Guys,

As explained in the "making to feed" sticky thread, I have a 1909 Argentine action that has been reheat treated and barreled to .376 Steyr.

Have not touched the magazine box or follower.

Feeds everything but the last round in the magazine just fine.

I swapped in the follower from a Higgins commercial FN made M98 and the feeding problems disappeared completely. Works great with both softs and solids. Same is true of the follower from a Manchester marked standard length Merk X action for magnum cartridges.

The two followers are different. The FN follower is cut a bit deeper and more to the left. The ridge of the follower itself is considerably thinner and the same width at both ends rather than tapered to be thicker at the front.

Couple of questions:

1) Is an original 1909 Argentine follower of any unusual value or interest to the community?

2) Is an original 1909 Argentine follower substantially different from an M98 military follower?

3) If it has not interest (that is, can be easily replaced if someone doesn't have one), I can mill it ... if I can figure out how to hold it. Any ideas on holding it for milling?

Thanks a bunch!

The Argie follower was designed to feed the more tapered (smaller OD at the shoulder) 7.65x53 round. Thus the difference.

You might want to try a follower from a miltary 98 (8 or 7x57) or one from a Springfield before you fire up the mill.
Also, the extractor for the Argentine round differs slightly from those used for the 7 & 8x57 s.

Jus tcut a wedge to hold it in the mill vise. I use a tapered endmill. This is one I did.
Don

Got the VZ.24 based 9,3x62 out of the safe and swapped its follower into the .376 Steyr.

Works in every configuration I can think to test. Now I just need to buy another one of those as a better starting point.

Any suggested suppliers?

Mike,
Give me your address and I'll send you a standard german 98 follower.
Don

15 minutes with a hand grinder will solve the last round feeding problem. I have published a couple of pictures on this site showing the method. I learned the method from David Miller and have not had it fail to work.