McMillan Bolt Gun Magazine Issues

[AlwaysTheFNG]

Hello everyone,

I've got a McMillan .308 that's 20+ years old that I'm having an issue with. It uses M14 style detachable magazines. The recoil of the rifle often releases the magazine out of the catch (more frequent when the magazine is more full and has more weight to it). I suspect it's just a weak spring in the catch so I contacted McMillan to see if they could help me identify the correct spring type to install. When I sent the pictures, they said that they've never used a magazine release like that and it had to have been a custom modification after the rifle left the factory (I'm not the original owner, but have had it for 20 years or so). I know it's unlikely, but does anybody recognize this work or know of a rifle that uses a similar setup?

Had this issue for probably 10 years or so, but didn't bother to fix it as I wasn't shooting the rifle much...now it's getting more use so I'd like to fix it.

Appreciate any insight you can provide. Thanks!

 

[dirthead1]

You can probably remove the spring and take it to a hardware store and find a replacement with a little more strength. I had to do something similar with a BDL floor plate that released during firing. If you don't have a hardware store nearby, you could take measurements of the spring with some calipers and order online from someplace like McMaster-Carr, etc.

 

[AlwaysTheFNG]

Thanks for the recommendation!

 

[spife7980]

You can probably remove the spring and take it to a hardware store and find a replacement with a little more strength. I had to do something similar with a BDL floor plate that released during firing. If you don't have a hardware store nearby, you could take measurements of the spring with some calipers and order online from someplace like McMaster-Carr, etc.

Thats what I would do. Looks like that little sil;ver cross pin should just drift right out and give you access to the spring behind the lever. Depending on what it looks like you may be able to just stretch the spring or add a spacer of some sort, no clue for sure though until the inside its exposed.

 

[AlwaysTheFNG]

Awesome. Thanks for the advice gents. Completely in line with what I was thinking, but I've been timid about attempting it for fear of jacking the whole thing up, as I'm not exactly "handy". I'll post once I attempt to fix with with a fixed or not. Thanks again.