Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only How did you finally fix your Ruger 416 feed problem?

I recently purchased a 2nd hand Ruger Alaskan in 416 Ruger off one of the internet sale sites. As it turns out, this is an early rifle that has a problem feeding factory ammo. If I only load one round in the mag, it will usually feed that round. Add a second round in the mag and feeding gets sketchy. Add a third in the mag and the first round will jam every time.

Based on what I have read at this site & others this was not uncommon on early rifles. I have seen suggestions to cure this ranging from swapping the magazine to polishing the feed rails. I did play a little with smoothing things out in the
magazine & feed rails though neither had burrs and nothing I tried helped.

Does anyone have a suggestion (that actually worked) for a fix or do I just pack it up and send it to Ruger? I really like the rifle but was not buying it to be a single shot.

TIA, Kevin.

I sent the early one I had back to Ruger and they said they couldn't fix it and sent another.

Well I just bought my second ruger 416 alaskan, and the first one I had to send back to ruger and when they sent it back it fed no better than before. The one I just purchased a month ago was made in 2011 and it does the same darn thing!!!! I think it will work well with a more pointed bullet cause it seems to catch on the flat melpat of the factory hornadys..Will try and load some dummy rounds tomorrow with 350tsx, 350kodiak and 350speer to see how they feed...I really like the rifle and if the ones i mentioned feed well i will be happy as I will never buy the factory anyway, but still will bug me...What to do

I have an early model (no barrel band)and had major feed problems. After hours of work with the Dremel cleaning things up it still wouldn't load without jamming much like car15a2 experienced. It wasn't until I worked (shaped) the feeding rails did the problem go away. It seemed to me an earlier release from the rails was the cure. A word of caution!!!!!! I'm not a gunsmith and it was a long trial and error proposition... It also took very very little grinding to get the results...

I sold it.

Good info. When was the production change made to fix the problem?

Evidently it wasnt as mine is made in 2011 and am having touble with it..Not sure what to do but may just call ruger and ask to talk to the technician and tell him whats up as this is the second one Ive owned that would feed...

Just for fun, tonight I tried some of the Hornady ammo in a Winchester 70 I had built into a 375 Ruger when the cartridge first came out. The 400s fed just fine in the winnie until it hit the 375 throat. I need to figure out how to post pics because the cartridge "approach" in the Winchester is quite a different angle than in the Ruger.

After seeing this I think Tombo may be onto something. If I can figure out how to reduce the angle the cartridges take when finally releasing from the Ruger feed rails it should solve the problem. The bullet end of the cartridges don't seem to either elevate as high or angle to the right/left near as much when feeding from the winnie mag as in the Ruger.

Oh, and the Winchester did not scratch the brass up either.

The problem I finally decided was the flat nosed/ steel jacked Hornady ammo. I talked with both Hornady and Ruger about it and they listened politely but who knows if they care?

[quote=CAR15A2]Just for fun, tonight I tried some of the Hornady ammo in a Winchester 70 I had built into a 375 Ruger when the cartridge first came out. The 400s fed just fine in the winnie until it hit the 375 throat. I need to figure out how to post pics because the cartridge "approach" in the Winchester is quite a different angle than in the Ruger.

After seeing this I think Tombo may be onto something. If I can figure out how to reduce the angle the cartridges take when finally releasing from the Ruger feed rails it should solve the problem. The bullet end of the cartridges don't seem to either elevate as high or angle to the right/left near as much when feeding from the winnie mag as in the Ruger.

Oh, and the Winchester did not scratch the brass up either. [/quote

An earlier release from the rail is what I was looking for as I noticed the angle was steep at the point of jamming and was surprised the cartridge didn't release from the rails by that point. I remembered a post on here years ago about how Winchesters release into the control of the bolt earlier than Rugers. Once done with the adjustments even the DGXs loaded fine.

One suggestion: send it to Mark Penrod of Penrod Precision and I guarantee it will feed. jorge

I'd second what Jorge said. Why screw around with it and potentially mess it up. Penrod would take care of it right quick I would imagine. Test

What's the best factory ammo to use in the 375 Ruger to avoid feeding issues?

Penrod slicked up my 416 RSM and it feeds bricks now

to the op....just send it off to one of the recommeded smiths and have it done with. It's a good rifle and a good round it seems......good for the big beasts. it's just money

More amusing stuff to ponder...

Since 458Win suggested it might be the bullets and 4103 was also considering loading a different bullet I thought I would try another test. I grabbed a couple of boxes of 375 Ruger; 270gr pointy bullets and 300gr round nose and indeed, those fed just fine in the 416. Phil, you might have something here!

Just for grins I swapped the mag follower & spring from the M70 into the Ruger to see if it changed anything...it didn't.

Also, another poster asked about which 375 bullets feed best. Well, they all feed fine in my model 70, to include empty 416 brass. I wonder if the coned breach in the winnie helps out here? Since both styles of 375 also feed fine in the 416, I don't know if I can be much help answering the 375 feeding question.

Finally, I took everyone else's advice and spoke with Mark Penrod this afternoon. Nice guy! With any luck he will eventually get to working on this rifle. As you might expect, good smiths are usually a little busy and apparently Mark is no exception. Still, thanks for the lead. Looks like I can start on load development with my single shot until he can fit it in.

I have shot 3 different 375 rugers and they all fed flawlessly with all the hornady factory offerings and my handload which is 270gr barnes...The problem is with the 416 and dgx bullets..

If itdoes not feed everything out there,it's still broke and needs to be fixed.

Jorg is right....send it to someone like Penrod to be fixed properly.....don't rely on the factory.If it still isn't right....trip it.

Thanks 4103 and Bob. Good info!

Eric

Well my buddy just loaded 3 dummy rounds with 350barnes tsx, 350speer mag tip and a 350kodiak. Boy did they feed alot better BUT I still think the cartridge needs to release earlier from the feed rails as if you go very slow to chamber a round it still hesitates right as it is going into the chamber then pops out from the rail and lines up. If it would release just a hair earlier it would work great.. Waiting for my pre paid box from ruger( I know the one before that I sent them didnt come back any better but I figure what can it hurt as it doesnt cost anything and if it still doesnt feed then I will send it to someone that can make it feed)I sure love everything about the rifle, if it would only feed!!!