Certain bullets of round or flat nose design (Norma Oryx and Lapua Mega) doesn't feed properly in my Sako Forester 308 win. The shape of the bullet makes the cartridge enter the chamber in a too steep angle so it gets stuck on the side of the barrel. Extremely annoying to say the least.

Is this easily fixed by a gunsmith or should I use spitzer bullets instead?? BTW I've seen this happen with other rifles in other calibers as well (like a 30-06 Dakota!)

Annoying, yes. Have you ever checked the run-out on the rounds that cock-eye like that? Then you'll really be annoyed...... Dutch.

PCH. Are you using handloads or factory ammunition? Possibly, if you're using handloads, changing the seating depth of the bullet might make a difference. Maybe a bit long if the mgazine will allow that, or possibly a slight but shorter? That just might all it will take to correct the problem.
If it's factory ammo, possibly a gunsmith could work on the feed rails. Factory ammo should work in any rifle though.
Paul B.

PCH, I had the same problem with a Remington 600 .308. I thought a round nose bullet would be just fine for the short range use of that little carbine. A little work on the feed rails made them feed 99.5% of the time. Seating depth variations didn't help much though I suspect a longer cartridge might have fed but there wasn't the magazine space. The cartridges on the left of the magazine always fed but those on the right had the problem. I switched to spitzers and suggest you do the same. Reliability is vital and there isn't any advantage I can detect to the roundnose v. spitzer in getting through brush. Ed

Well, I've tried changing seating depth of one the bullets but without improvement. The other bullet is handloaded to duplicate the factory load for this bullet:full length resized, same COL etc.

An interesting thing is that a friends Dakota rifle in 30-06 feeds just as miserable with those very same bullets.

The reason I want to use the Oryx bullet is that it's a bonded core bullet with +90% weight retention and cheap(about 40 cents/bullet), that's considerably cheaper than buying US made bullets. I don't believe a round nose is better through brush and I know that trajectory suffers, but that's not an issue for me. Bullet performance on game and availability is (and I prefer support a swedish company).

It is a common problem with most factory rifles...It is an easy fix by a good gunsmith and inexpensive, a snap on a control feed and harder or rather more complicated on a push feed.

Keep shortening the seating depth before taking the gun to a gunsmith...

This happens because most factory guns are set up for spitzer bullets...

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com