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SwampYankee · December 30, 2009, 04:23 PM

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?

December 30, 2009, 04:23 PM	#1
SwampYankee Registration in progress Join Date: November 1, 2008 Location: I can be found on a number of other forums. Posts: 1,333	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?