Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles New Haven Model 70 feeding question

Hello

I have an early 5 digit G series New Haven classic in 7mm Rem Mag. The gun is not 100% reliable with regards to feeding. I have a new spring ordered but was wondering about the follower. When you cycle the bolt with no rounds in it the follower dips at the rear and the front portion seems to get above the rails a little bit. It ends up on an angle so the bolt doesn't bind on it and just pushes it back down into place below the rails. Is this normal or is something wrong with the follower or receiver? The follower doesn't get way up above the rails but just a bit at the very front of the action. Thanks for any help.

To answer your questions:

1. No
2. Yes, there's a chance your follower or feed rails have been modified. For what reason, who knows.

Your follower should at no time rise above the guide rails of the raceway. All of my Newhaven rifles (including a 5 digit SS classic 7mm rem mag just like yours) have followers that stay right up against the rails (when empty). None of them will go past the rails. Hope this helps. You may want to post a picture, we may be able to tell you if it looks like the rail has been messed with....

The spring needs to be adjusted. Basic lyrics tweak it until the follower stays straight.

link

Mostly about 700's but might help you with your issues.

Thanks for the replies. The gun was new when I bought it and nothing has been modified. The rails and follower are the way they left the factory. I guess my question was could this be just a spring issue or something more?!?

Not a spring issue. Like I said earlier. The follower should not go past the feed rail lip. If the follower does not stay parallel with the raceway, then the spring may need a little tweeking. I'd be more concerned about the follower going past the feed rail lip though..

So with any of your rifles is the follower physically narrow enough to go slightly above the rails? I am talking about the first 1/2 to 1" of the leading edge if you manipulate it from the bottom? Thanks for the help.

264: It isn't at all unusual (IME) to see some Classics exhibit feeding/function issues as they came from the factory. Usually they are cured pretty easily.

Your problem sounds like spring tension to me as the follower spring seems not to be exerting even tension front and rear so that the follower rides up and down uniformly. Either that or the follower is hanging up in the box at the rear end as it rides up in the box.

You've told us what the follower does when the magazine is empty; what is it doing with a full magazine?

Is the front of the follower still tilting/rising up and causing the bolt to override the cartridge instead of grabbing it and pushing it forward when you cycle the bolt?

Redneck (Lee) on here can provide a quick fix for you I think.

Are the followers different for say, magnums vs. standard cals? If so, maybe the factory installed the wrong one.

Both my sons had stainless Classics at one time and they were good rifles with only a couple minor issues. I need another rifle like I need another weewee, but would probably pick up one of them just for the heck of it if it fell into my lap.

Nope, not mechanically possible on my rifles. They feed cartridges like greasy sausages too. Mine are 5 and 6 digit classics if that matters. This is the best I can do to show you what it's supposed to look like:









[img]http://i1180.photobucket.com/albums/x401/chiefbsa/IMG_0004_zps18451d22.jpg[/img]

I've seen this more than once with G 5&6 digit CRF M70's. I'm racking my brain to remember whether they were magnums or standard (30-06) rifles.

Can you describe how it feeds, or show pictures?

How does it feed when racked fast vs. slow?

Does it feed better from the right side or left?

Do rounds pop up and out from under the feedrails?

Can you show a picture of the rails from the top?

Also, typically "standard" magnums (7mmRM, 300 WM, 338 WM) use the same follower as standard (30-06) rounds, though the STW's, RUM's, WSM's, WSSM's, H&H's, and 458 WM don't. So I doubt you have a follower issue.

Might be a spring thing... maybe.

Brad, if the follower is sneaking past the rails it's a follower (or rail) issue. I have 2 rifles in front of me right now that the followers will not go past the rails. See pictures I posted.. I agree, he needs to post some pictures like I suggested yesterday..

BSA, is yours a Magnum M70?

I don't currently have one so I'm not going to be dogmatic about how the rails should look on the magnum. I haven't owned a belted mag m70 for over ten years and my memory is a bit fuzzy about how the rails are in comparison to a 30-06 M70.

