Dad's .308 Montana is ill:

I haven't looked at it too close yet as I just got back from a weekend hunt but the bolt is having trouble picking the next in line cartridge up from the magazine. It's just riding right over the top.

I have the gun in hand also.

Tips/thoughts/fixes?? Thanks.......

Not a gunsmith but happened to me twice, once with a 700, once with a 70. On the 700 ADL the follower spring was broken. The rifle was only a few years old! Replaced it and all was fine. On the 70 a small piece of twig/dirt was stuck between the follower and rail. I would look for simple solutions first.

Milwroad: How did you get the twig out?

Follow the thread below to see if Boomer finds resolution.

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/11647945/

i bought the same gun a few weeks ago and haven't fired it yet.
like to know the resolution to this.
in the meanwhile what kind of scope do you have on it ?

P.

Shortactionsmokers thread on tweaking a Montana and Stick's picture heavy "start at the [bleep] start" thread over on araig got me through this and every other possible problem that come with Kimbers.

Theres some smart heavily experienced knowledge on here. Just takes some time to research and find/understand it.

I'm truly grateful for the help I've received from guys on here through informative posts and PM's to the right guys. Read a little and it doesn't take long to figure out who they are.

For the feeding issues, read the "start at the f*$&ing start" thread. If you can't find it pm me and I'll send you a link.

I found out today that one can claim expertise from reading on the internet and provide advice freely without regard nor concern...

Generally, if everything is assembled correctly, it has been offered, that to get ass end up more so the bolt will hit it, you open the rear 1/3 of the feed lip on the side of the mag box that has the dipped cartridge. You just bend it out a tiny bit and try it. Spreading lets stuff go up, while closing keeps stuff down... This stuff was covered in Stick's tutorial. Mine, a fresh 6.5 CM, had issues not related to feeding, purely just sitting in the magazine, with either a left side or right side cartridge on top, the whole works will stay ass end dipped 1/4"! Mine will exhibit this same behavior described on the 308 also, because the spring is too dammed weak and no amount of bending, opening and tweaking will help. My mag box lips are totally open and it'll still ass end dip... So - the advice is to replace the follower spring with a stronger spring from a Remy 700 SA ADL and even better yet, also use a milled follower. To recap, if opening the mag box doesn't bring joy, you do not need to spend the next two days bending the mag box lips back and forth for hours on end because it will not fix the weak spring... I offer this with the best of intentions...

SAS's thread on tweaking Montanas? Missed that one. Saw Brad's. WTF?

Seems there's a lot of Montana "tweaking" going on as of late.... Is this covered in the book of 50 trick moves to get your montucky to work right?

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/8486078/Montana_tinkering....

Thanks. You could have sent me that last week!

Yeah, but what fun would that've been?

Speaking of fun - you better check that other thread. LOL

Thanks for the information. 6 months later and I haven't done a thing with it until tonight. My FIL took ill 12/14 and I haven't had much interest in fixing it the problem until now.

I'll get on it..........

BUMP for those fighting their Montana

Does it fail to feed cartridges from both sides or just one?

Another thing that causes this problem is the base of the spring sliding forward in the mag box. That allows the follower to tilt back and down to the rear. One fix is to put a dab of epoxy on the stock in the bottom of the mag well just in front of the spring to keep it from sliding forward.

Exactly. This is what caused the case head to drop leading to feeding problems in my 6.5 CM Montana. A piece of plastic in the bottom of the mag cutout in the stock kept the spring base from sliding forward and solved my problem.

I had the same issue with a ruger MKII I traded it in for a kimber and my feeding problems and back problems went away (gun was about 3 lbs lighter) sholder hurts more though :]

Haven't dropped by the fire lately so don't know if you got this resolved but I didn't see if you were running factory fodder or reloads. My 308 Montana is very sensitive to COAL and if it is just a hair over factory specs it has feeding problems.

Factory blue box Federal 150gr loads.

OK
Probably best bet is to replace the follower spring.

Resolution I believe........last night I spent some time scrutinizing the feeding again. I pulled the barreled action and looked at the follower & follower spring.

I noticed two things; first off that the follower spring slides under a recess in the bottom of the plastic follower and thus could possibly be reversible if one saw a reason to do that. Secondly, the follower spring "legs" that are seemingly reversible are different lengths. I figured WTF and slid the spring out and flipped it around, putting the longer "leg" into the bottom of the follower.

Put things back together and I'll be dipped, the ass end didn't sag like it was. Tried some dummy rounds then pulled the firing pin and ran some live rounds through the magazine box, not a single bobble. Every round was picked up, most importantly the second last round that was getting ridden over.

I'll get it to the range and work it some more before giving it back to dad.

Plausible?

Yes, that is a plausible explanation.

Most problems can be solved by replacing the loose screw on the trigger or the loose nut on the gunsmith bench =] glad it worked out for you!

Glad you got your problem resolved.