round nose ammo jams in my 8mm mauser what can I do?

Question

I plan to reload and will use spire point ammo then which shouldn't jam, but mean while the factory round nose is jamming. Is this typical?

Answer 1

There can be a couple of things that could cause your feeding problem. One is the ramp. I could need polishing as others have said. When I polish a ramp, I like to use a Dremmel tool with a felt buffing cone. I use valve grinding compound to start. Take it easy and just polish out the roughness. Then switch to a finer compound and polish some more. Finish up with an extra fine polishing compound and you will have a nice bright polished feed ramp. Slow and careful is the watch word. You don't want to get too aggressive or you could change the configuration of your feed ramp and that would not be good. After polishing your feed ramp, be sure to remove all of the polishing compound before taking your gun out to shoot. After polishing the ramp to a bright finish, try loading a round nose cartridge from you rmagazine into the chamber. Go slowly so you can see what is happening. If it still fails to feed properly the next place to look is at the magazine. Sometimes the magazine can get dropped and the lips will get knocked out of line and cause misfeeds. If you have never worked on the lips of a magazine, this is the time to find a friend who has done this or take it to a gunsmith. It is very easy to really screw up the magazine lips and then it won't feed any cartridge correcty. Another thing to consider is the possibility that the mouth of the chamber has a burr in it. To evaluate this, use a piece of flannel or other fuzzy materrial to make a patch like a large cleaning patch. Insert it carefully into the chamber and see if any fuzz is pulled off the patch by any irregularity within the chamber. You can see this by shining a light into the muzzle and looking into the chamber for lint or fuzz. If you don't see any, take a cartridge and thoroughly clean the outside so that it is nice and polished. Examine it for any flaws, scratches, etc to make sure that it is nice and smooth. Fiure this round and carefully recover the spent shell without letting it hit the ground. Examine the brass shell for marks that have been made by irregularities in the chamber. Lastly, are the cartridges that you are shooting nice and clean? Old cartridges can become dirty or corroded over time and this can sometimes cause feeding problems. The bolt face can cause problems. If it or the extractor is damaged or crudded up so that the base of the cartridge does not fit into the extractor properly, it will cause a misalignment and result in a misfeed. If you do all of this and still haven't resolved the problem, it is time to take it to a gunsmith.

Answer 2

Greetings. polish the feed ramp that the nose of the cartridge is pushed up to align it with the chamber. lot of times the ramp is not very well finished, depending on when your mauser was made. With military hard ball that was not a problem. with exposed lead round nose ammo it is. Just get it nice and shiny and as a test you can put some carbon black on the ramp then feed a round over it, see where the bullet nose hits, might be a ridge in there the nose catches on. I have 3 of the 8's, really 7.92 X 57 JS caliber. all of them feed anything that I have tried so far. Or you could go to a different brand of ammo. Say a hollow point or protected tip soft nose. Small problem. watch when you load and i bet you see what is the problem with the feeding.

Answer 3

Is this Mauser in the factory military stock or a sporter stock?

If you have a sporterized Mauser, check to see if the magazine box (part of the trigger guard) is butted up to the feed ramp. Some times gunsmiths don't inlet the action or trigger guard enough and a space is left between the two.

You can tell this by opening the bolt, and looking at the feed ramp. If there is a space between the bottom of the ramp and the top edge of the mag box, some extra fitting is required.

I also agree with checking the follower spring. These can get bent and weaken, as with any spring. Wolff Springs manufactures excellent replacements.

Answer 4

As a Gunsmith, the polishing of the ramp is a good idea if you have the proper tools. A dremel will work, with some extra fine silicone carbide lapping abrasive is normally used to polish the bullet ramps. I have no idea why others are mentioning a magazine issue since the K-98 has a leaf spring that rarely breaks down or loses it's "Memory". The magazine follower plate could be damaged but that would be clearly visible to the naked eye. Replacement parts are available from:

e-gunparts.com (Numrich Gun Parts Arms Corp)

The Lapping Compound is available from Brownells.com and comes in a 4ounce jar.

Answer 5

If round nose projectiles jam, then there is something wrong at the junstion of the feed ramp and the barrel. Maybe it is just a rough spot which needs to be carefully polished out.

Answer 6

Two things. You may need to polish the feed ramp if there is a rough spot. Also, take it apart and check your magazine; the spring may be broken, twisted, bent, catching on something or yada. That could cause the shell to not be lifted fully into loading mode.

Answer 7

As Rich M says, it sounds like feed ramp problem. Chamber a round by letting the slide go forward slowly by hand, you will probably see where the problem spot is.