Hawkins Hunter Mag feeding issue???

[CANESFAN]

Having feeding issues with Hunter magazine running 7-08. 308 feeds fine from this mag but the 7-08 is a no go. The first round feeds but all the others are taking a sharp nose dive into the front of the mag. Contacted Hawkins and sent mags back for evaluation to have them say that they are within spec and found no issues but also told me they did not have 7-08 to test with. FWIW, AICS mags feed flawlessly. What you guys think? https://share.icloud.com/photos/06dRwPA89VX4gD8toIsfxWiSg


https://share.icloud.com/photos/07e0yabCERN4tPWHEe1VW6rwQ

 

[Darryle]

Are the lips leaving gouges in your brass? Did you just install the bottom metal and find the issue or have you tried shimming the bottom metal down to see if it helps?

I went from Hawkins to Snowy Mountain Rifles M5 bottom metal and magazines, doubt I will ever use another Hawkins Hunter kit.

 

[drwood96]

What is the CAL of the 308 vs 7-08? From the little I can see in the video, it appears the tips of the 7-08 are getting trapped by the feed ramp. I bet the act of chambering the first round is dragging the second round forward, causing it to be trapped.

 

[CANESFAN]

Are the lips leaving gouges in your brass? Did you just install the bottom metal and find the issue or have you tried shimming the bottom metal down to see if it helps?

I went from Hawkins to Snowy Mountain Rifles M5 bottom metal and magazines, doubt I will ever use another Hawkins Hunter kit.

This was after initial install. And yes, they are dragging pretty hard scarring the brass. I have not tried shimming. I was going to try and install the bottom metal on the barreled action with the pillars that came with it as suggested by Hawkins but I am at work for the next two weeks and will not be able to do this until I get home. I have tried adjusting the spring tension. My smith David @Deep South Tactical worked with it for a while and he believes it is a Mag issue but Hawkins said no issue found.

 

[Darryle]

That brass looks terrible, gouged from the magazine lips, also appears that one of the lips is damaged?

I polished mine with some scotchbrite made for dishes, helped cut down on the gouges.

Possible that there is too much tension on the case, have you tried it with just 2rds in the magazine?

Dimensionally, the 7-08 and 308 from the base to shoulder is the same, did you send just the magazine back or magazine and bottom metal?

 

[CANESFAN]

What is the CAL of the 308 vs 7-08? From the little I can see in the video, it appears the tips of the 7-08 are getting trapped by the feed ramp. I bet the act of chambering the first round is dragging the second round forward, causing it to be trapped.

The 308 my smith tried was factory and the 7-08 was .020 off mag length. This is the Standard “extended” magazine BTW. The tip is not catching under the feed ramp. Smith also relieved material from the ramp when he barreled the action as I specified that I was running this mag. They are nosing down in the mag, not catching under feed ramp. Does this every time chamber the first round, the next one nose dives in the box!!

 

[CANESFAN]

That brass looks terrible, gouged from the magazine lips, also appears that one of the lips is damaged?

I polished mine with some scotchbrite made for dishes, helped cut down on the gouges.

Possible that there is too much tension on the case, have you tried it with just 2rds in the magazine?

Dimensionally, the 7-08 and 308 from the base to shoulder is the same, did you send just the magazine back or magazine and bottom metal?

Just mag was sent. And it does it with any capacity in the mag.

 

[CANESFAN]

AICS mags work flawlessly. Prob going to shit can this whole Hunter setup and go with DBM. Wanted a more flush mag because this is the wife’s hunting build.

 

[BigPrince]

I had a LA hunter mag with 300wm that every round after the first was nose diving. The front of the follower was not pushing up strong enough. Took the mag apart and had to stretch the shit out of the spring but they work great now. They also worked if I turned the spring around but Hawkins said that might have been too much.

