BRNO 601 feeding issue

[mediumbore]

I'm a shooter, not a gunsmith. Picked up a very nice BRNO 601 in .308. Shoots great. Ejects great. But when cycling a round from the magazine the round does not "snap" into the extractor for loading. It tries but doesn't appear to have the force to snap over. It just pushes the round into the chamber. When I remove the bolt I can snap a round into the extractor with little effort and it holds. Any help is appreciated. I live in the greater Houston area and Mauser type rifle gunsmiths are few if any,

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

You might phone MG Arms and Brilley’s and see if either can help you. Another option is Hill Country Rifles in New Braunfels

 

[deewayne2003]

I'm a shooter, not a gunsmith. Picked up a very nice BRNO 601 in .308. Shoots great. Ejects great. But when cycling a round from the magazine the round does not "snap" into the extractor for loading. It tries but doesn't appear to have the force to snap over. It just pushes the round into the chamber. When I remove the bolt I can snap a round into the extractor with little effort and it holds. Any help is appreciated. I live in the greater Houston area and Mauser type rifle gunsmiths are few if any,

Tipton Burns, Texas sporting arms- Canyon lake Texas

 

[Nhoro]

Please clarify- as I understand, as you push the bolt forward, the round feeds into the chamber and slides under the extractor at the last second ( that is my assumption because it extracts and ejects). So your real worry is the timing of the round popping up the bolt face and under the extractor ? You would prefer that it pops up earlier?
Basically, I would say that is reducing the feed lips in the action at the top of the magazine.

 

[mediumbore]

Please clarify- as I understand, as you push the bolt forward, the round feeds into the chamber and slides under the extractor at the last second ( that is my assumption because it extracts and ejects). So your real worry is the timing of the round popping up the bolt face and under the extractor ? You would prefer that it pops up earlier?
Basically, I would say that is reducing the feed lips in the action at the top of the magazine.

Here is a video of the issue

 

[mediumbore]

Here is a video of the issue

 

[mediumbore]

Apparently my video is too long and will not upload

 

[Olvast09]

It's the magazine box height or spring. Try those first before chasing extractor work. A BRNO 601 in .308 is a sweet rifle, don't let this little glitch sour you on it. I've seen this exact issue three times, and two of them were fixed with a magazine spring. The third was a 10-minute extractor bevel. You've got this.

 

[Cabelcan]

Your BRNO 601 is not broken. It’s just finicky. 90% chance that feed lip adjustment + clean extractor + good ammo cures it. I’ve seen this exact issue on three BRNOs (two 601s, one 602). All three were fixed by gently tweaking the left magazine lip up slightly.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Apparently my video is too long and will not upload

You can't load videos direct like a photo. You need to create your own YouTube channel, very easy and free, upload the video there and then post a link here. A simple 16 step process.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Apparently my video is too long and will not upload

You need to upload the video onto a media website like YouTube and then post a link here. A pain in the butt but that's the way it's set up.

Oops. I see Ruger Fan already posted the tip.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

It's the magazine box height or spring. Try those first before chasing extractor work. A BRNO 601 in .308 is a sweet rifle, don't let this little glitch sour you on it. I've seen this exact issue three times, and two of them were fixed with a magazine spring. The third was a 10-minute extractor bevel. You've got this.

That's what I would advise. Try removing the mag box spring and manually stretching it to make it "longer" and add more spring tension in the box. See if that makes a difference. I encountered a similar issue with the Czech military Mauser I used to build a 404. Turns out there was too much spring tension on the extractor. I gently reshaped the extractor by manually bending it and that did the trick. Be careful. If bent too much could result in insufficient spring tension. Then the extractor claw could slip over a fired cartridge rim and leave it stuck in the chamber. Not a big deal if a cleaning rod is handy to drive that empty case out. Then reshape the extractor to add a bit more tension. Tuning the feeding rails would be the LAST RESORT. Take too much off and the action is essentially toast. If the problem is only encountered with particular number of rounds in magazine, that would indicate one rail is out of whack. If only encountered when one round is in the magazine, that would tell me it could be a problem with shape of follower or weak magazine spring. Sounds like it is a problem no matter how many cartridges are loaded.

Is the face of your extractor claw beveled? That would indicate it is designed to "snap over" on cartridges dropped in the chamber and then bolt closed. You might want to CAREFULLY attempt this to see how the extractor reacts. If you meet significant resistance trying to lock down the bolt, stop. Back the bolt out and push the dummy cartridge out of the chamber with cleaning rod (empty case also works fine for this test). Resistance COULD indicate too much spring tension in extractor.

And finally, most likely in my opinion, the bolt face may need to be tuned a bit. Could be some dirty machining, particularly on the ejector side. Here's a page from Duane Wiebe's book on converting 98 Mauser to 375 that shows where the problem areas may be located.

 

[fourfive8]

My recommendation would be to get it to a gunsmith who understands and has experience with this issue. The mechanics are more complex than they appear to be at first glance involving a series of interrelated variables/events. I messed around trying to understand similar bolt gun feed issues several years ago. I rigged up a way to study the mechanics using slow motion video. I looked at several CRF models.