Savage 110 Blind Mag Stagger Feed Not Feeding

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1. I have a feeding issue from the internal, non-detatchable magazine in my flat-back receiver, pre-Accu Trigger (read that as old school) Savage 110E in 243 Winchester with a long action.

   The last round in the magazine, or, if loading singly, will pop out of the magazine as the bolt is pushing it forward. This results in the base of the cartridge shifting to the right and outside of the ejection port. As I close the bolt, the cartridge ends up sticking out of the ejection port at about a 45 degree angle, with the nose of the cartridge still in the gun. Seems to only happen with the last round. Happens with factory ammo and my handloads, which are a little longer than factory spec.

   Side note: about 20 years ago, a gunsmith modified the magazine by removing some material from the underside of the follower and removing some wood from the stock under the magazine. This allowed a 5th cartridge to fit in the rifle. Not sure if it's relevant as it seems to work witha loaded magazine.

   Any thoughts?

2. maybe get a new mag box, have you tried pinching the back some so the feed lips will hold the rounds in longer when feeding.

3. Thought about it. Haven't tried it.

4. 

   • Contributing Member

   rbernie Contributing Member

   The symptom you've described is that one side of the magazine will retain the round, and the other will not. If you don't want to simply replace the magazine box and follower, you can try to bend the feed lips inward on the side that is losing retention. I have never found that to work well when I have tried it, and it's really easy to disfigure the finish on the inside of the receiver trying this, but it's your rifle and you might wanna try.

   I have had at least one magazine box that had become bowed over time, and placing the magazine box in a vice and slowly squeezing so that I forced the sides to be re-parallel again provided some improvement because it narrowed the feed lips a bit.

   Last edited: Jun 19, 2019

5. Post #'s 2 and 4 may solve it, but my first thought was that, with the magazine capacity expanded to five rounds, it could be needing a different magazine spring to take up the slack. And it could be a combination of those factors.

6. I guess you have the old staggered feed internal magazine box. My 223 Stevens 200 staggered feed was doing that, I squeezed the mag box to bring the "feed lips" a little closer and fixed it. I love staggered feed!

7. Yeah, I like it a lot better than center feed. (I know some like center feed better, but I just don't.) And this looks like another example of older stuff being easier to work on.

8. 

   • Contributing Member

   rbernie Contributing Member

   The stagger feed design work well for magnum and full power rifle chamberings. On the other hand, center feed is pretty much a necessity if you shoot any chambering that falls into the 'sub-.482 bolt face diameter' category.

   Center feed is also a useful feature if you want to swap stocks or move to a box magazine / chassis.

9. When I switched over to a McRee Chassis, I got rid of all my Savage internal box mag feeding problems... Sorry I was no help, but detachable mags are so much nicer! I would put it back to factory as much as possible, fill in the missing wood, start there.

10. Bend those feed lips bro.

11. One reason that the last round doing it but not before is because the follower typically has some side to side play, tend to pushed to the side when loaded, won't matter until the last round and may not hold the last round well when the feed lip opening is wider. That is why I squeezed the mag box on my Stevens to bring the feed lips closer and also reduce the follower side play. I would try that before bending the feed lips. A 7.62x39 Mauser I put together was doing it with original mauser follower, I made my own follower with tighter fit to mag box and the hump "feeding guide" closer to the round, helps a lot.

12. I'm exactly the opposite. One of the reasons I have't bought a new Savage in 30-06 is because Savage only makes the 110 in a detachable box magazine now. I've had this rifle, with its internal magazine 20 years with no problems. Shot it a LOT in NRA High Power with a lot of reloads and rounds cycled through it. Hunted with it the last three years. Nary a problem until this week. With an internal magazine, I don't have to worry about the magazine dropping 1/1-millionth of centimeter and the gun not working. I don't have to worry about the magazine getting bent and the gun not working. I don't have to worry about the magazine falling out and getting lost. Maybe I should just buy a TC Contender LOL. (This is also why I haven't bought myself a new rimfire rifle; they're all detachable box mags.)No way. I spent big bucks to have that done. If I ever move on to a 30-06 for hunting, I am going to put this rifle back into Hi-Power configuration, and I'll need that 5th round to meet the requirements for a match rifle.

13. 

    • Contributing Member

    LoonWulf Contributing Member

    that!
    Savage magazines work, but are both easily tweaked out of shape alignment, and easily tweaked back in.

    im im assuming it feeds the last round from thr right side? all of mine did. if so lightly bend that feed lip in very slightly.

    Actually, Its also possible your follower being thinned and a aging magazine spring, would cause a similar issue especially if your not rough with your mag box.

    try streatching your mag spring, or just shimming it, and see if the problem goes away.

14. Actually...I think it's failing when feeding from the right. Not sure. Now I have something else to check for trouble shooting. Thanks.

    A worn mag spring was my first guess, given the modifications. I don't really want to take the rifle apart because I had it pillar glass bedded at the same time I had the magazine and stock modified (and trigger work as well) and i don't want to risk screwing that up.

15. 

    • Contributing Member

    LoonWulf Contributing Member

    if it was done properly, there should be no risk in removing the action from the stock.

    If it wasnt and its glued in....well........

    Last edited: Jun 21, 2019

16. You left out some important info in your OP, like its been working great for 20 years, just started acting up this week. Sounds like your on the right track with the spring.

17. My Experience: I have had a similar event with one Savage and one Remington. On mySavage 110, blind staggered magazine, it had to do with being rebarreled from 270 to 257 Roberts. Working the action a little more gingerly made the problem go away. YMMV The Remington, another story had a bent magazine box-a Bubba attack. That was repaired by Remington. It's hard to figure how the magazine box got bent after years of good service. I not for replacing parts willy-nilly but one could get a bunch of time and frustration bending magazine boxes etc. I've has messes before where the follow springs have been put in backwards.

    Part of the problem with my Savage had to do with long action plus shorter different cartridges. Wonder if a change in overall length of a different bullet or brand of cartridge may have brought on a problem?

    Last edited: Jun 23, 2019

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