[Bart B.]

Dan says take a pre-64 Model 70 Winchester... 100 percent feed reliable. The solution to all those folks using Rem 700 short actions in .308 Win. had feed problems in rapid fire matches trying to shoot 10 shots in 60 seconds without a round jamming in them. I've seen dozens of Rem 700 magazine jams with the .308; only 3 or 4 with the Win 70's over the years. And there were 5 times as many Winnies on the line than Remmies. One of the Winnie with a feed issue was my own rifle. So the Winnies are realistically 99.9 percent feed reliable. But that's a lot better than the lower feed reliability numbers for the Remmies.

But one thing about those pre-'64 controlled round feed actions but rarely happened. The follower for the .308's and .243's need a wider angled flat filed on their top rib and/or the magazine spread to a full fit at its top to the receiver rails. Sometimes they would stack the first two rounds together on the same side and not allow a clip of 5 rounds put in the receiver bridge clip guide then charged into the box magazine would only get 4 rounds in the magazine; the fifth top one would not go in. This was the issue with my Winnie.

Regarding external box magazines, those made for and used in M14NM's were the best mass produced military ones ever but they still had to be tested and only the good ones used. The current custom David Tubb 2000 and Gary Eliseo tube gun's external magazines are the cream of the current commercial crop.