Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Best magazine follower and spring for Remington 700ADL

Developed some feeding issues with my Rem 700 ADL in 30-06. Not sure if I should just replace the spring or replace both the spring and follower. Also, if I were to replace both, what brand spring and follower would you go with?

Thanks, Mike

Can you identify where it hangs up when cycling? -Al

Doesn’t hang up. Sometimes it doesn’t catch the next round on the forward stroke and sometimes the rounds are popping up and out of the magazine before feeding into the chamber. I assume it’s just the spring went bad over time but figured I might change the follower while I’m at it if there’s an aftermarket that’s better.

Try stretching the spring a bit and see if that helps.-Al

There are stamped followers and cast... the stamped ones are junk compared to the cast units. I agree with AL that stretching the spring will likely fix the problem, but the stamped followers can be problematic.

It is hard to beat the factory set up. I agree at stretching the spring a bit and see if that helps. Good luck

On the long action 700s, they seem to like a more pronounced 'W' shape to the spring. -Al

Make sure the spring is in the correct position under the follower. Pushed all the way forward.

The exact reason I’m not fond of ADL/blind magazines on bolt action rifles.

That spring sometimes shifts and then doesn’t work properly. Best thing to do is epoxy it in place to the bottom of the stock. You could even use a piece of Gorilla Tape or something less permanent than epoxy, but do something!

Have a BIL who once lost a nice buck to that problem…cycled his bolt to put a round in the chamber and when he did the faulty spring/follower ejected all 4 rounds out of his magazine onto the ground.😳 The deer wasn’t that far away, heard the ruckus and exited the scene pronto…missed opportunity.🥴

We epoxied it in place years ago and the problem disappeared.

Leftybolt

Lefty, that's one of the reasons I modify the ADL boxes to have a bottom. -Al

Thanks for the tips. I bought a new spring and will epoxy it in when I install it.