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My Long Branch when loaded by hand feeds fine but when I use chargers it feeds the first round then the rest hang up. The first thing I thought of was of coarse the rims locking because of incorrect loading of the chargers but I tried my no.1 and a friends Savage and both worked flawlessly. Back to my Long Branch and the same thing. Any ideas?
thanks for your time
Silly question, but are you loading the charger "_-_-_" (down, up, down, up, down)?
Try changing the magazine: some magazines have an apparently smaller shell (usually Savage) and can sit "forward" in the magazine well. Whilst this doesn't interfere with hand loading or normal feeding, the rear wall of the magazine can block rounds being stripped from the charger.
Some rifles are just a bit sensitive to the location of your thumb when you strip the rounds, and/or the amount of vigour you put into pushing down on the rounds. When I have a "problem loader", I close my eyes, imagine that the Zulus are at the barricades - and then strip the rounds off the charger as if its all for real. I sometimes rip my thumbnail, but the rounds always go into the magazine correctly...
I was shooting my old CQB No.4 last friday, and it still doesn't care how the rounds are loaded in the charger! It also won't group better than about 5-6" at 100yds, but that was no surprise.
The feed reliabilty is not only affected by the rear feed lips, but the front ones on the magazine,too. As they are not hardened, merely removing and replacing the mag a few times (usually vigorously, w/ a love tap to seat it) can throw the lips out of whack.
With some careful observation, you can gently bend the lips back to proper geometry, but it's probably going to be a test of patience at first! No magic, just watch the dummy round(s) as it is fed forward from the mag (or not) and massage the likely offending area.
When you say '.....then the rest hang up.....' what exactly do you mean? Hang up as in 'the bolt head won't pick the next one up' or hang up as in 'jamb in the magazine'. You also say that '......the rest hang up.......' Does that mean when you eventually feed the first 'hung-up' round, those below it hang up too? What do they hang up on?
As long as the magazine feeds ok when loaded by hand, then the problem could be your loading technique. When you are stripping the rounds off the charger into the magazine, you have to have your thumb as far back on the top round as you can. If it is even a little forward of the edge of the charger it can angle the rounds nose down, making the rim lift and go behind the rim below it.
If you practice it slowly and watch what is happening, you can see the difference the thumb position makes. Try it-
I got pics somewhere... I'll try to find them later.
I got it. I opened the rear tabs just a touch and all is well. Son I did get some of your rim locking because of my thumb position as well but that wasn't the whole problem as the bolt would ride over the second round without picking it up. The rounds were further back in the magazine so I guess the rear tabs were not allowing the following rounds to move up high enough. Strange how just taking the time to look makes a world of difference. Of coarse you guys telling me where to look helped immensely as well.
Thanks for all the patient answers to newbie type questions.