M03 magazine problem

[Jyrkka D]

Hello all.

I really like my Mauser but there is one problem. It sometimes happens that when I slowly push the bolt in, the back end of the cartridge jumps too high (on top of the bolt) and jams the gun. I have already loosened the springs of both magazines and it helped a bit but still it happens every now and then. Anyone facing the same problem? Solutions?

The calbers are 375HH and 300WM.

Thanks in advance.

[Rick - Mauser M03 Blog author]

Hi Jyrkka.

It's good to hear you're enjoying your M03. Great calibres you've got there.

I have seen some issues with slowly feeding rounds too, but not in the way you have described. While your rounds are jumping up too high when fed slowly, some of mine are not being pushed up by the cartridge underneath as they're about to leave the rails, though only when being fed very slowly. I've been able to figure out what's going wrong, but it's not going to help with your question. Quite simply, the solution for me is to feed the rounds quickly. :-) Also, I only ever have a problem with the third round in the magazine and as mentioned, only when feeding slowly.

Is your problem tending to happen with the same number round in the magazine, or more randomly?

I'm wondering if you could try the following when feeding slowly:

- you're not in a hurry, so you could anticipate that the round will pop-up, then pause with the bolt to let it settle, then complete the clambering. This could work, if the round lines up with the chamber opening. Pointing the barrel down could help the round slip into the chamber.

- or, as you're still not in a hurry when you're feeding slowly, feather the cartridge with your left thumb as you move the bolt forward. You might be able to smooth the feeding this way.

Of course, your preference will be to find a solution that allows you to chamber without needing to do anything special when going slow. I'll keep thinking about this.

Regards, Rick.

p.s. I'm keen to hear if anyone else is experiencing the slow feeding problem I mentioned, where the rear end of the third round slips below the bolt face, due to a lack of upwards pressure from the round below, when its nose gets caught on the rubber bumper at the front of the magazine.

[Jyrkka D]

Hi Rick and thank you for a quick response!

I had exactly the same problem earlier, the magazine was too sticky and did not feed always. Then I sprayed some PTFE (dry lubrication) spray in it and the effect was huge. The magazine became really slippery and smooth. I did it only once but the effect seems to be permanent. That I can recommend to you.

In my case it is always the last round. That is pretty natural when there is less mass on top of the spring. One of my friends, who happens to know pretty much about rifle mechanics, said that this can be solved by bending the magazine feed lips a little upwards at the end where the lip unleashes the back end of the round. It should help to unleash the round during a longer distance and not so sharply as it does now (it is very difficult to explain this in English, hopefully you understand what I mean..) This makes sense to me. What do you think about that?

[Rick - Mauser M03 Blog author]

Hi Jyrkka.

Thanks for the suggestion on using PTFE spray. I'm going to think carefully before doing this, as I think I need the magazine walls to grip the sides of the cartridges more, not less. :-) I should add that a jam only happens with my M03s if I'm using handholds with long pointy bullets that are seated far out to be close to the lands. Which is asking for it, quite frankly! Let me explain. 

The problem I sometimes have when I slowly feed the third round from the magazine comes from the rim of the fourth round underneath being picked up and moved forward by the bevel at the junction of the bolt head and the bolt body. This happens because the front of the round underneath gets tilted downwards and the rear upwards by the top round acting like a lever as its nose is pushed up by the magazine feeding ramp. The top round and the round underneath are now moving forward together, though staggered by the length of the bolt head. The nose of the round underneath continues to point slightly downwards until it makes contact with the rubber at the front of the magazine, where it digs in. Upwards pressure from the magazine spring causes the round underneath to get stuck at this angle, so that it no longer pushes up on the top round. The front of the bolt head now slips over the top round's rim and pushes on the side of the case, causing a jam. While this problem has never happened when I've been out hunting, I've practiced a technique in case it does. I pull the bolt back a bit, point the barrel down and jiggle the rifle a little, or use a finger to pull the round back a touch, so it falls into the chamber. Problem solved. The reason it hasn't happened out in the field is that, apart from quietly chambering the first round as I walk away from the car, I'm always working the action quickly after firing to get new rounds chambered. There's no jamming while I'm firing at guilty critters running this way or that! :-) I try to reload as quickly as Henrik Lott does in this video. Look how far his empty 416 Rigby cases fly! The Mozambique Adventure - Hunting with the new Mauser M 98 Magnum!

