Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Possible cause for unreliable feeding in my Woodsman 2nd series?

So...I've been having this issue with a new-to-me pistol...the follower seems to drag and does not properly present the cartridge rim to the breechface of the slide during cycling.

Thinking it may be a fouled magazine body, I disassembled and cleaned it up. No joy.

Next, I stretched out the magazine spring a little. Not only NO JOY, but I got to search out in front of the firing line at the range for the plunger for about ten minutes after I launched it inadvertently while trying to reassemble it. I was very popular for the afternoon.

At home, I bought a spare mag off of fleebay because I figured I wanted one anyway (I always acquire a few spares when a new pistol comes my way), and thought I'd just wait to see if the new mag fixes the feeding issue. A little while later, something occurred to me so I removed the mag catch and took a look at how it engages the slot in the magazine body in the second issue pistols, and that's when I took the above photo.

So, has it been demonstrated that the follower spring drags on the edge of the mag catch on some pistols, and is there an established method for determining the correct amount of metal to remove from the magazine catch? I don't want to go figuring this out on my own if someone's already been down this road.

Thanks in advance.

When I worked in a gun store part time many years ago, I about beat a nut to death that thought he knew everything. What a loud mouth.

He did not know how to FILL a magazine for a rimmed cartridge. I took a box of 22 long rifles, and asked him to load a magazine. He was all fast fingers and bitching. I had to show him than magazines for rim fires had to be loaded slowly and carefully to UN load them rapidly through shooting the pistol.

So: when you load a mag are you carefully making certain that you are placing each rim of the cartridge in front of the one under it?

Carefully load a magazine with longrifle ammo. Hold the pistol below the trigger, point the weapon in a safe direction or backstop. Pull the slide all the way to the rear and release it. A semiauto is made to feed by the slide's action by itself. Put two rounds in the mag and see if they feed. Gradually up the number loaded until you have a full magazine.

A rimmed pistol magazine has a slant to it for a reason. To stack the rounds you put into it so they will feed. If the only thing you have shot is a 9MM or a 45ACP this is not the same. Try stacking a dozen rounds on a table top as I described. You will see what I mean.

If I am wrong about this I am sorry. One never knows, and I am not trying to be smart or demeaning to you. We all have Oh shucks moments.

Good luck.

It's not the magazine catch, without having the pistol in front of me I can't really say what it is for sure. Both magazines do the same thing?

I don't have the second magazine yet.

Swarf, I don't think I could stuff rounds into this magazine to lock up the rims if I had to do it to save my life. There may be folks out there who could do it, but I lack the talent.


Still don't have my spare magazine, but I think I've figured this out...and I expect to hear a bunch of "you didn't know THAT??"

I determined that the dragging and binding of the follower was independent of the pistol itself, so Gemby is correct---it is most definitely NOT the follower spring dragging on the magazine catch. I was able to replicate the binding follower outside of the pistol, so I thought that maybe I just didn't get it (the magazine) clean enough. I disassembled it and gave it a very thorough cleaning, only to find that the binding was not eliminated.

Now, I've got an assortment of .22 LR to choose from but it seems that I just happened to grab a box of Federal Lightning for trying out this pistol, and it has always functioned acceptably in my rimfires and performed well enough for plinking. This is the ammo I've been fiddling with. However, a while ago when I tried some Super-X X22LRH1 the binding ceased, and the same held true for Remington Yellow Jacket (which I did NOT fire, I just manually cycled the action through a couple of magazine's worth). Federal Auto Match cycles reliably also, and it's a non copper-washed round also like the Lightning is. I don't want to try everything available to me, I'd be all night trying different ammo.

Maybe there's just something about how the old original magazine has worn, but Federal Lightning (later known as "Champion" I think) seems to bind on the tips of the bullet. When I get my spare mag I'll have to see if it suffers the same malady.

I don't recall Grandpappy's Woodsman being picky about ammo, but maybe I just didn't get to play with it enough. For that matter, I coulda worn the thing out myself and that STILL wouldn't have been enough.