Gunsmithing Rem 700 SA: BDL Won’t Feed in a McMillan A1/3 with Badger Bottom Metal

[jab00]

I need some help trying to diagnose a feeding issue with my Rem 700 (.308) that’s sitting in a McMillan A1/3 with a Badger Ordnance BDL bottom metal and Rem factory spring, follower and box.

The Problem

When running the bolt, it starts to push the top round forward but it (the round) quickly nosedives and the bolt skips over the top and the round does not chamber. It does this when the magazine is full or partially full as well as when the bolt is run slowly or at “normal” speed. I paid particular attention to make sure that the rounds were fully seated to the rear of the box and that I’m not short-stroking the bolt

Attempted Remedies:

Here’s what I’ve tried so far after reading through previous threads on this topic but were ultimately unsuccessful:

• Removing all of the BDL components to make sure that the box is correctly seated and that the spring and follower are oriented correctly
• Tried a couple different spring and follower combinations. The followers are all milled instead of stamped (not sure if that could be causing a problem)
• Verified that the top of the mag box is sitting properly in relation to the bottom of the receiver (no gaps)
• Tried bending the spring to add more tension towards the front of the round to prevent it from diving
• Verified that there are no obvious burrs on the followers, springs, and box that may be causing any binding that would prevent the rounds from rising completely

Is there anything else that I can try to fix this super frustrating problem?

 

[diverdon]

How many mags have you tried?

 

[jab00]

How many mags have you tried?

I tried two different ones, making sure that they weren’t bent out of shape and that there weren’t any obvious burrs or dings that would affect the geometry of the assembly or hinder the feeding process

 

[Jscb1b]

Is the bullet tip getting caught under the feed ramp? I've had to notch the feed ramp on two R700s that would not feed.

 

[FCS]

BDL mag box doesn’t allow for an OAL long enough to get caught under feed ramp.

Badger M4 bottom metal (BDL, fixed 5 rd, hinged floor plate) not Badger M5 DBM BM unless I missed something in title / original post.

 

[jab00]

Is the bullet tip getting caught under the feed ramp? I've had to notch the feed ramp on two R700s that would not feed.

No - it’s not getting hung up there for sure. When the bolt overrides the cartridge base, it nosedives the rounds and it (the bolt) just skips down the length of the case

 

[jab00]

BDL mag box doesn’t allow for an OAL long enough to get caught under feed ramp.

Badger M4 bottom metal (BDL, fixed 5 rd, hinged floor plate) not Badger M5 DBM BM unless I missed something in title / original post.

that’s correct. It’s a Badger BDL bottom metal with the fixed 4 round box

 

[FCS]

Spring tab is fully pushed forward in floor plate? IIRC, the Badger version had a bit more resistance to getting the spring fully seated.

Pictures would help a fair bit; working from memory and blind as to current position of spring / follower / mag box / floor plate / etc.

 

[jab00]

Spring tab is fully pushed forward in floor plate? IIRC, the Badger version had a bit more resistance to getting the spring fully seated.

Pictures would help a fair bit; working from memory and blind as to current position of spring / follower / mag box / floor plate / etc.

yep - I double checked that the spring was pushed all the way forward in the follower plate and in the proper position in the base plate. I just dropped off the gun off with the builder to see if he can figure out what’s going since I tried everything that I can think of.

He disassembled the magazine and put it back together and it didn’t feed for him either, so he’s going to see if he can figure it out

I’ll see if I can post a short video here that I sent to him to show what’s going on

 

[jab00]

Here’s a link to the video that gives an idea as to what’s going on. The round starts off all the way to the rear of the box and moves just slightly before the bolt skips over

 

[Edds]

Do you have a picture of the other side of that receiver?

 

[Jscb1b]

No - it’s not getting hung up there for sure. When the bolt overrides the cartridge base, it nosedives the rounds and it (the bolt) just skips down the length of the case

Sorry, I was thinking detachable magazine.