What I could try is using your PTFE spay on the bolt, especially near the junction of the bolt head and the bolt body. This might help the bevel there slip past the rim of the round underneath without picking it up and moving it forward.

**********

Turning to your situation (which you've explained very clearly :-) ), I can see that there might be benefit in bending the magazine feeding lips (or rails) upwards, to reduce the abruptness of the round being released from the magazine. This modification could also make quite a difference to where the tip of the bullet is pointing, just at the moment it is released. A less angular movement of the round as it moves out of the magazine should be the result, which could help. 

There might also be value in looking at the length of the rounds relative to the length of the magazine rails. The question is, are the rounds being released from the rails early enough? These M03 magazines are made for use with groups of related but different calibres. Some cartridges will have longer overall length than others and could be retained by the magazine rails for slightly too long and if feeding slowly, could be pointing slightly askew when released. Solutions would be to try ammunition of different lengths, or with different bullet tip shapes. Round nose bullets are generally less of a problem than pointy bullets. That's not much help if it's pointy bullets you want to use in your fast 300 Win Mag and 375 H&H barrels! A dramatic step to take would be to adjust the length of the magazine rails, by grinding with a Dremel. Eek!

Jyrkka, I meant to ask earlier, what steps did you take to 'loosen the springs of the magazine'. Did you partially disassemble the magazine, by pushing out the pins at the front?

I'll go and have another look at my M03s and how the rounds are feeding, to see if I can gain further insight into the problem you've described. 

One quick safety point for anyone reading this - always remove the firing rod from the bolt before chambering rounds in your workshop at home. With a Mauser M03, doing this is easy, as shown here. Mauser M03 - Bolt Disassembly & Assembly . Explaining the neat new .308" or .277" hole in the wall would be the least of my problems. Convincing my neighbours of all the ways they could use the new hole in their wall would be more of a worry. :-(

Regards, Rick.

[Jyrkka D]

I had exactly the same problem with you before spraying the magazine. Exactly.

The reason for that problem is (on my opinion) that when the magazine is a bit too sticky, the spring force has to be really strong to push the rounds enough. When the spring is really stiff, that causes the problem of previous rim picking the round under it and pushing that agains the plastic. When the magazine is more slippery after spraying PTFE, you can loosen the spring and that problem is gone for good. That's what happened to both my magazines anyway.

You don't need to disassamble the magazine by removing pins etc., you just push the plastic ramp forward pushing the back end simultaneosly down and the ramp slips out of the magazine. Then you take the spring and bend it a bit so that it gets lower. After that the bolt also moves much smoother even when the magazine is full.

My problem.. I think that the problem happens because the rails do not release the round late enough. If release happened a couple of millimeters later, the round would be so much in the chamber already, that there would not be space for the bolt going under the round any more. You can simulate that with your own rifle. So I guess the only way is to bend the rails and try.

[Rick - Mauser M03 Blog author]

Hi Jyrkka.

(For new readers - note that the feeding problems described in this thread are only being experienced with slow movement of the rifle bolt. Jyrkka mentioned that he has problems with the bottom round in his 300 Win Mag and 375 H&H magnum magazines jumping up too high as it leaves the rails. I sometimes have problems with the rim of the third round slipping under the bolt face, when the round underneath is not pushing up enough. We have no problem when we feed the rounds quickly. :-) Please join in the discussion if you have info to add.)

