Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats .223AI - Won't Feed

Hi guys,

I picked up a barrelled action and had it rechambered from .223 to .223 AI. It shoots great and is very accurate, but it won't feed. Any tips on what it takes to make it feed?

Thanks.

I think you are going to need to provide more information than you have. What type of action, action length, and much more specific detail as to what "it won't feed" means.

CAL9

Remington 700 SA BDL. Bolt picks up the round from the magazine box, bullet enters chamber, shoulder of case appears to hang up on edge of chamber. Even after the cartridge exits the magazine fully, the cartridge won't easily enter the chamber. It feeds regular .223's with no problem. I was just wondering if there was a standard modification that people made since there are so many .223AI shooters on the forum. Do I adjust the feed ramp? magazine box?

Thanks.

The mouth of the chamber has to be slightly radiused and well polished. This is usually enough to do the trick.GD

really.....everyone I've ever been told about feeds fine.....I believed it until I built one.

Frankly...I think most 223AI nuts are so enamored with the cartridge they wouldn't admit that thier "baby" doesn't feed that well...or at all.


http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/viewtopic.php?t=75064&highlight=

the aforementioned rifle is feeding OK now, except for the second to the last round from the mag likes to hang up about 50% of the time.....

anyone want it....? you guys in Kanada can have it for 500 loonies

I had a similar problem with a 22-250 AI. I put in a 'Score-Hi' follower which fixed the problem for me. YMMV...

Here is a link to it on MidwayUSA:
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=321428

tq

AI cases are not as forgiving as the standard calibers (do to the min taper case), meaning if you have sharp edges, burrs from lapping the lugs, and re-chambering the barrel (base of chamber not properley champfered and polished, its possiable to have feed and extract problems. If the person doing the work does his job, it should feed and extract just as smooth as the standard calibers do.

I had a smith do a crapy job on an AI project, that I could hardley pull the bolt back after fireforming, it had a very sharp burr on the receiver from lapping the lugs, A very sharp edge was digging into the case, I spent some time polishing the sharp edge, and it works slick now without even leaving a mark on the cases. To bad the smith had many other things so [bleep] up, it was a disaster.

Many smiths dont bother shooting there barrel jobs when doing the smith work, and thats why some jobs just turn out not as expected.

How many of you took your vehicle in for service, and were not happy with what the mechanic did on you vehicle ?

Attention to detail gos a long way..................

I played with it a little today. The cartridge is hanging up on the bottom of the chamber about 1/4 of the way down the body of the case. When the base of the cartridge case slides up the bolt face, it will slide into the chamber. This involves some "jiggling". I'm going to try and seat the bullet out a little further and see if that helps. I'll also polish the bolt. I had it re-chambered to the AI version at GA Precision.

I'll keep playing with it. It put 3 shots into .350" the other day. It sure is explosive on jackrabbits.

From what i have read about GA precision, its not like them to produce work with glitches in it. Id be on the phone asap. Chances are they will want to make it right.

A gunsmith who is familiar with chambering for Ackleys will always polish the chamber just a little more than he would for standard cartridges. This will facilitate fireforming.

Also, and this is important, he will polish and slightly reshape the feed ramp so that Ackley cartridges will feed correctly. Then, he will feed several dummy rounds through the magazine, to insure perfect feeding.....every time. If the rounds do not feed, he will work with the feed ramp and the back (sharp) edge of the chamber until the feeding is flawless. Yeah, it is a bit of work, but that is just part of the service.

I have a bunch of rifles that are chambered for Ackley cartridges (three .223 Ackleys, a .250 Ackley, a 6.5-'06 Ackley, a 7SGLC and two .280 Ackley) and all of them feed like quicksilver. I have no fear whatsoever of feeding in the field.

I would suggest contacting your gunsmith and asking him nicely to make it right. You paid for the job and, if he wants your repeat business, he will do the job you contracted him to do.

Steve

Oh, does this sound familiar! I rebarreled a 700SA to 223 Improved and had the dreaded feed problem. The original gunsmith did some tinkering to make it a smooth feeder, but, it was still a little more effort and unreliable. I found another gunsmith.

In the case of this rifle there was a three point bind between the follower, the barrel and a the chamber. He performed some discret surgery and basically did what Steve mentioned in his post -- radius and polish the back of the barrel, reshaped the follower angle and, presto, problem fixed.

Now, with many kills to its credit, the rifle has proven itself to be reliable and delightful on coyotes or prairie dogs. Persevere.

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