Ruger American Rimfire -- Chamfer the chamber face?

R

Rkerry

Inactive
I recently bought a Ruger American Rimfire .22LR for my 10-year-old son to learn on. Unfortunately, we experience feed jams roughly 1 in 5 cycles, with the sharp leading edge of the chamber cutting into the bottom edge of the bullet as it angles in from the magazine. I've tried two different mags and two types of ammunition. I'll try other ammo still (if I can freakin' find any), but I'm also thinking about taking my Dremel and putting a very slight chamfer on the bottom edge of the chamber, just enough to avoid the sharp edge from digging into bullets as they attempt to load. Does anybody recommend (or advise against) this?

BTW, I'm not new to bolt-action rifles, and I own two other Ruger American bolts as well---one in .22WMR and one in .243---so I'm pretty confident it's not shooter error. I'm not one to soft-stroke the action; this thing just seems to do a good job of snagging bullets as they load. I'm surprised the chamber has no type of lead ramp.
 
You'll need to adjust the lips on the magazine, known as the throat on this type of magazine, as it has the cartridge going in at too low of an angle, so the bullet hits the bottom edge. The lips are at the rear of the magazine, behind the slot the rim rises out of, that holds down on the cartridge. Use a needle file to remove just a little metal at a time, while trying it.

Don't bother the chamber, as that could cause the rim to burst, or swell just in front of it.
 
Do you have some other mags to try before going Dremel on the chamber?
My opinion of new production Ruger rotary mags isn't great right now.
 
There is enough and there is too much. I often break the sharp edges of a RF chamber with a case neck reamer or a similar tool with no problem. Of course, I don't go deep, just break the sharp edge and remove any burrs.

Jim
 
I agree with breaking the angle using a chamfer, go slow, one pass at a time and check it. When you get what you need polish it by hand till it shines. We did the same for ours a few years ago and you'll never have feed problems again.:)
 
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