malfunctioned to dead last in a carbine match

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I went to my first carbine match last night. I took my IJ mutt along for the ride. Some of you may remember my little adventure building this thing. After the build was done I had a good running plinker that was ready to go.

It's been to the range a few times and usually performed well. The failures to feed and failures to eject are history.

Last night, I decided to take it out to play with the others. There were twenty ARs, one AK, and my friend brought his Mini 14. Disturbingly enough, the guy with the AK asked what caliber I was shooting because it made big holes in the target.

The first stage was set up to use 26 rounds. I ran my original IJ mag and one of the Korean mags. After round #6, I had a double feed. Clearing the jam meant pulling the mag and cycling the bolt. Two rounds were dropped in clearing the gun. Two shots later it was instant replay. Thinking it was the mag, I dropped it and inserted the Korean mag.
Four rounds later, I got another double feed. Two more rounds were dropped clearing the jam. That resulted in not only me being short of ammo to finish the stage but also the slowest time of ANY competitor in ANY of the four stages.

The RO running beside me stated it was a mag problem. I tend to agree.

For the second stage I took the three Korean mags. It was a 32 round stage and I carried 45 to be sure I'd complete it. This time I had two double feeds with two magazines. Again, it was the slowest time for the stage.

The third and fourth stages both had one double feed. I carried all four mags but only used two per stage.

I only have the one IJ mag and three Korean mags. All of them are 15 rounders. Until last night I had not experienced any mag related failures. The only thing I did differently was load the mags the night before
to minimize the amount of gear I had to carry.

Am I right to blame the mags? Things got better through the event but I've never had this problem before.

I understand that there are some really bad mags out there but the Korean pieces have a fairly nice reputation.

If it's something like the mag lips being spread or a related issue, are there measurements I can use to verify the dimensions?


The rifle is my Iver Johnson with a new Criterion barrel (properly head spaced) in a pot belly stock. The recoil spring, guide rod, extractor spring, gas piston, and gas nut are all new.
The range officers did comment about my shot placement. I only missed with two shots fired. Considering it was my first action match and the failures I had that is a bit of a consolation.
Next time I'll be sure to carry at least 4 mags on each stage so I can just drop 'em and go if there's a failure.

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