Feed work for 30-06 > 308 Norma Conversion

[JesseL]

Hi all,
I've been working on my grandfather's unfinished '03A3 .308 Norma magnum sporter conversion and I need to do some feed work. What is the usual procedure for this? It looks like the the hump on the left side of the follower is too big and is forcing the fatter rounds too far off to the left to allow them to come up throud the feed lips the way they should.

 

[Darkker]

Hump? not on the first date.....
Seriously, though, just change out the follower. Mag cartridges have a different shaped follower than a "standard" case.

 

[JesseL]

I can't seem to find anybody that sells magnum followers for '03 Springfields. Any suggestions?

 

[Chawbaccer]

Why not just use a follower from another manufacturer, such as Remington, you might have to do a bit of adapting but it should work. I'm sure Numrich will have some magnum followers.

 

[Jim K]

You will have to grind or machine the follower to allow the larger case to fit and will probably have to grind the feed lips also. If so, there is no way I can tell you how to do this; even with experience it is a matter of trial and error and it is pretty easy to mess up a receiver. So take it easy, do the follower first (cheaper) then if that isn't enough, you can work slowly and carefully on the feel lips. You take a little bit off, assemble the gun, try it, disassemble the gun, take a bit more off, etc. It is a time consuming and boring job, but don't try to do it fast or you can get in trouble.

Jim

 

[JesseL]

That wasn't too bad.

Well, I took the plunge and did it. All it took was a little grinding on the follower with the belt sander and everything runs smoothly.

Thanks for everybody's help.

 

[rbernie]

Any before/after pics?

 

[Randy in Arizona]

I have an 03A3 in 300 Winchester Magnum. It would not feed reliably as I got it from the 'smith.

I ground carefully on the feed rails & extractor. The only change I made to the follower was to bevel the rear so the bolt was not held back when the magazine was empty. I later swapped out the follower for a bronze Mauser follower and noticed no change in feeding.

The rounds will feed from the magazine or I can drop a round into the chamber and the extractor will snap over the rim and engage the extractor cut of the case with no more effort than an un-altered '06 Springfield.

Work slowly and carefully, Grasshopper, check frequently as it is far more difficult to put the metal back on.

 

[JesseL]

Any before/after pics?

Sorry, no pics. There really wouldn't have been much to photograph though. I'll see if I can make a little illustration of what I did with a picture from google image search. Like people said, take it slow and do a lot of test fitting.