Savage magazine problem

[the naked prophet]

I searched for this, but didn't find anything. When I load four cartridges into the detachable magazine of my Savage 111 in .30-06 and close the bolt, it's fine. But when I eject that round and try to feed the next one, there's no spring tension. The second round in the magazine won't come up until I jiggle the rifle. I can lift up the top round and move it around. But when it comes out of the magazine, the last two rounds pop up and are under spring pressure like they're supposed to be. It's weird, because it appears that if I pull out the second round, without letting it touch the round below it, as soon as it's out of the mag the last two pop up just fine.

Anybody else have a problem like that?

 

[JesseJames]

I own a Savage in .22-250 and basically ignore the magazine well because it is such a pain.
I should write the company a letter to bring up this issue and have their engineers take a look at it. A point of contention from an otherwise good rifle maker.
Probably will not buy another Savage if this problem isn't addressed.

 

[jlmurphy]

The follower is jamming, cleaning and lubing the insides might help, or even polishing the inside walls of the mag body.

 

[Matthew T.]

I sold my Savage .243 because of its feeding problems. The factory couldn't seem to fix it. I couldn't fix it. I gave up and bought a good used Ruger Model 77mII in 6.5x55. Trigger is much worse than the Savage. Reliability is much improved. Why don't more manufacturers use Mauser actions to start with?

 

[rockstar.esq]

So I'm not sure I fully understand what you are describing. If the rounds in the magazine aren't feeding to the top of the magazine lips, I'd agree either your follower is getting stuck or the follower spring has some kind of problem. I have a 10FP that won't eject an aluminum snap cap no matter what speed I operate the bolt however it works like a champ with loaded ammo and fired cases so I don't get too worried about it.

After re-reading your post I've noted that you are claiming that the detachable box magazine isn't feeding the second from the top round. It makes me wonder if you're encountering some kind of burr on the inside of the magazine that could be binding on the cartridge case. Burrs tend to get sorted out through use which is cool however if it's really tenacious you might need to get a little more aggressive. If I were in your shoes, I'd attempt to obtain a second magazine (which is a great idea for any detachable mag fed firearm) to see if the problem arises again. At that point you're looking at either a design issue (unlikely) or a receiver problem which again probably relates to a burr or some kind of meddlesome metal being where it shouldn't. I had similar problems with an M44 and a little judicious filing got it simply humming along.