Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only 416 Ruger feeding problems

I am working with a 416 Ruger Alaskan that does not like to feed the final round out of the magazine. It feeds the first two DGX softpoints almost every time and jams on the third. The DGS solids feed ok. This is the second 416 Ruger that has not fed well. The first was an African model and after two trips back to Ruger that didn’t fix the problem it was returned. This second one is better but still not right. Is there something that should be polished to make it work? Extra strength magazine spring? The first round almost always feeds fine even though it’s off the same rail. Any thoughts would be helpful and welcome. I don’t want to send this second one back. I want to make it work!

My Remington 700 416 did the same thing.My gunsmith installed a weatherby spring in no more problems .My Winchester model 70 control feed did the same thing .I had to replace everything in it magazine and the trigger guard .It kept dumping rounds .I think that the factory trys to put regular cheap springs in these guns .You can polish the feeding ramp too with Emory cloth also helps .Good luck hope you get it fixed !

The Ruger 77 action is investment cast so it has a very rough surface finish. Lightly polish the receiver feed rails, slot where the ejector rides, feed ramp, top inner edge of magazine box and cartridge follower. Do not be too aggressive or the follower will pop out past the receiver rails. No need to remove the ejector. Just push it down, polish the slot and clean. Install a high quality magazine spring and do as many bolt flicks as you can stand. Make up 5 dummy rounds and put silicon in the primer hole so you can practice your bolt flicks to insure you are not short stroking the bolt. Then it is off to Alaska for brown bear and Africa for buffalo. My Ruger African even feeds flat nose solids.

bobmn, do you have any recommendations on how or what to use to polish that ejector slot?

A flat needle file of appropriate width wrapped with 400 grit 3M waterproof silicon carbide sandpaper

I have had to break the sharp edges on quite a few Rugers as they are sharper than most hunter's knives ! The worst offender for causing jams is the mouth of the chamber . That can be quite sharp and with the flat nose bullets, like those on the Hornady DGX steel jacketed bullets , feeding can come to a complete halt. Especially with steel jackets !
You can polish the chamber mouth by hand with any sort of rounded ball grinder or even a broom stick handle with a piece of emory paper .

Some of the rifles just simply don't feed flat nosed bullets well from one rail or the other and the simple fix is, don't load them. I am dealing with one of those early 416 stainless carbines now and plan on simply using spritzer bullets as they have fed fine in every rifle

^This was my experience when I had my 375 Ruger rebored to 404. The DGXs were particularly problematic jamming into both the corner of the feed ramp and the edge of the chamber. Polishing these areas to break the sharp edges and a bit of tweaking on the feed rails fixed the problem.

I really like the new Rugers and also like the performance of the Hornady "dangerous game" Bullets. But it's too bad they don't always work together without a lot of hassle.

I like them a lot myself, though none of mine are thumpers. Still have two of the three short-actions I've bought. The one I let go was a mistake. All have worked very well, and at most I've only filed the mag boxes, floated them, and taken the edge off the feed rail. They're just good, solid, rifles.

I have a few of the Alaskans in 375 and 416. Some of these took a bit of effort to ensure smooth and positive feeding. I definitely had some knife-edges on some rails. And some ramp polishing was needed for the Hornady steel jacket bullets.
One particular 416 took more time than I liked, but it is now one of my favorite rifles.

I cannot really substantiate this, but have a feeling that on some the magazine well has distorting pressure applied by the stock fit. I had issues with one in the factory Hogue, which disappeared when fitted in an aftermarket stock. I also polished / took sharp edges off the bolt bodies if it were obvious they were contacting the brass.

I was not happy spending time do this. But, I am very satisfied with the end results.

My .375 Ruger Alaskan had to get same polishing treatment. It didn’t have any feeding issues but it scratched my brass pretty bad. The feed rails, the top of the feed ramp and the edge of the chamber were all super sharp and needed polishing. No more issues now.

My .375 Guide Gun went back to Ruger for polishing. Very sharp rails, they can cut you easily...Hell on brass...I believe on a gun less than a year old, they pay shipping both ways. They did for me. I've also called for replacement parts, (stock spacers, action screws, muzzle breaks, rings, manuals) for various rifles and they've never charged me a penny.



Thanks bobmn..