Rifles that won't feed?

I have had a few rifles that needed some tender loving care from smoji (my smith) for this type of thing.

The Ruger 77 Mark II rifles seem to need some gentle persuasion with the bolt in order to feed properly from a full mag. Not the way most of us would work the bolt on the range, but the way most of us would work the bolt in a hunting situation, in other words fairly vigorously.

I have seen similar problems with two different Weatherby Vanguards, both of them newer guns - and I think it comes down to poor quality control in mass produced rifles. Heck I saw a brand new (in the box) Remington 700 with a BENT barrel a couple months ago! :eek:

BTW thanks Ted for showing me how to remove the firing pin on that bolt.... ;)

Doug
 
I haven't tried to feed:) my firearms. Just load and unload....:D
 
Kevan said:
Ted..I've had 2 Ruger 77s that wouldn't feed properly, a 22-250 and a 300 Win Mag. The 300 stove-piped the first time and caused me to lose a chance to put a nice Saskatchewan Whitetail in the freezer about 20 years ago.
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No, missing with the FIRST shot caused you to miss the deer :rolleyes:

pumping additional rounds after the animal is running away from you is a good way to either waste ammo or wound and animal with a low probability of game recovery :runaway:
 
My Enfield rifles have problems feeding.

One is a an ex P-14, now a Centurion 300 Winchester and the other is a BSA sported US Model of 1917 30-06.

Trying to reload from the magazine in the 30-06 sometimes the bolt just slides over the cartridge without picking it up.

The mag spring on the 300 sometimes jams down, leaving me with three cartridges rattling in the mag box that I have to poke and prod at to release. Took it to a 'smith and it wouldn't do it for him. I took it to the range last week and it did it to me again.

Then other times when it does feed, it slides the cartrdge out of the magazine but tips it up and the point of the bullet jabs into the top of the chamber until I pull the bolt back and when it points into the chamber, then I can close the bolt.

My Remington Model 700 243 would sometimes enthusiastically flip the cartridge right out of the magazine into the air when I shoved the bolt forward to load the chamber.
 
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I've had a few 700's that were somewhat fickle and my Sako 300 is the same. I am careful that the cartridges are aligned well and no problems, but I did miss out on a nice whitetail 4 years ago because the top shell was twisted in my 260 mountain rifle and I closed the bolt on an empty chamber without knowing it.

I always make sure my handloads all feed before I go hunting.
 
MD said:
My Enfield rifles have problems feeding.

One is a an ex P-14, now a Centurion 300 Winchester and the other is a BSA sported US Model of 1917 30-06.

Trying to reload from the magazine in the 30-06 sometimes the bolt just slides over the cartridge without picking it up.

The mag spring on the 300 sometimes jams down, leaving me with three cartridges rattling in the mag box that I have to poke and prod at to release. Took it to a 'smith and it wouldn't do it for him. I took it to the range last week and it did it to me again.

Then other times when it does feed, it slides the cartrdge out of the magazine but tips it up and the point of the bullet jabs into the top of the chamber until I pull the bolt back and when it points into the chamber, then I can close the bolt.

My Remington Model 700 243 would sometimes enthusiastically flip the cartridge right out of the magazine into the air when I shoved the bolt forward to load the chamber.
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get a magnum follower and install it, that should help with your 300. - dan
 
I took out my new custom 6.5 Swede to range. It is a Montana Rifleman barreled action. It had great problems feeding Bell brand 139 grain ammo. The problems are as follows:

1. At least one round in each magazine load of three jammed into the feed ramp. I had to struggle with the bolt to chamber the round, and the end of the soft point was terribly deformed.

2. I found that the soft point bullets were often deformed due to the rough ride from the mag to chamber, even if the rifle fed without jamming.

3. In approximately thirty rounds, the rifle failed twice to pick up rounds from the mag. Thus, I pulled the trigger on an empty chamber.

I bought some Federal 140 grain ammo, but only got to fire three rounds before I had to leave the range. These fed ok, but I do not know if I was just lucky on the three I loaded, and maybe more jams would have occurred if I continued firing. In examining the Federal and Bell ammo, I noted that the Bell ammo is far longer than the Federal. Can cartridge length cause feeding issues? Might switching to a shorter round solve the problem?

Big
 
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Might just be a new rifle that needs to be broken in. Could the feed ramp benefit from some careful polishing? Bottom of feed rails smooth? Did Montana fit the barrel, or did a 'smith do it? I suppose cartridge length, bullet shape could affect feeding.
 
I recently saw a Model Seven in .223 that would not feed (factory ammo) from the right hand side of the magazine except for the last one which had the least amount of spring tension pushing on it. Upon moving the bolt forward the cartridge would pop up and stovepipe or fall out. The installation of a brand new follower spring made no difference. The gun was in excellent conditon inside and out including the feed rails.



.
 
tiriaq said:
Might just be a new rifle that needs to be broken in. Could the feed ramp benefit from some careful polishing? Bottom of feed rails smooth? Did Montana fit the barrel, or did a 'smith do it? I suppose cartridge length, bullet shape could affect feeding.
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Montana fit the barrel.

I met a guy at the range who examined my gun. He said the floor plate should be polished and a stronger spring should be used. He showed me how to carefully load the mag and check the feed of each round before getting ready to shoot. This type of careful loading worked, and I had no jams when doing this. But it is a pain in the butt and might be terrible cold on the hands in the winter time.

I do not think the cartridge lenght had anything to do with the jams. Everything fed well when I loaded the mag carefully.

I will get a stronger spring and polish the followed. It has been a long time since I polished gun metal. What should I use to do it?

Thanks
Big
 
polsihing the follower wil only help if it is the last round that misfeeds, unless he meant to polish the sides where it rides up the mag-box.

Make up some dummies and try and determine which rounds tend to jam and how/why. If you don;t handload take out the firing pin assembly and use live rounds.

Sometimes, feeding failures only occur when live firing, as teh rounds in teh mag get bounced around and tips deformed too. Can be time-consuming, but it is not black magic either, you just have to take the time to diagnose what is causing the misfeeds
 
rgv said:
polsihing the follower wil only help if it is the last round that misfeeds, unless he meant to polish the sides where it rides up the mag-box.

Make up some dummies and try and determine which rounds tend to jam and how/why. If you don;t handload take out the firing pin assembly and use live rounds.

Sometimes, feeding failures only occur when live firing, as teh rounds in teh mag get bounced around and tips deformed too. Can be time-consuming, but it is not black magic either, you just have to take the time to diagnose what is causing the misfeeds
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The guy at the range showed me it is always the right hand column that fails to feed. Therefore, it is always the second round that the bolt will pass over, failing to pick it up and take it to the chamber. If the second round will feed, there will be no jams.

I said in my earlier post that many rounds got banged up or jammed into the feed ramp. That seems to have stopped. There were a couple of rough feeds in thirty rounds, but nothing too brutal. I examined a few rounds randomly after they were chambered and did find some minor dents in the soft points, but these were very small. I guess the rifle has been broken in and this problem has ceased.

In regards to the rifles failure to pick up from the right column, the guy at the range said the following. There might be an obstruction on the walls of the action, or perhaps roughly finished metal on the floor plate, or a combination of the two that is causing it. I ran my hands around the metal and did not find anything remarkable, except that the floor plate edges were really sharp. Maybe rounding off the edges might help; I do not know. He said it might also be that the spring is too weak to push up the round high enough and he recommended getting something like a strong military spring as you might find in a mauser or enfield.
 
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