FN 243 Mauser feed issues

D

Downeaster

Inactive
Hi all,
I have an old FN 243. For the age of this gun, it is overall an awesome firearm. I inherited this from my Dad many years ago. My primary complaint is 2 fold. If I am at the range, and only manually inserting, and chambering 1 round at a time, I have to physically push the rear of the ramp down with my finger, in order to slide the bolt forward. If I fully load the gun, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd rounds will feed and eject perfectly. But when the 3rd round ejects, the ramp pops up, and the 4th round will literally fall out, every time. (Same thing would happen if I only loaded 2 or 3 rounds). Last one, will literally fall out.
All input is helpful. I shot 60 rounds through this old girl the other day. Other than the feed problem, it is the most accurate firearm I have ever shot out to 200 yards.
 
follower

The magazine follower, or ramp as you describe it, is likely intended to hold the bolt open on the last shot, signaling reload time. This was a designed feature on many military bolt actions, loaded from stripper clips into the magazine. On many sporters, a small bevel was cut on the rear of the follower, to allow the bolt to close w/o having to bother with thumbing down the follower.

I wonder if your rifle is a true FN sporter, or is a sporter built from a Mauser pattern FN action, originally intended for another caliber? The issue with the last cartridge not staying in the magazine hints at a feed rail issue. Feed rails not tapered/fitted appropriately to the cartridge are common with cartridge conversions and builds.

But, not to slam your rifle, which I suspect is an heirloom mentioned in another post.......and such things are special I agree. Your .243 may well be a true FN sporter. Either way, a good gunsmith, not a parts man, should be able to work the rails to get your rifle to feed correctly. You might get him to bevel the mag follower too.
 
"...the age of this gun..." It's not as old as you think. No .243's at all before the mid 1950's for one. And that ain't old! snicker.
Anyway, like bamaranger says, it'll be the mag follower. The "...have to physically push the rear of the ramp down .." Indicates a wee burr. Take out the follower and look. Removing the burr will probably fix the feeding issue too.
 
1924 Serb Mauser

Okay, if indeed your rifle is stamped with that crest, you have a "build", a sporting rifle assembled by re barreling and likely by restocking a military, in your case, Serbian Mauser. As T. O'Heir notes, the .243 Win did not come into existence 'till the 1950's, so your 1924 action predates your barrel by a good many years. The original caliber for your 1924 action was in all likelihood 8mm/7.92.

Such conversions are common, and quality and function depends largely on the 'smith who worked up the rifle. One critical aspect is working the feed rails on the side of the mag box to get the cartridges to pop up at the right moment to slide behind the extractor.....and in your case, for all cartridges to remain in place during use.

That is about all I can advise, other than it can likely be fixzed by a good man
 
Excellent info. I've learned more about this gun in the last 48 hours than I knew in the 50 or so years it has been in the family. Too bad my Dad isn't still around. He would Love to have known all this guns history. Thanks again.
Now, if I can locate a good Gunsmith. They seem to be pretty darn scarce in my neck of the woods.
 
"Thanks for your replies. Not sure if I would know the difference between a"true sporter" or not. The side of the Action is stamped with Fab Nat D'Armes de Guerre Herstal- Belgique."

It still might not have been originally a .243. The symptoms described fit perfectly into what I've seen from Mauser actions re-barreled to short action cartridges. The follower may have been replaced with a military part. You might be able to find a new(ish) follower and spring to try to improve the "popping out" problem and a bit of handwork with a file will remove the "empty mag" step on the rear of the follower.
 
I suspect a different problem. I learned it the hard way,building a 308 on a mauser.Similar problems.

The way the mag box is supposed to work,at both the shoulders and the case head,back near the rim,its all supposed to stack in the mag box as tight,equalateral triangles. The follower,the rails,the width of the mag box,(for and aft) And the DIMENSIONS OF THE CARTRIDGE CASE.

Now,had the cartridge selected been the 6mm Rem,we would not be talking about this.The 6mm Rem is a necked down 7x57 Mauser case.

If you compare drawings of the .243 to the mauser cases,back at the case head,near the rim,they are the same size.Great!! But the 243 has less case body taper.Its fatter at the shoulder.

So,at the shoulder,the 243 stacks tight and comes to a stop EARLY. Back at the case head,near the rim, everything is sloppy loose .The case heads typically ride low.Only the shoulder is contacting the rail.Itseasy to pop free.
And its also easy for the case head to be low.The bolt does not catch the base of the case.It rides over,then digs into the side of the brass,and drives the case forward.The brass is crushed and the gun is tied up!!
 
One more suggestion: The Mauser,and other rifles with that long claw extractor on the side of the bolt,are what is known as "controlled round feed"
From your description,it sounds like you are inserting a round ,single shot,into the chamber.
Then,the square rear edge of the magazine follower is catching the bolt face as you try to cycle the bolt forward,yes?
OK.The RIFLE is doing what it is supposed to do there.We have a training issue.
Back to "Controlled round feed".The gun is designed to have the ammo loaded into the magazine box.That done,even with one round,the magazine follower catching the bolt is moot.The follower is depressed.The cartridge is supposed to feed up the bolt face UNDER the claw of the extractor.Not ahead of the claw.

IF the rim of the cartridge is hooked under the claw of the extractor as the cartridge feeds up the bolt face,its pretty hard for the cartridge to pop out.Think about it.

Now,as designed,in an emergency,with effort,the extractor can be forced over the rim,but its not so good to do that.
And,for some,it was the fashion to alter the extractor,grind some off the hook,to facilitate the option of push feed single loading..In doing so,controlled round feed can be compromised.
The practice of forcing the extractor hook over the rim single loading can make the extractor worse,aggravating the problem.

A gunsmith can begin by re-arching the long spring in your extractor,and maybe tuning the hook a bit.If that does not work,new Mauser extractors are not rare.It can be replaced.

On having to push the follower down...That feature was a prompt to say"Gun is empty,reload" during the fog of war..If you load to the magazine,its no problem.
If it really annoys you...IF you have a solid,milled follower,your gunsmith can bevel the rear edge so it cams down as you push the bolt forward.

If your follower is a stamped sheet metal part,grinding it will cut a vee shaped "problem" that will need to be welded up and dressed off.Just don't! Its not worth the trouble.Buy a solid milled follower and then bevel it.

The bevel,however,is unnecessary.
 
All really good info, and I appreciate it. Especially concerning the controlled feed. Actually, up until the trip to the club gun range a couple weeks back, I only ever shot the gun with a fully loaded magazine. Since I was at a controlled range, that calls hot and cold lines, it was easier to simply hand feed 1 at a time.
So yes, the rear of the follower was catching the bolt. So now I know that is a built in feature, and I can live with it. So I just need to figure out what the real issue is with the last round popping out when the 2nd to last round is ejected. Have to find a competent Gunsmith for that.
I do have one other question though. When the bolt is disengaged, and especially when pulled fully to the rear, it just feels awful loose and sloppy to me. Is that normal as well? Nothing appears to be excessively worn at the back end of the receiver. All of these things, are nothing new with this gun. Been this way for years and years. I've done a full tear down on it, to give it the cleaning it has not had in forever. So wanted to tighten up and improve, whatever points I could while in tear down.
 
Loose and sloppy at full extraction is unimportant. Nice and tight when the bolt is forward and closed is very important. :)
 
they are built with a certain amount of slop so they will work with a degree of dirt and crap that may be on the ammo or get into the action durning combat. that was one of reasons the german army went to the P-38 over the luger for ww-2 and one of the reasons the ross lost out to the enfield in the british army in ww-1. eastbank.
 
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