I just bought a model 70 featherweight in 7mm-08; it has the control round feed "classic" action.

Anyway, I loaded up some rounds to about 2.845" OAL, which did fit down into the mag well without any problem. So I took them to the range and found they would not feed properly if I had two or more rounds in the the mag. Am I going to have to keep the OAL to 2.8" or less to make sure they feed - this would suck because I seem to have a bit of extra mag length to work with.

What gives??

TIA,
9.3

Just a bit confused. How did your rifle fail to feed that would lead you to believe 45 thousandths of an inch would help. Anything that will fit in the magazine should feed.. If not the rifle needs work.. Remember ,most factory rifles are made to produce a profit, not a great rifle. The short square rounds sometimes produce rough feeding but they should none the less feed.. Perhaps a trip to the smith..

[ 10-06-2003, 05:43: Message edited by: gunnut69 ]

2.8" does seem to feed correctly - evidently 0.045" is enough to make a difference.

How does it fail?? Will not clear the feed rails, locks up in the chamber. What does the rifle do..

Imagine there are two in the mag, and you draw the bolt back to feed the top one. Here's what happens:

The round pushes forward, the nose of the bullet goes up the feedramp, and then it binds diagonally with the bolt about 2/3 closed. That is, the case head dips down a bit and the nose of the bullet binds on the chamber mouth at about 2 O'clock. It almost seems like I could make it go by working the bolt a bit harder - this proved not to be the case and it still jammed.

I just tried it again with some loaded to about 2.81" - no problems. Odd. Thoughts?

I've had this type of problem on a few of rifles, mostly mausers. The fix on mausers is to widen the magazine slightly in the front. Do it out of the gun first, if it works, then remove wood to match. I know it sounds weird, but it works. Easy fix, and if it doesn't work, easy to go back.
Mike

This is common with these actions. Perhaps Bill Leeper will chime in here. A couple of years back, in a weak moment, he agreed to chamber one of these actions in 284 Win for me. To his credit he got it to work very well indeed, even that one shell that feeds off the left side of the mag. But it wasn't easy.

I also have a Win 70 Featherweight in 7-08. It would not feed reloads when I got it. I don't know if it would have fed factory ammo since I never tried it. It feeds everything now, including neck sized ammo of any length. I fixed it by spreading the magazine box(it was pinched in the center) and bending the feed lips different ways until it worked. Trial and lots of error. The one thing I found I had to do to feed the last round was to bend the feed lips closer together at the very back of the magazine to keep the back end of the follower from pivoting up. The problem on mine was that the round would pivot on the expanded portion of the case in front of the rim and the bullet would hang in the locking lug recess. Anyway it can be made to work.

It does sound like the round from the left side of the magazine is running the bullet into the extractor cut. This is one of those things where the cure may be easily found (not often in my life!) or it may be very difficult. I will not attempt to advise you how to fix it since I could easily advise you incorrectly! I don't know where you live so I can't recommend a gunsmith. Good luck. Regards, Bill

A push-feed action would solve your problems permanently.

9.3x62,

Short cartridges are more prone to feeding problems than their longer counterparts because they have to make rather abrupt maneuvers in a relatively short distance.

As you advance the bolt, the cartridge moves forward to where the pointy end of the bullet connects with and begins to climb the feed ramp towards the chamber. As you continue to advance the bolt, the cartridge moves at an angle to the right, climbs further up the ramp, and as it does, the back end of the cartridge moves down and to the left making contact with the left wall of the magazine, which puts the pointy end of the bullet directly in line with the extractor cut.

The feed cone at the breech, extends perhaps another .040 deeper than the extractor cut to help guide the bullet into the chamber at the last possible minute. Under normal conditions, this is a "near miss". As the bullet slips just past the extractor cut, the back end of the cartridge emerges from the left hand feed rail and pops up under the extractor which swings the bullet back towards the center as the bolt is closed.

Now what would happen if the bullet were seated out too far? Well, the bullet would probably collide with the breech or "extractor cut" before the cartridge could complete it's maneuver causing a jam such as you have described. That additional .035 could be just enough to cause such a problem.

There are a couple of things you can do. You can simply seat your bullets back to 2.810 where you say they will function smoothly and be done with it, or, if you just have to have the bullets seated out the additional .035 for whatever reason, you could have a gunsmith who is familiar with this design, check the feed cone and see if a slight change of angle will provide the clearance needed.

A third solution would be to... Well never mind, the third option would be a bit more drastic and require changing the feed rail timing. Anyway, one of the other two suggestions should solve your problem.

Were it me, I would probably just seat the bullet back the .035 and be done with it...

Good luck,

Malm

9.3x62,

What you have is a timing problem. The round is not being released soon enough to get proper feeding. It can be fixed in one of two ways. The first method is the easiest. You can bend the upper left hand lip of the magazine box inward a small amount until the round is released from under the feed lips in the receiver before the bullet reaches the extractor cut in the barrel. If you over bend you will get the round jumping up out of the magazine too soon, in which case you bend the magazine back out a little. The second way is, you can file the feed lips in the receiver open until you get the desired results. This is the most dangerous because if you over do it YOU ARE OVER DONE!!!

Good luck,
Headache

All:

Many thanks for your thoughts. I think I will stick with 2.81" or so max and try to find a shorter bullet; i.e. one that reaches land diameter (ogive) closer to the tip.

9.3