Hi guys,

I've noticed since my Remington 700 Short Action rifle has come back from the gunsmith, where he fitted a Wyatts extended magazine box, the magazine follower tips down at the back, when I load the second round. This doesn't cause any issues for feeding, but what it does is limits the number of rounds in the magazine from 3 down to 2.

This Remington 700 started out originally as a 270 WSM, before the conversion to 6.5mm SAUM. With the 270WSM follower and the shorter factory Remington magazine box, the rifle quite happily held 3 down and fed very smoothly (even with the WSM cases) - the SAUM case feeds even better.

While having 2 rounds in the mag doesn't bother me too much, and I can always put one in the chamber for 3 rounds it would be nice to have a 3 round mag capacity.

Could the tipping follower be due to the follower now shorter than the internal length of the magazine, thus allowing too much play. If you were to build the length of the follower up, would this solve the problem?

OK, here is a really wild guess, so don't hold me to it. Try turning the mag spring around to see if that helps or hurts. I have had stranger things happen.

OK, found out what the issue is. The extended mag box is about 5 mm longer than the Remington mag box. The way these are fitted, is to machine out the back of the magazine mortise.

The Wyatts box sits directly on top of the bottom metal, unlike the Remington box which sits inside the magazine cutout in the floor plate. This means that unless you seat the projectiles deep into the case, the very back of the bottom cartridge in the magazine will stop on the bottom metal, reducing the magazine capacity to two rounds, and nothing to do with a tipping or tilting follower.

However, there is a relatively easy fix to allow the mag hold 3 rounds. That is to machine a cutout into the bottom metal to allow a third round to sit down into the magazine.

Will I do it? Hmm with a round in the chamber plus two in the magazine you have 3 round capacity anyway. And my rifle is a precision hunting rifle where I'd take max 2 shots at game anyway.