You've encouraged me to give the PTFE spray a try. Thanks for pointing out that you've had earlier experience with the same feeding problem as me. I went and bought a can of CRC Dry Glide this morning. It cost a bomb for a small can - but only the best for my Mausers! Jaycar here in Australia have a less expensive version, with different constituents, but I preferred what I saw on CRC's material safety data sheet.

To do the best job in applying the Dry Glide I decided to remove the plastic front piece of one of my magazines, so I could get the plastic magazine follower and magazine spring out easily. Here's what I found. 

- The three pins holding the plastic front piece onto the metal sides of the magazine are in fact six short pins, each 7.5mm long. They should only be driven in about 2.5 mm, to clear the holes in the outer plastic walls of the front piece and the metal sides of the magazine. The pins will then be retained by the inner plastic walls of the front piece.

- The two top pins can be driven in further as there is nothing inside of them to interfere, but the four bottom pins should not be pushed in more than 2.5 mm, as they will make contact with the rubber insert that protects the bullet tips.

- The pins are easily pushed with gentle tapping, using a narrow punch or small nail with a flattened tip. Once the pins have been pushed far enough the front piece will easily separate from the magazine's metal sides. The pins might fall out so be careful not to lose them.

- The rubber insert can then be prised and pulled out gently. In fact it needs to be, to retrieve the four bottom pins. I used a broad flat tip screwdriver and then some bent nose pliers with smooth gripping surfaces, to avoid marring the rubber. 

- The magazine spring can then be pulled out from under the follower. It is asymmetrical, so take note of its orientation. The higher end of the two upper spring tips goes to the back of the magazine, to ensure that the rim of the cartridge is pushed up effectively, so it's picked up by the bolt at the start of the forward stroke.

- The magazine follower itself can then be slid out of the magazine, with some tiltlng to clear the indents in the side panels. During factory assembly a little grease was applied to the underside of the follower (and also on the floor of the magazine I think) to help the spring's contact points slide as it compresses and expands.

- For the moment I'm not going to adjust (bend) the magazine spring, to try to reduce the spring pressure. I think that it's a lack of upwards pressure on the front half of the cartridges underneath the top round that is allowing the bolt face to slip up and over the rim of the top round. The tips of the bullets underneath digging into the rubber is another factor. Hopefully, the PTFE coating will be enough to allow the follower to push the cartridges up better.

I wasn't having luck with tilting/pushing/pulling the follower out of the magazine before removing the front panel. There wasn't room and damage to the follower would have resulted. It may be that the dimensions of your magnum calibre magazines and my standard calibre magazines (30-06 etc) are different enough to make it work with yours and not with mine. Not to worry - I've now learnt that disassembly is easy. 

I'll take some pictures while my magazine is in pieces and write a blog post on this subject. Thanks for bringing it up and for your contributions. If you do go ahead with adjusting the angle of the front tips of your magazine rails, please report on your findings. Thanks. 

Regards, Rick. 

[Jyrkka D]

Thank you, too. Let's be in touch.

[Rick - Mauser M03 Blog author]

Hi Jyrkka.

I've just had a thought on something to try with your magazine. Before I pulled my magazine apart I noticed that it was possible to move the spring so that it was sitting more at rear or at the front of the magazine. This can be done by pushing down on the follower only at the front end or the rear end. The spring slips one way of the other, under the follower. The effect is that there is more upwards pressure at one end or the other. 

I'm wondering if you can reduce the amount of upwards pressure at the front of the follower by moving the spring so that it's putting more pressure on the rear of the follower? This should reduce how hard the follower pushes up on the cartridge as the rim leaves the rails. You would achieve this by pushing the front of the follower all the way down while leaving the rear up. The spring will slip rearwards in the magazine. I think this is where it's normally meant to sit.

I thought this was worth a mention. :-)

Regards, Rick. 

[Jyrkka D]

Hi Rick,

I have noticed the same and I do as you proposed every time when fill the magazine. I forgot to mention that earlier. Actually I glued a little piece of plastic inside the magazine front bottom and the idea was to keep the spring in back end position. The glue failed after some time.