I also have a Classic Stainless rifle in front of me, and while the follower doesn't go past the rails (standard M70), I absolutely have seen what the poster describes with other M70's in the past.

I've had 4 classic stainless's this year alone, and had certainly had over 25 of them since they came out in the early 90's. They're nice rifles, but all CRF's need to be tuned to feed/function correctly (right down the the right amount of extractor "pinch").

When they work well, there's nothing like them. When they don't work well, there's nothing like them.

Brad, I'm down to 2 classics right now. 1 30-06 and 1 7mm rem mag. The followers seem to be interchangeable and dimensions are very close to one another. I've also heard about people having feeding problems with some of these rifles. I've been damn lucky and have never had that issue. I'm wondering if the feed rail lip on his rifle is in question since the follower has never been messed with. Is the mag box in there right? Pics might help to answer some questions.

It's hard to put a magazine "wrong" into an M70 as the bottom metal just doesn't go in place corrrectly unless it's done right.

Like I said, I've seen exactly (and more than once) what the poster describes. USRAC didn't always get their rails or ramps right.

This fall, a poster here on 24hr and I exchanged pics and emails regarding a 1990's Classic Stainless he'd bought that absolutely had the feedramp mis-machined. You could see it plain as day that the final machining either hadn't been done, or was done completely wrong. Wouldn't feed properly. BACO, to its credit, swapped him his NH USRAC rifle for a new SC/Portugal MOA one.

QC wasn't always tops with USRAC Classics. Reference the dizzying variation in how Stainless M70 Tangs were machined. For whatever reason, the chromoly rifles were far more consistently machined.

I had a Classic Stainless 30-06 jam when racking the bolt with a nice 6pt bull in sight. Cartridge fed from the left rail and rammed into the extractor cutout. That's not fun.

Like I said, when they work well, there's nothing like them. When they don't work well, there's nothing like them.

I kind of agree with your last sentence. They work great when they work, just not as good as my pre 64's...

My current Classic Stainless M70 270 Win Fwt feeds just as well as the pre-64 30-06 Fwt I had... but I agree, the pre-64's were more consistently machined. If there was ever a better feeding out-of-the-box action for 30-06-based cartridges than the pre-64 M70, I can't imagine what it might be.

It would be good to hear from the OP about what exactly the rifle is doing. I have seen what he's talking about with the follower. he might need a new one.

Winchester/USRAC never got it completely straight when it came to followers, as evidenced by them using the type bsa shows in the photos,as well as a double dished variety that has those scooped out areas in the middle of the follower.They also produced some Classics with followers made of plastic.(?). It was a grab bag of lowest common denominator.

In any event, I had one last spring that did what the OP talks about;not popping out of the rails (which really does not mean much with a full magazine).But the back ends of the cartridges did not ride up parallel with the noses of the cartridges. The bolt would ride over the case head instead of picking the case up to feed.

It turned out to be a simple fix....I grabbed the follower spring at the top two "V" curves and gently, but firmly,bent them up with my hands. This had the immediate effect of making the follower ride up parallel in the box instead of tilting,and feeding was perfect thereafter.

Could I have over bent the spring and broken it(before some one asks)? Sure, who cares?...... it didn't work anyway.

This might not put me in the same class with Darcy Echols or Penrod when it comes to making a rifle feed right....but it worked fine after that and I could not make it jam or fail to feed.

Bob, you jogged my memory... I've done EXACTLY what you describe to cure the same problem... I believe that could very well be the posters fix.

Good job!

I've been dinking around with Kimbers for the last ten years and had forgotten that fix!

BTW, re: USRAC followers, they were indeed a grab bag.

But, while many derided the "plastic" followers (they're actually "graphite"), I found them to be excellent, and very tough while shaving 1.2 oz's off the all-steel version.

I have a small stash of them for switching-out the all-steel followers.