Rim locking issue.

Hi there from down in New Zealand.
My normally reliable and trusty Eddystone P14 has decided to rim lock itself every time a case or unfired round is extracted. Some how the top round ends up with it's rim behind the next one down.
I haven't changed the way I load the rifle either one at a time or with charger clips and last military shoot it was fine.
I can't see anything untoward and it is normally fine apart from the odd difficult to feed round which appears to be a brass manufacturer issue.
Any suggestions would be most appreciated especially since I have a rapid fire military shoot coming up soon.
Cheers Mike

What length do you have the ammo made to and what size bullets are you using? The reason I ask is when I was practicing for a mad minute with the P14, I tried using 129grn bullets (i.e. 7.62x39 bullets) which worked very well for the shooting but would rimlock because it wasn't long enough. With a longer bullet the magazine worked the way it was supposed to and there was no rimlock.

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Originally Posted by Eaglelord17

What length do you have the ammo made to and what size bullets are you using? The reason I ask is when I was practicing for a mad minute with the P14, I tried using 129grn bullets (i.e. 7.62x39 bullets) which worked very well for the shooting but would rimlock because it wasn't long enough. With a longer bullet the magazine worked the way it was supposed to and there was no rimlock.

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Hi
My loads are 3.05 inchs long (77.5 mm) and I use Hornady 150gr sp interlock projectiles.
They have been fine in the past which is why I am a bit lost with this problem. I would like to try another mag spring and follower but they don't exactly grow on trees in New Zealand.
Thanks Mike

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eaglelord17

What length do you have the ammo made to and what size bullets are you using? The reason I ask is when I was practicing for a mad minute with the P14, I tried using 129grn bullets (i.e. 7.62x39 bullets) which worked very well for the shooting but would rimlock because it wasn't long enough. With a longer bullet the magazine worked the way it was supposed to and there was no rimlock.

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Hi
My loads are 3.05 inchs long (77.5 mm) and I use Hornady 150gr sp interlock projectiles.
They have been fine in the past which is why I am a bit lost with this problem. I would like to try another mag spring and follower but they don't exactly grow on trees in New Zealand.
Thanks Mike

My Hornady book lists max COL for .303 British as 3.035". The books from all my other bullet manufacturers list the max COL at 3.075". I always set my length at 3.075" just to slightly reduce freebore distance. With rifles as old and well used as these it can't hurt to give them a little extra length. Will .025" make a difference most likely not but who knows? I've never run into this problem and am using the spring and follower that came in my P14 which seem to be original to the rifle.

Just for giggles I decided to measure up some of the 1955 Radway Green ammo I picked up last month and the cartridge lengths run from 3.025 up to 3.068 so that was no help at all. - Bill

I've NEVER had this problem, but also never shortened the cartridges up that much. It could well be a case of them moving lengthwise in the magazine box.

Progress report.
I lengthened 5 cartridges to 3.075 inches and this seems to be preventing the rim lock problem although I did have to give the magazine spring a bit of a stretch to lift cartridges up properly for bolt to pick up, mainly only the 2nd round though.
A great result but strange how it was ok last time I used it with the shorter cartridges I normally use in my SHTLE Enfield. Now I know I guess.
I haven't long had the P14 and it was in very poor condition when I got it ie so dirty it wouldn't feed at all.
It is going for a birthday at a military gunsmiths which will hopefully bring it up to much better standard. My biggest problem is finding a set of wood as it has been hacked up by someone who thought they know better. At least they left the barrel alone.

Thanks for your help everyone and I will let you know how I get on with rebuild.
Cheers Mike

Mike,

I've dragged a couple fo No 1 Mk III*s out of the safe after oooh.. aaahhh... eerm... 30 years?

The mag springs are about as good as half my undies elastics in summer. You've worked out the COL matter, thanks to some fine guidance above, but I do think you've supplied about 60-70% of the solution by dealing with the spring. A strong spring does wonders for rim over in the No 1s, as evidenced by experiment and changes. Found same with No 4 rifles. New spring, no rim lock.

Well done!

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Originally Posted by 22SqnRAE

Mike,

I've dragged a couple fo No 1 Mk III*s out of the safe after oooh.. aaahhh... eerm... 30 years?

The mag springs are about as good as half my undies elastics in summer. You've worked out the COL matter, thanks to some fine guidance above, but I do think you've supplied about 60-70% of the solution by dealing with the spring. A strong spring does wonders for rim over in the No 1s, as evidenced by experiment and changes. Found same with No 4 rifles. New spring, no rim lock.

Well done!

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Thanks for that. I have a mate bringing me another mag spring up to the range this weekend. That will hopefully make the Mad minute shoot a little less embarrassing. Just got to reconfigure a few box's of ammo now.
Cheers

Using a kinetic puller or a collet the latter is the way to go I had to do 120 rounds of 303 the other day man that collet puller is miles ahead of the kinetic the powder stays put wish I have brought one years ago.

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Originally Posted by CINDERS

Using a kinetic puller or a collet the latter is the way to go I had to do 120 rounds of 303 the other day man that collet puller is miles ahead of the kinetic the powder stays put wish I have brought one years ago.

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I only have a kinetic puller but not to many to do.
You are right though the collet puller is the bee's knees. Another miss take and I will need to get one.

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Originally Posted by CINDERS

collet puller is miles ahead of the kinetic

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I have one of each and extra collets for the kinetic. Sometimes you need both...

An update on rim locking issues.
I have fired 50 rounds of the longer loads and the rifle has fed/fired and extracted beautifully even in rapid fire events. Will leave well alone and thanks for the help everyone.
Cheers Mike

Excellent, glad we could help.