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Old December 30, 2009, 04:23 PM   #1
SwampYankee
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MAS 49/56 in .308

I managed to pick one of these up at a reasonable price with very nice looking wood ($380). I've read all about the problems with them and figured if I was reloading and changed the recoil spring, it should be pretty reliable.

I took it out today and got some nice 2" groups at 50 yards. Was really just checking for functionality so I think it can probably do better. The only problem I had was that it absolutely refused to fully feed from the magazine. It would feed but the bolt would stay 1/2" to 1" open. Sometimes I could get it to feed if I took out the magazine, placed the round in the chamber and really slammed it home. Every shot did fire once chambered and every case extracted fine.

I brought it home, made up some dummy rounds and it functioned flawlessly from the magazine, chambering every time. The only difference between the range and home was 1. a 40 degree F temperature difference (it was COLD at the range), and I made sure that I double-sized the cases for the dummy rounds.

It seems to me as though the chamber might be tight. Slightly large cases and cold weather (shrinking the chamber even slightly) probably caused the problem? Anyone else ever experience this problem with these weapons? My next step is probably going to be to polish the chamber. Any thoughts?
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Old December 30, 2009, 04:40 PM   #2
kwells6
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as with all semi auto rifles, I always FL size. when i size it, i'll run it through a few times to make certain
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Old December 30, 2009, 05:33 PM   #3
Webleymkv
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Rough chambers is a problem on many of the .308 conversions. Apparently, Century was using chamber reamers longer than they should have been resulting in some rifles that work flawlessly and others that are jam-o-matics. My dad's 49/56 .308 conversion would jam intermittently when he first got it. Replacing the recoil spring with an original one helped (Century clipped some coils from the recoil springs on the conversions), and also one of the magazines turned out to be problematic (ironically it was marked .308, regular 7.5 mags work fine). These things helped, but the rifle would still jam occasionally until he got a .308 chamber brush ($1.49 at a gunshow) and cleaned the chamber, the gun has been flawless ever since (even with steel-cased Wolf). I'd thoroughly clean the chamber first, check for a bad magazine second, replace the recoil spring third, and send it to the 'smith to have the chamber polished as a last resort.
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Old December 30, 2009, 06:19 PM   #4
SwampYankee
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Webley,

Great advice! I changed the recoil spring with a Browning A-5 but that didn't really help. I just cleaned the heck out of the chamber and and will order myself a brush, I am hoping that solves the problem. Is your dad using NATO .308s or handloads?

Thanks!
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Old December 30, 2009, 07:36 PM   #5
m.p.driver
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Bought one when they hit the market for $249,and as stated before they are a hit or miss.Mine functions 100% with what ever i feed it.And as hard as it is for me to say so(Hating all that is french,nasty attitudes,body odor,and hairy arm pitted women)I could pick it as a bug out rifle.Groups great,recoils mild,and as ugly as it is ,shoulders like it was fitted to me.Oh well C'est la vie.
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Old December 31, 2009, 11:37 AM   #6
ksstargazer
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The one I had worked well for about 4-5 rounds then would jam on every round. Really liked the rifle's simple design but it was frustrating to shoot.
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Old December 31, 2009, 12:01 PM   #7
SwampYankee
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I cleaned the chamber very thoroughly and took some 1500 grit sandpaper and wrapped it around a dowel. By hand, I turned the dowel about 20 times and recleaned the chamber. In addition, I made sure that every case was "double-sized". Took it out this morning and it went right through 20 rounds, roughly split between 40, 42 and 45 grains of H4895 behind a 125g Sierra SP. It failed to feed only one case from the magazine but the other 19 worked flawlessly.

So I guess it's working now, I just need to develop an accuracy load. It seems that 45g of H4895 gave the best groups (about 2" at 50 yards) using WLRM primers. The 40g rounds produced a 5" group.

Thanks for the tips, this really is a fun rifle to shoot. My only complaint is that is seems hard on the cases (lots of dents) and it spits the brass 30 feet directly in front of you.
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Old December 31, 2009, 12:15 PM   #8
Webleymkv
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Quote:
Great advice! I changed the recoil spring with a Browning A-5 but that didn't really help. I just cleaned the heck out of the chamber and and will order myself a brush, I am hoping that solves the problem. Is your dad using NATO .308s or handloads?
My dad replaced the spring with an original MAS 49/56 spring from Numrich's

http://www.e-gunparts.com

My dad has shot Australian Surplus, Winchester Commercial, FNM, and Wolf. Also, if you don't have a chamber brush, a .410 bore brush wrapped in a patch with just a bit of rubbing compound works well.
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