Who would you recommend to fix a feeding problem with a Model 70 Express 416 Rem Mag?

It will hand up on the second round if using flat nosed bullets.

I would like to use someone that will take a look and KNOW what needs to be done for 100% feeding, not a general gunsmith that is willing to "try".

This is a rifle for dangerous game, and I hate being restricted to certain bullets in insure 100% feeding.

Thank you in advance
Michael

jim kobe

Mark Penrod.

Michael, With such a variety of shapes out there I doubt you will be 100% reliable unless you supply a sample of bullets to test with, In other words it is my opinion that you will be somewhat restricted to certain shapes.
Gunsmiths : Duane Wiebe
IMHO
BB

Darcy Echols

D'Arcy Echols, Gene Simillion, and Mark Penrod. If one of them is willing that's what I would do.
Jan Kolenbrander in BC did a 30-06 to 338 conversion for me and the feeding in that rifle is second to none. But logistics might be a problem.

Mike
I would suggest you contact the bullet manufacture, they designed them they must know how to make them work.

I can say that I am not personally skilled enough to be able to make every bullet feed in a Model 70 nor will I try anymore.

But thats just me.

Thank you for the suggestions guys! I will contact some of the rifle smiths and let you know how it turns out.

The feed problem happens with any of the flat nosed bullets I have tried.

The flat nose penetrate straight, but I could not trust them to feed, so had to have more pointed bullets in the magazine for follow up shots.

quote:

I would suggest you contact the bullet manufacture, they designed them they must know how to make them work.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Voigt:
Who would you recommend to fix a feeding problem with a Model 70 Express 416 Rem Mag?

It will hand up on the second round if using flat nosed bullets.

I would like to use someone that will take a look and KNOW what needs to be done for 100% feeding, not a general gunsmith that is willing to "try".

This is a rifle for dangerous game, and I hate being restricted to certain bullets in insure 100% feeding.

Thank you in advance
Michael

Brian Alberts at SSK Industries has a lot of experience with making FN solids feed properly in M70 Winchesters.

http://sskindustries.com/contact-us/

This all reminds me of a smokey memory from another life. Back when I was 15 or so I was sort of a poor kid and was limited to using my only rifle, which happened to be a 300 Winchester to shoot coyotes. Some times it would poke a nice clean hole through them and other times it would cut them nearly in half. Frustrated, I called Hornady to give them hell for not making an FMJ in the bullet weight I wanted. Joyce was sort of a hands on kind of guy with marketing and as luck would have it, I ended up speaking with him about it. He made it clear that .308 was NOT a varmint caliber and he had no plans in offering a bullet like that in his lineup. To solve my problem he told me to simply turn the bullets around and shoot them backwards. They would probably shoot about 4 inches lower at 300 yards but they wouldn't expand. I made it perfectly clear that I was no dummy and wasn't about to blow up my rifle. There was a bit of a pause and he said: "listen kid, frontwards, backwards, mass is constant, they'll shoot just fine." So, I tied the gun to a tire and fired about about 5 shots to assure myself that I was not going to die and went hunting. They preformed exactly as he said they would. I had to raise the wires an inch at 100 yards but they grouped exactly the same as they did shot frontwards and I never had a single one expand. Several weeks later I called back and got another sales rep and asked him how to get the bastards to feed when shot backwards ?

His reply was: "They won't and can't be made to feed when loaded backwards. And what idiot in the wide wide world of sports put you on to the hare brained notion, to ever try shooting a bullet backwards in the first place ?"

Yeah, damned right I told him !

Yes, save those flat nosed gimmicks for your single shots and DRs.
BUT, here is another war story from the mid 60s when none of your guys were born yet. I got a bunch of 30-06 Ball ammo from a friend of mine, who stole it from his father. I only had a 30-30 Model 94, so I had to figure out how to use what I had. I surmised that by loading the 150 bullets BACKWARDS (not having any misgivings about doing it), that they would work. And that's what I did, they would explode on any game, and would only feed single shot, but hey, I had free bullets and powder.

I had several of those "introductions to reloading" experiments as a kid.

Replacing small shot in shotgun shells with BBs for pigeons, loading a black powder pistol with bullseye and adjusting the load "until it sounded about right". Glad I lived through it.

The ammo I am wanting to shoot is Hornady GMS and GMX 416 Rem Mag. I have had great performance from the bullets on a variety of game. The flat point isn't huge and it doesn't always catch the edge of the chamber. But I use that rifle when game can bite back and I want it 100% reliable.

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by capoward:

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Voigt:
Who would you recommend to fix a feeding problem with a Model 70 Express 416 Rem Mag?

It will hand up on the second round if using flat nosed bullets.

I would like to use someone that will take a look and KNOW what needs to be done for 100% feeding, not a general gunsmith that is willing to "try".

This is a rifle for dangerous game, and I hate being restricted to certain bullets in insure 100% feeding.

Thank you in advance
Michael

Brian Alberts at SSK Industries has a lot of experience with making FN solids feed properly in M70 Winchesters.

http://sskindustries.com/contact-us/

+1

Brian did a 416 B&M for me that feeds CEB solids and raptors 100%. It ran perfect here and perfect in africa. Northfork solids are the same story, and for fun loads i shoot FNGC cast bullets over Trailboss--all feed 100%

I used Dennis Olson on my Model 70 in 458 Lott and he made it so the Northfork cup point solids fed slick as can be.

A lot of times they can give problems depending on the relationships of the belts to one another in the mag. If a leading cartridge has its belt behind the next in line they can nose down into the mag. Then if you seat everything to the max length to eliminate that problem the noses of the bullets can drag on the front of the mag and cause problems.

It never ends.

If it won't feed flat nose ammo, you will be better off shooting RN in it, I don't think you will find it all that big a problem, Feed and function is more important than bullet shape..I have shot all manor of DG with RN Woodlieghs both soft and solids...I have seen guns really messed up by smiths trying to fix the flat nose bullet feeding, many time once that is accomplished they won't feed RN or Spitzers...Ocassionally the evil bullet Gods smile on you and you get one that feeds everything..but not often. I like the FN solids from GS Customs and North Fork, but if my gun won't feed them I don't try to get it fixed..Too many hunters show up in Africa and get jams, and they just assumed the rifle would work because they paid big bucks to assure that and didn't test it with a couple of hundred rounds..

Michael if you live in the southern part of the state, I know an excellent gunsmith.

Mlfguns

I sent you a pm.
Thank you in advance for sharing your gunsmith information.

Hi Michael,

There are two things you can try before send it off to a gunsmith.

1. Get a new strong magazine spring. With large calibers with heavy bullets, many times the spring is not strong enough to properly lift the front of the cartridge up high enough to hit the feed ramp properly. Manufacturers have one spring for all their guns and sometimes it is just not enough.

2. Take and Arkansas stone to the bottom of the feed rails. This is an area where again, the manufacturer does not speed a lot of time and can leave tool marks and rough edges that bites into the side of the cartridge preventing it from moving up. The stone will gently work any edges smooth.

90% of the time, we have found these two solutions will help if not fix the problem outright.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
John

Interesting, because my New Havens feed Cutting Edge Bullets just fine. 375, 416, and 458.

Andy B