Feeding problem.

I'm using Sellier and Bellot in a WWII Lithgow. Sometimes they just seem to jamb and don't lift up out of the mag pointed toward the breech. I'm hoping its a bullet shape problem. Anyone else have this issue?

albert, Any particular order? As in second to last or last round in the magazine?

Brad

We have just started shooting the SMLE and only have been loading 3-4 rounds. Most of the failures to feed were next to or last one. Is there an experiment to try?

S&B bullet shape is identical to Mk VII, so t won't be that. Check that the follower spring is OK, and if it is, then the usual problem is that the mag comes from another rifle and the "lips" need to be bent slightly so the mag is set up correctly for your rifle. It would help if you could borrow someone else's mag which does work, then compare exactly how the bullets sit. Usually it is a very tiny difference. One common problem, which I have had, is that the case rim is not sitting high enough to be picked up by the bolt, and the bolt shifts the round forward a bit and then loses the round after about a cm of travel, causing a jam. In that case, the rear "lips" need to then be opened up, a little at a time, so the rim is more prominent. Not too far or the bullet will pop out of the mag.

Feed problems with the last couple of rounds are inevitably the magazine spring. It cannot be anything else, because the other have all fed successfully in any case!

When the magazine spring is at full stretch, ie, at the top of its travel, it is, by definition, at its weakest. And if the temper has slightly failed, then it simply won't overcome the problems/obstacles, friction being one....., that it encounters.

You can stretch it, twiddle about with it, bend it shape it and anything else you want with it, but short of hardening and tempering it, its fu......er...., knackered.

This was one of the very first lessons during your basic armouring phase. Duff magazine springs were even inserted into the magazines during our live firing practices by the affable Major Viney as he taught us the basics of ballistics.

Magazine springs and rivets were available as spare parts as I remember