AW Mag/Defiance Action Problem

[celtics10]

Hey all I need a little help,

A couple months ago I picked up a left bolt right port 6.5 creedmoor on a defiance action in an AICS 2.0 chassis. It's a great gun accuracy wise and it comfortably puts 5 rounds into 1/2 moa with the cheap American Eagle 140 gr factory ammo I feed it. It came with one AW magazine, and I've had trouble at times with the action not picking up the next round in the magazine. I would have noticed the problem sooner, but the range that I do about 40% of my shooting at only allows one round in center fire rifles at a time (yeah I know) so I always single feed there. The bolt fails to pick up the next round roughly a third of the time, and happens both on the right side of the magazine and the left side. When this happens, I have to press the mag into the gun to allow the bolt to pick up the next round. I loaded up the mag and did five or six runs tonight cycling the action with different numbers of rounds in the mag and it happens no matter what. I'm looking for some advice on what I can do to remedy this. I do all of my shooting solo so I don't have anyone's single feed AI/Accurate/Magpul mags to easily try. I'm willing to switch to single feed mags if that'll fix the issue, but I was hoping to hear from you all before I start buying more stuff.

Thanks a bunch.

 

[Ledzep]

Well there's no guarantee that AICS magazines will work, but your odds are much better. It could be a DBM fit issue, but a LOT of people run into the same problem you're having with AW magazines(EDIT: With 2-lug bolts). If not at first, after some time as parts wear in.

If your DBM fit is bad enough (magazine sits too low) you may also have rough feeding issues with AICS pattern magazines, but they're a LOT more forgiving. Unfortunately with 5-10 magazine options and just as many or more DBM options and hundreds of "gunsmiths" putting parts together, there is no real consensus on what's "Good". For every magazine out there, there's someone to tell you it failed miserably in their rig. Lots of variability in pillar height-- both front and rear, creating different angles and heights, as well as mag latch heights, and the shape of the hole in the bottom of different actions is different, also. Different feed ramps, CRF vs. Pushfeed, etc... It's not as simple as it might seem at first.

That said, a Pmag is cheap and should work if your DBM is set up anywhere close to right. Otherwise I like the ARC 10 rounders because they're not much taller than a AW magazine.

 

[celtics10]

Yeah it’s probably the two lug thing, I guess I’m just a little surprised that I’m having issues with a AW cut defiance and an AICS chassis, but oh well. I went back and read through the old ARC mag thread and I’m glad they work for most people, but I shoot out on a farm a lot and I’d rather not worry a lot about the dirt thing. I like that you can bend the feed lips on AICS mags to adjust how high the rounds feed from, but I think I’m gonna try the Pmags first - both because they’re cheap and because my fingers just about froze to my metal AW mag when I shot yesterday in the balmy 0 degree weather.

 

[Terry Cross]

In my opinion definitely leaf the feed lips alone on your AW mags.

Figure out a way to get about 0.030 to 0.050" more length on your magazine catch (maybe TIG some extra material on the tip) and re-shape. Goal is to get the mag lips almost touching the sides of the R&D mag cut on the bottom of your Defiance receiver.

./

 

[celtics10]

I’ll see if I can do something temporary for lengthening the mag catch, and I’ll pick up a Magpul to hold me over, then probably trade someone for an AICS 10 rounder or 2 pmags. And not messing with the feed lips is probably a good idea, I’d be worried about the top round in the mag popping out if I inserted it too hard.