instead load the magazine full and try it with both fast and slow bolt operation, a much sterner test. After all, when it matters is with a full magazine; not many of us hunt with only one round in the mag.
A lot of rifles stutter because the cheaper one-size-fits-all magazine's dimensions are incorrect for your chosen cartridge, usually too narrow up front because the magazine designed for an -06 shaped cartridge is being fed fatter modern cartridges. Do cartridges stack ok at the rear, but up front at the shoulder of the case tend to porpoise over top of the one below it due to the all too common too-narrow magazine? That is when the one cartridge in the magazine test will bite you, load the magazine full and the incorrect magazine's dimensions compound with each additional cartridge.
Or is the mag spring weak or kinked, or (don't laugh) is the rifle incorrectly assembled?
See if it feeds from both sides of the mag, and with added upward pressure due to a full mag. Does the top round pop out of the mag instead of into the chamber? Does the bolt occasionally / often ride over the rear of the top cartridge?
I am also often surprised at how poorly many rifles feed, in spite of their owners insistence that they are perfect. In the defense of many however, they have never held a true "perfect feeding" rifle.
What Chuck is talking about is a margin for error. If a rifle will feed empties with 100% smooth certaincy, it will feed differently shaped bullets as well. And to be a stickler, one round in the mag doesn't mean much. Most rifles will do that. Instead load the magazine full and try it with both fast and slow bolt operation, a much sterner test. After all, when it matters is with a full magazine; not many of us hunt with only one round in the mag.
A lot of rifles stutter because the cheaper one-size-fits-all magazine's dimensions are incorrect for your chosen cartridge, usually too narrow up front because the magazine designed for an -06 shaped cartridge is being fed fatter modern cartridges. Do cartridges stack ok at the rear, but up front at the shoulder of the case tend to porpoise over top of the one below it due to the all too common too-narrow magazine? That is when the one cartridge in the magazine test will bite you, load the magazine full and the incorrect magazine's dimensions compound with each additional cartridge.
Or is the mag spring weak or kinked, or (don't laugh) is the rifle incorrectly assembled?
See if it feeds from both sides of the mag, and with added upward pressure due to a full mag. Does the top round pop out of the mag instead of into the chamber? Does the bolt occasionally / often ride over the rear of the top cartridge?
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- Location
- Port Edward BC
Reading this thread got me to thinking which my wife says I should never do. Any howz I digress. Let's just say That IF for some unknown reason that your laying on you side, in Chucks case the left, and you cycle a round and the bolt doesn't capture it and your last round falls out and you really really need it. Then what? I would say that is where the timing comes in and would make for less resistance closing the bolt.
I like the idea if it will feed an empty case it is going in straight then it won't have any issues with one with a bullet in it.
I like the idea if it will feed an empty case it is going in straight then it won't have any issues with one with a bullet in it.
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Sure seems that way doesn't it. Chuck seems to have much to offer, but comes across worse than I do most of the time!! Haha
Good thread though, it's making people realize that accuracy isn't everything, although it's important. It's one of the reasons I don't like savages, I hate dinking around trying to insert a magazine, then struggling to make it chamber a round properly.
BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
No, shooting imaginary game is WAY more fun that feeding empty cases.
pete dobinson
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Courtenay BC.
So true. I like to see tiny groups at the range like most the members on this site. Having a rifle that feeds is just as important. Being able to shoot offhand is also important. I could use more practice offhand, thats my weakness.
This is absolutely "key" for an "actual" hunter... and where the Internet banter can impair a hunter's ability to perform effectively in the real world... all the online "talk" of sub-moa rifles, have many frustrated hunters spending exhorbinant amounts of time at shooting benches and little to no time from field positions... as a result their self belief is wildly inflated and their field expectations are unrealistically optimistic... guess who pays for their ultimate failure...
Absolutely. But most don't get off the sandbags. Because it is difficult and requires practice, and egos don't like missing. Easier to drag out the leadsled.
More to the point, most people don't shoot much at all.
