Failure to Feed Question

3068 Views 15 Replies 8 Participants Last post by Commander47, Jul 31, 2006

Commander47

Discussion Starter · Jul 29, 2006

I cleaned up the sear, and now the trigger works very well.

Now the gun won't feed. It has me kind of mystified. When I charge the handle nothing happens. I've done some preliminary checking, and it appears as if the extractor assembly is just sliding over the top of the round.

I checked the spring on the cover and adjusted the angle a bit to give a little more pressure.

I'm kinda stumped. When you charge it, nothing happens. The belt will advance until the first round is all the way in, the extractor is sitting over it, and then nothing.

You can charge the handle and it won't load. It will occasionally chamber a round, eject it, and then that's it.

Any suggestions, advice, ridicule etc?

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Sniper258

· #2 · Jul 29, 2006

What ammo are you using, it MUST be milspec ammo or only the first round will fire and the next one not feed.

30calmachinegunner

· #3 · Jul 29, 2006

could be a bad spring or binding on the extractor itself, did you check the function of the part that actually pulls the cartridge out of the belt?

Commander47

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jul 29, 2006

I have a linked belt of 60 Winchester 150 grain, brass case rounds I wanted to fire. I don't know if these are mil spec or not though, and can't imagine what the difference would be. They are brand new soft point.

Sniper258

· #5 · Jul 29, 2006

the softpoint rounds are shorter than surplus rounds, thats your problem. Your best bet is to find some surplus or buy some wolf. Most of the FMJ stuff out there will work, softpoints wont work at all

JD0270

· #6 · Jul 29, 2006

The overal length needs to bee 3.340", or a little under will work fine. Most comercial stuff falls way short of this mark. Softpoints will work, only if handloaded to the corect oal. Whatabout making a custom cartrige stop, just like for the 8mm?

Finalygotabeltfed

· #7 · Jul 29, 2006

JD0270 said:
The overal length needs to bee 3.340", or a little under will work fine. Most comercial stuff falls way short of this mark. Softpoints will work, only if handloaded to the corect oal. Whatabout making a custom cartrige stop, just like for the 8mm?

Probably more trouble than its worthand little or no market for such a thing. Most people don't shoot soft point hunting ammo out of their 1919, it's way too expensive.

Commander47

Discussion Starter · #8 · Jul 29, 2006

2

Well, I happen to have this ammo. And yes, it's kinda pricey. But, I don't have any other 308 to shoot it in.

Seems to me it should shoot. I believe that 3.34 is for 06 ammo. My 308 is only 2.67, and the brass is almost exactly 2.

Is the brass case softer than surplus? It just looks like the extractor is dragging right over the top of these. The extractor looks good to me, and the pressure from the spring in the cover seems pretty tight when a round is in there.

I've linked to a couple photos I took today for you to check out.

thanks for all the help.

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Sniper258

· #9 · Jul 29, 2006

in the last photo you can see a gap between the bolt face and the base of the round, there must be NO gap when the bolt is forward, what happens is when the extractor comes forward it just pushes the round to forward. what needs to be happening is the extractor should slip over the base of the round so it can grab the lip and pull the round fromt he belt. Look at your gun from the side closely and drop the extractor on the round and you will see what I mean. And then push the cartriges to the front and drop the extractor, you'll see that it isnt resting inside the lip of the round. The length of the cartidge is critical here. I went through the same problem when i built my first 1919. your ammo just isnt gonna work. To try it and see if it cycles you could make a shim out of cardstock or metal to keep those rounds to the rear. But it will only stay in place for a few rounds. I believe that .308's for the 1919 should be 2.74 or 2.75, but i'll check a few rounds to be sure

Riss

· #10 · Jul 29, 2006

I have had similar results with running GI blanks to function test the gun. Sometimes it will run 5 or 10 rounds, and then sometimes I can charge the bolt until I have blisters on my fingers and it will not extract a round from the belt. Works the same with links.

JD0270

· #11 · Jul 30, 2006

Ahh yeah, I didn't relise yours was .308. The oal of some surpuss .308 that I have is 2.780" So thats quit a difference. If you glue a shim on there you should be able to fire off your rounds. Or get some 7.62 surpluss.

rdulina

· #12 · Jul 30, 2006

I had the same prob. in my .308 gun.... I bought a batch of mixed ammo(southernammo.com) and seperated the nato from the commercial and found that the nato spec was the only ones that would work, the 308 win marked would not feed for me either(became food for the fal)

ironcreations

· #13 · Jul 30, 2006

same problem

mine was doing the same thing, would not pick up the rounds. this may not be the best thing to consider, but ... I smacked the top cover with a rubber hammer, a couple of good whacks, feeds great, better than ever. If it dont work, smack it, I have found this method works with some things, computers is not one of those, Chevys, is one, i work with fire trucks, a hammer works well on those, and now the oh mighty hammer worked on the 1919.. maybe you should try some other methods besides mine...

Commander47

Discussion Starter · #14 · Jul 30, 2006

thanks for all the help sniper.

You are onto something with bolt face gap. What I believe might be happening is that the first brand new round chambers because the soft tip is still intact.

If you look at these three I have linked in the photos, you'll notice the last one is really flat nosed. That is because when the bolt comes forward, and the extractor is sliding up, it slams the round into the front spacer and flattens the tip. Then it's too far forward and the extractor doesn't grab the round.

FMJ military ammo doesn't deform, and therefore stays a set length.

I'd be interested in knowing the exact length of military 308.

thanks

Commander47

Discussion Starter · #15 · Jul 30, 2006

I hadn't had the chance to read page two when I responded above. thanks for the info JD. I'm going to make a shim later today (After the Braves Game) and give it another try.

Commander47

Discussion Starter · #16 · Jul 31, 2006

Problem solved.

Thanks to Lobo's pic posting tutorial. Y'all are doomed now. I'm getting into this posting thing.

Any, braves took a shellacking yesterday. But my grandson and I had fun at Turner Field.

After getting home I decided to play with the 1919 and made a little shim for those Winchester hunting rounds. I took some leftover AK reciever material and made a shim to fit onto the Izzy shim. It was still way short. I took a piece of sticky foam paper I use as aileron material on R/C planes and attached that to the back of the shim, then duco glued (the same spray glue used to attach a template to an 80% receiver. Voila. I was able to charge the rounds and get them feed flawlessly.

Of course, this is not meant for any kind of rapid fire. And I would suggest only doing it to burn up any hunting rounds you need to get rid of. I'm planning on test firing my gun with these soon. Very slow and deliberate. Then get real NATO FMJ and never do this again.

Kinda nice to know though.

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