Magazines Hard to Release from Manners PRS2 Stock

[Paul_H]

I have a Manners PRS2 stock that I just mounted my TL3 short action in. I'm having a problem with 2 of my 3 AW magazines. With two of the magazines it takes a slight amount of pressure to seat the magazine, but it is very difficult to press the magazine release catch. On the other AW magazine it inserts and locks into place with almost no effort, as does the single stack mag provided with the stock. On this one AW mag, and the provided mag, the mag release lever is very easy to operate and takes very little pressure to get the mag to release.

I've looked at the one AW mag that works great and compared it to the two mags that don't release well, but I can't figure out what's different between them. All the AW mags are from AICS. Any ideas on what might be the difference or what I should look at adjusting on the two mags that are hard to release?

EDIT: My PRS3 has the mini-chassis in it.

Paul

 

[spife7980]

Have you put calipers on them and written down the measurements?

 

[Paul_H]

I just did and the height of the feed lips on the two that don't work is .010 taller, as measured from the bottom of the mag, than the one that works. I tried bending the feed lips down as far as I could with my feed lip bending tool, but could not get the height to change. There's not much adjustment to bend the lips down before the tool hits the other feed lip. Thinking I may need a different feed lip adjustment tool. Have the H-S Precision feed lip adjustment tool, but looks like I need the MPA style tool, but of course it's back ordered.

 

[Hollywood 6mm]

Check the height of the mag catch bump on the back of the magazine. Measure from the top of the back wall of the magazine to the bottom of the bump where the catch grabs it.

 

[Paul_H]

Check the height of the mag catch bump on the back of the magazine. Measure from the top of the back wall of the magazine to the bottom of the bump where the catch grabs it.

That measurement is the same for all 3 mags. I think what's happening is the feed lips on the two hard to release mags are hitting the action where the 3rd one is not. I say that because the one that releases easy has just a tiny bit of play when its locked into place where the other two don't. What I don't know how to do is bend the feed lips down a hair without a different style feed lip tool, and I'm afraid to take a set of needle nose to the mags....

 

[spife7980]

Measure the gap between the lips. Write these measurements down so you can go back if necessary.
Ideally the actual materials dimensions are the same so that bending the lips to match the functioning mag will also locate them at the proper height.
Wrap some masking tape around the needle nose pliers if you are afraid of marring the mags inside lips.

 

[ShtrRdy]

You may need to measure several places on each side of the magazine. For example measure the thickness of the mag at the front - at the top, the middle, and the bottom. Then measure the thickness along the back. Then measure outside length front-to-back.

What DBM metal are you using? Is it designed for the AW magazine?

 

[kydron]

@Paul_H did you get this resolved? I'm having some similar issues with 1 out of 3 of my AW mags. Action is Defiance Elite SA, DBM is Badger M5 Enhanced, and the stock is a Manners T4A Elite Carbon. Rifle was built by GAP. Single stack AICS mags work great, but take a lot of force to strip the first round on a fully loaded mag, hence the desire to run AWs.

I just put in an order for the MPA feedlip tool. I found it in stock at Eurooptic: https://www.eurooptic.com/Masterpiece-Arms-Feed-Lip-Tool.aspx

The game plan is to measure and adjust the mag feedlips as much as possible before modifying the catch lever. Similar to you, I noticed that all of these AW mags seat completely and firmly into the action's AW cutout (hard stop), so it's likely that the one troublesome mag may have its feedlips finishing at a different elevation/angle than the others.

 

[Paul_H]

Not really. I was able to adjust my AW mags feed lips and the release got easier, but two of the mags were still a tad stiff to release. After shooting the Manners a bit I decided to go back to a chassis, so it became a moot point on that rifle. I wish I had had some marking compound so I could have seen exactly where on the lip I was making hard contact with the action, but never got around to doing that.