How about the PTFE? Did it work in your magazine?

[Rick - Mauser M03 Blog author]

Hi Jyrkka. 

Thanks for that news about the piece of plastic inside your magazine. I was thinking I might try something like that.

Re the PTFE spray - I cleaned the insides of the magazine with a cloth and acetone, dried and warmed it to room temperature with a heat gun and then applied the spray. In my case it was CRC Dry Glide. I sprayed it on the three inside walls of the magazine, on the sides and bottom of the plastic follower and on the surface of the rubber bumper that protects the bullet tips. I'll be waiting 24 hours for the product to fully cure, but after a few hours I did slip the follower inside the shell of the magazine. I was pleasantly surprised with how much of a difference it made. The follower slipped up and down so much better than before. :-)

I decided that I would not put any PTFE spray on the top surface of the follower at this point. At this stage I think I want it to grip the round below the one being fed, to stop it moving forward when the top round is being fed. I'll see how this goes. I can always add some PTFE to the top of the follower later. 

What I might also do is apply PTFE to the bolt and bolt head, at the junction where the bevel is picking up the rim of the second cartridge in the magazine, when the top round is halfway fed. This might help the bevel in the bolt slip over the second round's rim, without nudging it forward. Did you try this?

I wonder if anyone who hunts dangerous game uses PTFE spray on their cartridges? It would make them slip out of the magazine quick smart. It could also have unintended effects that you don't want to find out about when a Cape Buffalo is about to bowl you over. Hmmm.

Regards, Rick.

[cole]

Hi, new forum member here.

I have a M03 Africa in 416 RemMag. I was stationed in the UK while on active duty and ended up living there for 15 years. I was probably the only Yank I knew with a full Firearms License and a gun room. I have since repatriated back stateside and the only rifle I brought back with me is my Mauser M03. I was surprised to find that the M03 is not very well known here in the States. That's too bad really, as it is a lovely gun and extremely versatile. I'm planning on buying a 300WM barrel for it someday for normal hunting (non-DG) but, whoo boy, are they expensive!

Anyway, here is my problem; I can't get the magazine button to release the magazine. :-0  I got it out by pushing the follower down and pressing the magazine catch on the inside of the magazine and it promptly popped right out. I tried pushing down on the button with no magazine in the receiver but it simply does not move.

Any ideas?? (and, fyi, there is no magazine lock!)  Thanks in advance, Cole

[Rick - Mauser M03 Blog author]

Hi Cole. I’m away from home at the moment so won’t be able to take a look at one of my own M03s. Perhaps one of our knowledgeable members will chime-in in the meantime. 🙂 Please do write in to the forum if you manage to get the stuck button with your magazine release working.

Regards, Rick.

[cole]

Thanks Rick, I'm looking forward to hearing from somebody who knows more than I do!

Does anybody know the purpose of the tiny hole in the magazine release button?? I figured it might be to let out any accumulated dirt, etc. 

[Rick - Mauser M03 Blog author]

Hi Cole. I saw a Mauser M03 salesman use a small hex key inserted into that hole to tighten the catch for the magazine release. He tightened it to the point that the magazine was locked in place. Hmmm, worth investigating I think. Maybe yours needs to be backed out a bit?

Regards, Rick.

[cole]

Hmmmm, sound like a good idea. I'll check it out and get back to you. That would make a lot of sense. My gun does not have the later magazine lock. About the only thing that worried me about this rifle for dangerous game is that you might find yourself mightily inconvenienced if you accidentally hit the mag release button and dropped it to the ground in the midst of "discussion" with a dugga boy buff. 

Thanks!

[cole]

Well, you learn something new everyday! Yep, that was it. Small hex key (and I do mean tiny) down the hole. Unscrewed it a bit and the button pushed right down and the magazine popped right out. I tightened it back up and the magazine is locked in place. Fantastic!

Thanks for help!!!

[Rick - Mauser M03 Blog author]

😊 I’m glad it worked. Good hunting.