Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Portuguese Model 70 Magazine Spring

I've bought a Model 70 in .416 Remington Magnum. Say what you want about Portuguese workers, this rifle has beautiful fit and finish. However, I am having trouble with the magazine follower sometimes sticking so that when I strip the top cartridge off, the follower stays down preventing the second cartridge from being picked up. Is this usually a follower problem or a spring problem? Since I bought this rifle used (but looks like new) I wanted to make sure the spring is installed correctly but no where can I find any video or photos on how it should look. Is it possible to put it in the wrong way? What would be the instructions for removing it and reinstalling it?

Having written the above, I've been working with it and the last three times I worked the action the follower came up like it is supposed to so maybe something just needs to be worn in.

Take a good look at the magazine - ensure all sides are perfectly straight.. If all's OK there, then - the times that it fails - in what exact position is the follower stuck at: back end low? Front end low?

Okay, I got this where it works consistently and well. It all comes down to how you load the cartridges. First, you must start with the rifle held in the vertical position. Then, press the first cartridge down (toward the bottom of the magazine) and to the right, then press the second cartridge down and to the left and slightly in front of the first cartridge, then the third cartridge down and to the right like the first one and slightly in front of the second one. It also helps, if after you insert the second and third cartridges to slide them back until they stop.

Hey Pard,

You should not have to load your magazine like that. We have and have had several Mod. 70 CRF rifles in 30-06, .338 Win. and 375 H&H and with every one of them you could just stuff rounds in the magazine and run the bolt. I do believe it is a good idea when initially loading a bolt action magazine to push the rounds to the back of the magazine. But, you should also be able to quickly feed that rifle with out issue.

How much clearance do you have between the bullet tips and the front of the magazine well when the round is all the way back in the magazine? If your hunting critters that big .416 is made for you may not want to have to load the way you describe if your in a hurry.

I would look at what Sitka Deer said and see how your follower fits in the magazine well. Look for rough edges or coarse machining and try moving it up and down with our thumb and see if you can cause it to catch some where. That and try to find out if you have a real spring steel magazine spring.

The magazine is 3.630" and my handloads are 3.610" or less. I'll check out the follower tomorrow and perhaps smooth the sides down.

I just checked and all sides of the follower are very smooth, however it looks like the previous owner bent the spring (maybe), probably to increase spring pressure. I ordered a new spring and will report back when it is installed.

Okay, returning to this while waiting for a new spring (which I now believe I don't need).

I can get the cartridges to go in just fine with the rifle held in a horizontal position as long as I don't push them all the way to the rear while seating. If I let them drop in normally they don't go all the way back by themselves; that is something I came up with while trying to get the cartridges to load smoothly and consistently, but it is wrong I guess.

If I push them all the way back, then the rear of the cartridges are catching on the lower rail where it turns back in toward the center line of the rifle. This catching causes the front of the cartridge to nosedive. I think they also must move slightly forward when that happens. Then, when I am trying to recover from the forward nose dive, I overcompensate and the cartridge dives down at the back and THAT will usually catch the follower against the side of the magazine box and I have a situation which requires me to open the floor-plate, dump the cartridges and start over.

If the cartridges *are* supposed to be pushed all the way back when loading then I have some sort of a mismatch between the curving inward of the lower rail and the face of the lower bolt rest.