 

[FCS]

Do you have a picture of the other side of that receiver?

Other side as in bullet tip / feed ramp?

 

[jab00]

Do you have a picture of the other side of that receiver?

I’m not sure that I’m following as to how the other side of the actual receiver is relevant to the issue?

 

[FCS]

I’m not sure that I’m following as to how the other side of the actual receiver is relevant to the issue?

Relevant to see bullet tip / feed ramp relationship.

 

[jab00]

Relevant to see bullet tip / feed ramp relationship.

okay, not the actual other side of the receiver but inside the receiver towards the feed ramp, that makes more sense. This is the only picture that I have showing that angle

 

[FCS]

okay, not the actual other side of the receiver but inside the receiver towards the feed ramp, that makes more sense

Semantics / nomenclature .
Text is not nearly as easy as the point and talk, real time version of troubleshooting.

 

[jab00]

Semantics / nomenclature .
Text is not nearly as easy as the point and talk, real time version of troubleshooting.

Gotcha. Hopefully that picture that I posted helps

 

[chevy_man]

Looks like the bolt is just riding over because the cartridge base isn't sitting high enough. Open the feed lips slightly.

 

[jab00]

Looks like the bolt is just riding over because the cartridge base isn't sitting high enough. Open the feed lips slightly.

That’s what I had thought originally as well and opened them slightly but it didn’t change anything as I had hoped it would. It’s probably not the case, but, since all the “usual” fixes aren’t working, I’m starting to wonder now if maybe the inlet for the bottom metal might be slightly out of spec. I’m not sure how I’d be able to tell that though

 

[chevy_man]

That’s what I had thought originally as well and opened them slightly but it didn’t change anything as I had hoped it would. It’s probably not the case, but, since all the “usual” fixes aren’t working, I’m starting to wonder now if maybe the inlet for the bottom metal might be slightly out of spec. I’m not sure how I’d be able to tell that though

Open them farther. Tweaking magazines is a case of just a little bit until it works and leave it alone.

What may be the case is the reciever is undersized pinching the magazine together tight enough that it's not letting cartridges up far enough. Could also be the distance between the magazine well and the bolt is too far to feed.

The fix to either one is presenting the cartridge high enough for the bolt to catch the rim.

 

[jab00]

Open them farther. Tweaking magazines is a case of just a little bit until it works and leave it alone.

What may be the case is the reciever is undersized pinching the magazine together tight enough that it's not letting cartridges up far enough. Could also be the distance between the magazine well and the bolt is too far to feed.
The fix to either one is presenting the cartridge high enough for the bolt to catch the rim.

Good points - the gun is back with the builder to be looked at (and hopefully fixed) in a couple of days. If not, I’ll grab it back and work on the feed lips myself. If that doesn’t work, I’m thinking that I may ditch the Remington factory magazine parts and try a Wyatt’s BDL assembly and see if that gets the gun up and running

 

[jab00]

I’m still waiting on an update from the builder to see if he’s made any progress diagnosing/fixing my feeding issue. I found this picture of the underside of the receiver rails in case that gives anyone any new ideas as to what may be the root cause of the issue.

 

[Terry Cross]

Looks like the bolt is just riding over because the cartridge base isn't sitting high enough. Open the feed lips slightly.

How can he open up the feed lips?

The feed lips are integrally machined into the receiver and unlike DBM systems that control the cartridge with the mag box, a BDL feed systems rely on these machined tabs to help control the cartridge path.

The issue is with the follower and spring not pushing the cartridge stack firmly into the integral feed lips of the receiver.

This will be corrected without touching those feed lips or modifying the floating mag box as long as it is the correct mag box for the cartridge. (BDL feed systems for 223 and WSM/SAUM use a different box than .308 class cartridges.


./

 

[fdkay]

I had a feeding issue with a bdl.
I upgraded to DBM and the problem went away.