#4 Mark 1 Loading problem

[tower06]

Was out shooting my No. 4 today, and each time I was pushing the bolt forward, the bullet would not strip from the mag, and chamber. It would take some coaxing to get it to load, if I was doing slow controlled loading. If I I did it in a fast moting, it seemed to load it 90% of the time with no issue. I was only loading 5 rounds at a time to the magazine,so I am not sure if that had anything to do with it.

Anyone else have this problem? Is it the mag spring not having enough tension to push the rounds up?

Any help is appreciated.

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[Smead]

Was out shooting my No. 4 today, and each time I was pushing the bolt forward, the bullet would not strip from the mag, and chamber. It would take some coaxing to get it to load, if I was doing slow controlled loading. If I I did it in a fast moting, it seemed to load it 90% of the time with no issue. I was only loading 5 rounds at a time to the magazine,so I am not sure if that had anything to do with it.

Anyone else have this problem? Is it the mag spring not having enough tension to push the rounds up?

Any help is appreciated.

I've had the following problems:

Weak spring that would not load when 3 or less rounds were in the magazine.

Slightly squished magazine that would trap the follower.

Feed lips closed too much...cartridge low in magazine at the front leading to jams.

Feed lips opened up too much...rear of cartridge sitting too low for the bolt to strip the round.

Also have had situations where followers and springs would simply not work with one magazine, but would with another.

[crunch]

Remove the magazine and check the front feed lips.

They are thin and easily bent out of shape.

[tower06]

ANy pics of what properly bent feed lips look like to use as a point of reference?

[crunch]

I'm not able to take pictures right now.

I found a picture of the breech area of a No. 1 rifle. You can see one of the front magazine tabs sticking out in front of the hump on the magazine follower.

The other pic just shows a side view of a magazine.

Smead had a lot of good suggestions.

I would take a close look at the front tabs.
If one is higher than the other, I would try to gently bend it down so the tabs look the same on both sides.

[AndyGC123]

Hi,

I had the same problem, played around with the tabs front and rear on the mag for ages. Eventually gave up got a new mag and everything cam fine !

Try a different mag is my recommendation.

Andy

[tower06]

Hi,

I had the same problem, played around with the tabs front and rear on the mag for ages. Eventually gave up got a new mag and everything cam fine !

Try a different mag is my recommendation.

Andy

Any sources for original No4 mk1 mags?

[AndyGC123]

Collector's Source based in Canada

FirearmSales - Home based in Australia

Not sure in the US sorry.

Andy

[JimR]

I had the same problem with my No.4 at one time. The only problem was a tight magazine fit. A sharp rap on the bottom of the magazine fully seated it and ended the problem. I know this sounds simplistic, but give it a try before attempting any next steps, you never know, it might be as simepl as that.

[fergushig]

Mags are cheap and readilly available, so unless you are trying to keep the rifle as 'all original', then buy one and maybe use that as a template for bending the lips into place.