Mauser feeding problem

[Pirate69]

I put a 308 Win barrel on a Model 98 action. It does not want to chamber a round when the round is picked-up from the mag. It appears the round is not moving up enough to be centered on the bolt face and it binds going in. If I take the bolt completely out of the action and snap a round into position, I will chamber with no resistance.

Does this indicate the mag spring is not strong enough to push the round up into place or do I have another issue?

Thanks for comments

[castalott]

A slightly goofy thought...you are working the bolt with gusto? Usually Mausers don't feed well if operated slow. I do happen to have one that feeds 308 slow but have seen them that require speedy Gonzales to run it....

Dale

[bruce drake]

You can also purchase a magazine spacer and follower to put in the back of the magazine of the rifle

[Yodogsandman]

You can also purchase a magazine spacer and follower to put in the back of the magazine of the rifle

Exactly! ^^^^^

I had a hard time finding them, the last time I looked, though.

[Newboy]

Spacer in the back of the magazine. Cut the follower to fit.

[Uncle Grinch]

Take a look here.....

http://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9411043/m/843106779

[wv109323]

IIRC, there was a discussion about a year ago on a very similar subject. The OP was goodsteel. You may do a search.

[waksupi]

What was the action originally made for? The .308 family are notoriously hard to get to feed correctly.

[leadman]

I built a K98 for my son in 308. I had to polish up the face of the bolt and the inside of the extractor hook so the cartridge would slide up onto the bolt face. Did not need to use a spacer, guess I got lucky.

[sbowers]

A slight adjustment and polishing of the feed rails will also help a great deal.
Steve

[kysunfish]

You won't need a spacer if you load them all the way back. Work on your extractor and free it up. I carefully take a plastic windshield stick and push it under in front of the collar and take a brass hammer and tap it behind the collar. This will free things to where the cartridge should start jumping up in the extractor and feed. Sunfish

[Pirate69]

thanks guys. I am working on it.

[Pirate69]

It's a 308 win chamber. There is plenty of room behind the extractor. The problem is that the extractor is limiting the diameter of the case head that it's allowing to enter. It takes very little pressure for the case to pass the narrow point. Planning on light filling of the narrow point without affecting the back side of the extractor. Looks like once the narrow point is passed, everything will work. Anyone see any issues?

[Pirate69]

Forgot to say. The action is a VZ24 that had a 7mm mauser barrel on it.

[FrankG]

Did you put a radius on chamber mouth ?

[Pirate69]

No Frank, I have not. Looks like that is going to be my next issue to resolve. I carefully rounded the edge of the extractor until I could just feel some resistance with a case sliding through. I noted that cases, from different manufacturers, had more resistance than others. Regardless, looks like that problem is resolved.

I am now seeing that the boolit point is impinging on the flat surface of the chamber mouth when loading a round with the rifle horizontal. Load it with the rifle vertical, and it seems to load well.

What are the options other than cutting a radius on the barrel chamber. This is the option I am the less prepared to do. Can I build up an area on the magazine follower to elevate the round enough to chamber? Is it possible to narrow the sides of the front end of the follower so that it will rise higher in the rails and get the round lined up to chamber?

[MBTcustom]

IIRC, there was a discussion about a year ago on a very similar subject. The OP was goodsteel. You may do a search.

That was an Arisaka Type 99. I ended up fixing the feeding issues by using an M48 follower. I have learned that the feed rails have little to do with the feeding of the cartridges as they were all designed to feed similar cartridges. I think the focus should be on the angle of the box (try spreading or pinching the side walls) and oddly enough, the follower. Even three cartridges down, the follower can still have an effect on the cartridges above it. The feed rails play an important role, but they are already very close to what they need to be, and once you take material off them, there is nothing you can do to put it back.
Most Mausers strip and feed 308 perfectly as is. Thus, the rails are suitably profiled for that cartridge. What does change between rifles is the condition of the magazine box and follower. I would highly recommend a focus on those two things exclusively, and limit the attention you give to the feed rails to polishing with emery paper or light stoning only. It is unlikely the problem lies in the rails.

[Pirate69]

Just good back in the house and saw Goodsteel's post. He may have hit the problem on the head. Originally, I bougth two of these surplus, shot-out, rusted-out rifles in 7MM Mauser. The first action I put a 308 Win. Rineland barrel on it and no problems with feeding, ect. The second action is giving me problems. I looked for differences. The only difference I see is the follower. The action working well has "spoon" like follower while the one giving trouble has a more distinct ridge in it. Next up is to switch followers and see what happens.

Goodsteel, I hope you are right, this would be any easy solution.

[Pirate69]

Should I expect the follower for a VZ24 chambered for the 7mm Mauser round to be different than a VZ24 follower for the 8mm round?

[Pirate69]

A little update. Goodsteel has taken my under his wing and not allowing the "grasshopper" to make any stupid mistakes. Seriously, I have received some very valuable advice that I am most appreciative of. The man has a lot of experience/knowledge to share. I think he has already pointed me in the right direction. Will let you know the resolution of the problem.