 

[CANESFAN]

I did stretch the hell out of that spring. Didn’t make any difference to the front end of the round but def got tighter on the rear. I thought about turning the spring around but decided that for this money I’d let Hawkins see what they thought. After they returned both my mags and said there was no issue I was like “F-it”, I’m done. I may just stick that shit in the safe and use for my next STD build or sell/trade it off. The wife loves the idea of a flush mag for hunting so I tried to make it work.

 

[Genin]

That’s unfortunate. Mine do not have that issue, but the feed lips were very sharp on my mag and needed to be polished up to avoid scratching up my brass and rough feeding. Since I did that, it’s been smooth and great. Definitely some quality control issues going on at Hawkins.

 

[CANESFAN]

Indeed it’s unfortunate. The fit and finish other than the feed lips are pretty nice. And as I stated, it feeds those factory 308 loads nice. Something about those 7-08 it just doesn’t like. Puzzling!!

 

[HawkinsPrecision]

Indeed it’s unfortunate. The fit and finish other than the feed lips are pretty nice. And as I stated, it feeds those factory 308 loads nice. Something about those 7-08 it just doesn’t like. Puzzling!!

This is Nick, I know you've been working with Tyler on this.

Really the best thing to do is to mount the magazine up in the pillars and see how it's feeding. There's a lot of things that could be at play and that's the only way we can tell if your pillar heights match up and there's nothing binding up the system. Please do that when you can.

When we looked them over they were completely in spec for spring tension, feed lip geometry and follower specs. How it's feeding in your rifle we don't have control over and access to with just the magazines. We can only measure to the spec.

Feel free to send me more information. We certainly want the rifle feeding. Do you have a standard length (non-extended) magazine? From those angles I can't tell if you have the cases sticking from the width, or if you have a feedlip/action issue. Though sounds like you don't think so.

As for brass scratching. Steel, billet aluminum, etc. are all harder than brass. Personally I've had many a magazine from many a manufacturer scratch brass. Generally once the magazine's feed lips are broken in there's not an issue. It creates no functional determent to shooting and generally after a tumble it's polished away. You can polish feed lips or simply shoot.

At the end of the day, we want this rocking for you. I can say 4 of us looked over these magazines, measured them, the whole 9. We don't just send stuff back to someone without a very thorough inspection process. We are here to help.

 

[CANESFAN]

Nick,
I really appreciate you getting back with me on this. My intentions are to mount up the barreled action with pillars, as discussed with Tyler, when I get home from work next week and I will report back. These are the STD extended mags. It doesn’t matter if it is in the rifle or if I “feed” the rounds out of the magazine by hand as seen in the videos I sent. All rounds after the first one “nose dive” in the mag. Leading me to believe it is not the rifle in this case. I mentioned to Tyler that the 308 factory loads that me and my smith tried all fed fine. No nose diving.

On another note, it is a rarity that Reps from companies turn to forums and address issues. That says a lot about the Hawkins brand. I have several M5 DBM from you guys and have never had issues. This is why I turned here for possible solutions after there were no flaws found at your shop. Thanks again for helping me out with this and I will be in touch next week.

 

[HawkinsPrecision]

Nick,
I really appreciate you getting back with me on this. My intentions are to mount up the barreled action with pillars, as discussed with Tyler, when I get home from work next week and I will report back. These are the STD extended mags. It doesn’t matter if it is in the rifle or if I “feed” the rounds out of the magazine by hand as seen in the videos I sent. All rounds after the first one “nose dive” in the mag. Leading me to believe it is not the rifle in this case. I mentioned to Tyler that the 308 factory loads that me and my smith tried all fed fine. No nose diving.

On another note, it is a rarity that Reps from companies turn to forums and address issues. That says a lot about the Hawkins brand. I have several M5 DBM from you guys and have never had issues. This is why I turned here for possible solutions after there were no flaws found at your shop. Thanks again for helping me out with this and I will be in touch next week.

No worries. We got it covered. I have some of my own mags here I can send you to try too that I know rock smooth as butter. Shoot me an email at [email protected] once you're able to get home and we'll sort it out for you. Thanks