Purchased a Mauser trench magazine on a whim, figured it would be an interesting novelty to slap on a Russian capture K98. Needs a little bit of adjusting to get a good positive fit on the rifle, but once that's done it isn't going anywhere.
But, the bloody thing is a nightmare when it comes to feeding rounds. Had the rifle in a safe location to load rounds into the magazine, and only loaded a total of twenty rounds (only dug out one box of 8x57) to test out the feeding - results were poor. The first two rounds feed normally, after that the follower seems to regularly jam in the magazine housing at odd angles leaving the rounds too low to feed (bolt rides over the round). Tried the "Enfield" method of clearing magazine issues, push the rounds down and snap up - sometimes it clears the issue for a round, good rap on the side and bottom of the magazine - occasionally it squares things up, but not all that often... Now, when you eventually get rounds three through fifteen out of the magazine with a copious amount of swearing and "adjusting" the final five rounds feed just as Paul von Mauser intended.
So, being that results were poor with twenty rounds, I tried fifteen instead and results were better but feeding was still hit and miss. Ten rounds would work more regularly but still some issues here and there. OEM spec. five round load outs work as intended.
Now, the question is, is this just a piss poor design in general or is the reproduction a bit sloppy? Or, does this explain why the Kaiser's boys only dabbled with the trench mag in limited trials up until about 1916 before abandoning the abortion.
Is there any sort of way to make these things feed more Mauser like?
Resolved - see post #5.
But, the bloody thing is a nightmare when it comes to feeding rounds. Had the rifle in a safe location to load rounds into the magazine, and only loaded a total of twenty rounds (only dug out one box of 8x57) to test out the feeding - results were poor. The first two rounds feed normally, after that the follower seems to regularly jam in the magazine housing at odd angles leaving the rounds too low to feed (bolt rides over the round). Tried the "Enfield" method of clearing magazine issues, push the rounds down and snap up - sometimes it clears the issue for a round, good rap on the side and bottom of the magazine - occasionally it squares things up, but not all that often... Now, when you eventually get rounds three through fifteen out of the magazine with a copious amount of swearing and "adjusting" the final five rounds feed just as Paul von Mauser intended.
So, being that results were poor with twenty rounds, I tried fifteen instead and results were better but feeding was still hit and miss. Ten rounds would work more regularly but still some issues here and there. OEM spec. five round load outs work as intended.
Now, the question is, is this just a piss poor design in general or is the reproduction a bit sloppy? Or, does this explain why the Kaiser's boys only dabbled with the trench mag in limited trials up until about 1916 before abandoning the abortion.
Is there any sort of way to make these things feed more Mauser like?
Resolved - see post #5.
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