Can a crummy magazine lead to light primer strikes in a 10/22?

[musicman]

Yea... this makes no sense to me yet, so here I am. This is just my third time out with this 10/22, and it runs pretty well so far, except with one of my three high capacity magazines. The Ruger BX-25, and Butler Creek Steel Lips magazines work fine, while I am having problems with my Ram-Line plastic lipped mag.

Here's what's weird though... the gun is cycling flawlessy and feeding fine! I am just going through one box of 325 Federal Auto Match 40gr LRN. Every few rounds though, I pull the trigger and get a "click" but nothing happens. Flip the gun, everything looks right: bolt all the way forward. I pull the bolt back slowly to reveal a fresh, live round in the chamber. I continue to eject the live round and inspect it... a very light primer strike is all I see. Chamber a fresh round and all is well for 3-5 shots and it happens again. I also can reload these cartidges and they will work fine. Again, this only happens with the Ram-Line.

I know that I have isolated the problem to this magazine, but what a weird issue to be isolated to the magazine! Has anyone else experienced this?








I tried to index all the light primer hits at 12 o'clock for these pics. This is from one magazine's worth of shooting.

Any ideas?

[Dolomite_supafly]

The magazine is likely dragging very slightly on the bottom of the bolt. Take a sharpie and mark the top of the magazine and shoot it. If any part of the sharpie is rubbed off then take some sandpaper or a file and remove a little where it is rubbing.

And when it rubs it slows the bolt down enough to keep thd bolt from closing all the way with that ammo. The ammo is slowing it down a little too with the lead bullet.

And after the magazine mod I would also polish the chamber. Remove the barrel. Then take a cloth bore mop for a .25-.27 caliber and chuck it in a drill. Put some metal polish, like Flitz, on the mop. Insert it into the chamber and spin it up. Go in and out, while spinning, for about 30 seconds to a minute.

[musicman]

Thanks for those tips, DS! Sounds exactly like what's going on. I'll do those little tricks when I get back home. :-)

[timthetoolman]

Yes except in my case bx25 mags are the culprit. I use tactical innovations adjustable mags now. BC metal lips mags seem to work well but the plastic lip mags seem to change the feed angle and slow the bolt down. The feed angle on the bx25 were always a bit off in my far from stock 10/22s