feeding issues L1A1

[newcastle]

took my L1A1 out on sunday. had soem feedind and ejection issues.
Firstly I noted that I had grabbed a FAL magazine, and secondly this had a block in the bottom to restrict capacity to ten rounds, thus the spring under the follower was a higher pressure than would be normal.

The mag never seemed to be properly seated to me, this i put down to being a FAL mag and also the issue of teh bolt not holding open afte rthe last round (i had to manually push the hold back switch up). But every couple of rounds the empty wouldn't eject OR the new cartridge would be trapped by the bolt with a scratch on the case before it entered the chamber.

Pretty certain that this all comes from having the wrong mag and it sitting lower than normal, but is there anything I'm missing or should be aware of. Could the stronger spring be an issue?

On the plus side, once the SUIT was zeroed to on paper it looked plenty accurate at 100 yards. Will shoot for groups when i get the rigth mag back out there with it.

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[mrclark303]

Morning Newcastle,

I would hope that someone would reduce the strength of the magazine spring if they were limiting capacity, if not, then an over powerful spring will certainly give you the issues you are experiencing, combined with a wobbly Fal magazine, both issues will certainly conspire to prevent correct cycling of the rifle..

With regard to your automatic last round hold open, the L1A1 never had that function (only manual actuation), it was not incorporated into the British or Australian inch patterns as it would have rendered the sand cut mods pretty pointless!

This is assuming you are shooting a standard L1A1 of coarse and not a US spec build with a new receiver ??

Well done on finding a good SUIT/mount combo, hang onto it for dear life!

[Peter Laidler]

Er....... the spring wouldn't be under any greater pressure than if it was operating with a full 20 rounds. The difference is that your mag spring was already half compressed* (by the insert) and you were effectively loading rounds 11 to 20 into it.

Try L1A1 magazines next time. The little knib of the FN mags weren't as robust as the great big lump on the L1 mags

* technical bods don't come in here. I know spring loadings don't work on a linear scale but for our purposes here and all that stuff........

[mrclark303]

Morning Peter,

Ok, I see, but wouldn't the difference be the additional weight of the extra ten rounds acting against the spring tension, or would that not be enough to cause feed issues ?

[Peter Laidler]

Nope. Unless I am misreading what you're saying, the ABSENCE of the extra 10 rounds would be a bonus. Basically, unless there's something wot he ain't not told us, we/he can discount the mag insert thing.

Incidentally, Sterling encountered a similar problem when they shortened magazines. A 10 round magazine spring isn't 33% length of a standard 30 round spring. MUCH more to it than that of course as it's all........ anyways!

As a little aside...... I'm in teacher mode now......... Magazines and the loading strength of the spring is a VERY difficult thing to get right. The spring must remain compressed for long periods, lift or lower the weight of the contents and allow the stored energy of the weapon return spring to strip the top round off the top of the column while thge mag spring is at its most compressed. Not only that, on a machine gun such as the Bren, the first/top round is stripped off the column while the breech block is stationary, held on the sear just behind the top round without any inbuilt inertia to assist it. Of course, during auto fire, the BB starts its forward feed cycle from further rearwards with inertia plus the extra energy imparted to it by the buffer plate reasserting itself.

All complicated stuff you have to take in on the design courses

[Brian Dick]

What kind of ammo were you using and what is your gas setting?

[mrclark303]

It must be a nightmare getting the magazines to run reliably on a new firearm, not something I ever thought much about to be honest, seems like a job for bright people with thick glasses and lab coats gathered around black boards, to work out to me ... most definitely not me!

[browningautorifle]

took my L1A1 out on sunday. had soem feedind and ejection issues.

Like Peter says, try a correct mag, but what was your gas setting? If you have ejection issues then adjust gas. Were you using reloads? As Brian asks, what ammo? Was the rifle completely disassembled before shooting it? Was the gas cylinder out of it? There's much more to this, I carried them for 15 years and they just aren't problematic...

[Brian Dick]

If it's a Century Arms build with an Imbel receiver, it can be easily remedied I'd think. Some Imbel receivers were milled for the inch pattern magazine so definitely get some of those. I've seen Century builds on a variety of different upper receivers and quality control was all over the place. I've encountered problems usually from tired parts kits used for the builds like gas cylinders, springs, etc. Nothing to worry about. You just need to go through it and give it a little love.

[Peter Laidler]

Looks like I have been barking up the wrong tree.......... With a name like 'NEWCASTLE' I was thinking the bleedin' obvious that Newcastle was from the obvious Newcastle, up there in Geordieland, England! And therefore we're not allowed things like gas cylinders, pistons and gas plugs!!!!!!!! But the comments on mags and spring technology still hold good. We can still own magazines!