Failure to feed in my Husqvarna M38

[watermoccasin]

I don't think this guy was quite that dumb, but maybe... in any case, I get the same issue now as in these photos of his, and I'm definitely loading 6.5x55 Swedish, according to ammo box and headstamp.

So at this point, what would you guys recommend I do? Start by buying a replacement mag spring, and then start looking to do some light sanding if that doesn't fix the issue? I think I might be able to source a mag spring or two from a friend who works at a gun shop over on the west coast.

Does anyone else think the cartridges in the pictures look to be something other that 6.5x55? The pics are'nt the best quality but the cartridges look an awful lot like 6.5 Remington Magnum to me. Maybe the wrong cartridges were loaded in the magazine and some damage occured when the previous owner attempted to force the bolt closed? Maybe just my eyes and bad pics playing tricks..

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[Patrick Chadwick]

So at this point, what would you guys recommend I do?

Read my last two posts. Follow my photo sequence, and see where your rifle deviates from those pictures! Check that there is a bit of play between the extractor and the case rim.

Patrick

[watermoccasin]

Whoops! I posted without seeing that a second page had already started. Okay, thanks a ton for the photo sequence! Later tonight, I will go through this with my rifle, and let you guys know. I'm already quite certain that my extractor isn't grabbing the rim until the bolt is much further ahead than in your photos, but I will double check.

Read my last two posts. Follow my photo sequence, and see where your rifle deviates from those pictures! Check that there is a bit of play between the extractor and the case rim.

Patrick

[vintage hunter]

Watermoccasin, you said in post #6 that you were'nt told of the proble until AFTER you had bought the rifle so what you should do,IMHO, first is take it back where you got it, get a refund, then go find one that functions properly because the guy you bought it from is dishonest crook for not telling you it had problems from the git-go. Just my 2 cents worth.

[watermoccasin]

Patrick, thanks a lot for your photos. I just ran through them in sequence with the rifle in my hands, first with one round loaded, and then with three. I can see where there may be more than one issue, actually.

Firstly, on the inside wall of the rim on the action body, there is a small burr/scrape in the metal at the point where the rim widens on the right side, towards the front of the receiver.

Secondly, while by no means smooth, with only one or two rounds loaded in the magazine, the extractor will grip both at some point, and the gun will feed (albeit roughly) these rounds into the chamber. However, with three rounds in place, the round on top seems to bind on the underside of the action body rim a bit, and the bolt only succeeds in pushing the round forward – at no point will the rim on this cartridge slide up behind the extractor. When it gets to the point where the action body rim widens (just around the burr/scrape), the round binds against the outside of the chamber, and the side of the action body rim. At some point, it will pick up a pretty nasty gouge or scratch on the brass, probably from the burr on the inside rim of the action body.

There's a lot more slop in the magazine and follower of this rifle than I am used to. It has a lot of forward-and-backward play, and enough lateral play that, if I push the follower down with my thumb on an empty mag, I can make it bind within the magazine as well. I don't know if this is normal to the M38 or not.

There looks to be some roughness to the metal at the bottom corner of the extractor, but not necessarily a burr, per se. I removed the bolt and stuck a cartridge or two in there, and was able to get the up/down play you mentioned, so I don't think it's that the extractor is too tight. I'm thinking also that the roughness I am seeing on the extractor was likely caused by the previous owner and his brother hulking out on the bolt in order to chamber the rounds.

PS I know you guys have already done a lot to help me, but I was wondering if you could take a photo of the inside of the action body rim, as well as a detail shot of the front of your extractor claw, so that I can make a comparison there. I'd be hugely grateful (not that I'm not already)!

vintage hunter: The first thing I thought when I found out about this was to have the guy charged with fraud. I might as well tell the story of how I found out that this was a known issue before the rifle was sold to me...

I bought this rifle back in October, in a private sale through an online forum. The seller mailed the firearm to me, as he lives a few thousand kilometres from where I am. He's not a firearms dealer or anything of that kind – just a private citizen. So, I wasn't shooting the gun, really. I then hit upon this problem, and started Googling. It turns out that this issue is really unique – I couldn't find anyone with the same problem, no matter what combination of terms I used. A few days ago, I must have typed something different, because I hit upon this forum post from almost two years ago:

Failure to feed on my new Swede!!

"Great," I thought to myself, "I've finally found someone with my exact issue! Now I can see what this guy did to fix the rifle."

So I click on the photos. They look... oddly familiar, and so I open the email the seller sent me in October, with the photos he sent of the rifle. Yep: they're the same photos, from the same album. He simply left out any photos that depicted the feed issue, and used the other photos as part of his photo exhibit in the email to me. That's my rifle being discussed in that Gunboards post.

The problem with charging him with fraud, though, is the bit at the bottom: see how he said he was going to the gunsmith? He never made that trip. Why? Well, I found the answer to that in another post by the same guy on yet another forum. He was about to take it to the gunsmith, but he figured he'd talk to his brother first, because his brother, who "knows a lot about guns," convinced this guy that old military bolt actions just need to be cycled super-hard. He greased the feed ramp, rammed the bolt home with great force each time he cycled the action, and found that this worked for him – essentially turning this into a push-feed rifle on rounds 1 and 3, I guess. He told me the same when I contacted him by email, advising me to cycle the action harder. I can't really have him charged for fraud, because he seems to have honestly believed that the rifle didn't need fixing, and that this was just user error on his part causing the issue. Between the email he sent me the other day, and the other forum post from October of 2009, his story checks out. Therefore, he didn't knowingly mislead me in selling the weapon as-is. I doubt I could get him to take a refund on the weapon, either, and it's not likely that he has the money lying around anyway. I got it for a good price, too, so hopefully with repairs I will still be into it for less than some people pay for these rifles.