Mauser feed issue

[ham385]

Hey all,

I just bought a CAI FN 98k mauser from Dunhams. <EDIT> I didn't mention, this is barreled for 7.62. I'm not sure of the history for this rifle yet, but I assume it was owned by Israel at some point. Whether it was rebarreled or made that way, I'm not sure. </EDIT> It shoots and groups good, but doesn't feed so well. I have no experience with these, and don't know anyone who does or any gunsmiths who work on them.

The case head doesn't slide up onto bolt face correctly. When the round pops out of the magazine, it doesn't seat on the bolt face, rather rides the bolt until the front of the round starts to enter the chamber and torques the rear of the round up, finally seating the round on the bolt face. This really does not make me comfortable because
1) the torque can deform the cases
2) the torque could cause bullet runout
3) it requires a lot of forward force and speed on the bolt
4) it's not reliable, I still had issues chambering dummy rounds where they popped in front of the extractor. #3 above could break the extractor when this happens

I disassembled the bolt to clean every bit of cosmoline out of it, and tried to dry fit a fired case. It seems to take a lot of pressure to slide the case head up onto the bolt face. Just to clarify, I am NOT trying to use it as a push feed, rather sliding the case head along the front of the bolt face and behind the extractor claw. The extractor itself seems to be the problem, but because I am unfamiliar with the mausers, I'm not sure if this is a normal operation.

I'll attempt to explain in more detail. When the case is about 1/3 of the way into position, the rim contacts the bottom of the extractor (not the claw itself, that fits nicely in to the grove behind the case head) to push it the rest of the way requires what seems to me to be a lot of force, requiring the extractor to spring outwards slightly and allowing clearance for the full diameter of the case head. Is this normal?

Also, another point of interest was during the bolt re-assembly. When sliding the extractor back onto the dovetail, the front portion of the extractor (near the claw) needed to be pried back to clear the bolt face and slide fully into position. Is this normal?

Alternatively, if this is a normal operation, then the magazine spring may be worn out, but seemed to provide sufficient pressure (in my limited experience)

I don't want to throw money away on replacement parts, so I'm hoping someone here can help out and point me in the right direction.

I've thought about trying to straighten the extractor, but I don't want to break it. I'm looking at buying a new one anyway but don't want to if this one is not the problem.

Thanks,

[SteveWag]

This is a common problem with rechambered Mausers. The receiver feed ramps need reworked. Find a competent Mauser smith!! This involves removing metal from the feed lips.
Steve

[ham385]

Steve, thanks for your input.

What you suggested makes me wonder if we're talking about the same thing because I didn't expect the feed ramp to come in at all here. You could be completely correct in your diagnosis, I just want to make sure I explained the problem correctly. Just to clarify, as I said before, I am totally new to this, but I just want to make sure we're talking about the same thing.

All of this is based on an assumption I have which may be wrong due to my ignorance with mausers. Here is my assumption - I think the case head should be seating on the bolt face from the magazine spring putting upward pressure on the round once it clears the magazine lip.

This is not happening. Rather the round rides low on the bolt as it travels up the feed ramp. To put it in other words, the hole where the firing pin comes out is not centered on the primer, rather on the edge of the rim because the round has not been pushed up high enough.

As the front of the round moves into the chamber, it (the round) is trying to come in line with the bore. If I apply sufficient force, the round finds it's way into the chamber, and the rear of the case pops the rest of the way onto the bolt face.

It's hard describing an issue like this without pictures. I'll try to post some tomorrow. I have made a horrible drawing meant to represent the barrel, chamber, magazine, feed lip, bolt, and round. It's hard to see, in the thumbnail, but if you open it up, you should be able to see some of the details. The upper picture is what I believe should be happening, the bottom is what is happening. Note the position and angle of the round.