Magazine + Extraction Issues?

I had my Savage Axis II HB in .223 out today... here's what I'm noticing...

The mag holds 4 rounds.

When I fill it with 4, the first round feeds properly as does the second. But, the third gets hung up as the bullet hits the top of the chamber. The fourth feeds fine.

When I fill it with 3, the first round feeds properly but the second does what is described above. The final third round feeds fine.

Also, I don't quite know the pattern yet... but I think it's the 2nd and/or 3rd round when filling the mag with 4 rounds... or, when filling it with 3, it's the 2nd round... but they're not extracting... they get pulled maybe a quarter of the way out but don't get thrown out of the gun. I recently switched from 55 grain Fiocchi FMJBT to 55 grain Hornady American Gunner HP. No extraction issues with the Fiocchi but it's happening with the Hornady.

Anyways... any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Make sure they are sitting in there correctly. On my 30-06 one side of the follower is lower than the other and the 1st round has to go in there for everything else to line up properly.

Thanks for that tip... Will check it out. Probably will take mag apart, clean and put back together. Thanks!

I would be astonished if the extraction problem were related to the feeding problem. Mb might be on the right track. It's easy to get rounds out of place in an Axis magazine. I don't know if that will cause the problem you've mentioned, but it definitely sounds like a magazine problem.

I had incomplete extraction on one of my Axises, but it's apparently a fairly common problem. I fixed it by replacing the extractor ball with a 9/64" bearing ball.

Thanks DrThunder... will definitely check out that extractor ball... the gun shoots very well IMHO... it's just these "little" things that are driving me nuts.