After the thorough disgust wore off from paying good money for a non working rifle I decided to solve the problem myself. It's just a rifle it's not rocket science. My model 16 FCSS in .223 refuses to feed the last round from the magazine. The first and easiest step was to contact Savage for a magazine replacement to rule out a faulty magazine. Got the new magazine and no joy. I suspected as much since the magazine will engage the forward catch before bottoming out against the receiver. I can hold pressure on the bottom of the magazine (holding it in place where it should be) and it will feed every time. Ideally the magazine catch should engage at the same time that the magazine bottoms out ensuring that the magazine is inserted as far as possible into the gun. We're only talking 1-2mm but that's all it takes to make this rifle unreliable. Now...how to actually solve the problem??? There are really only two things that affect the position of the magazine in the gun; the small pressed in detent on the front of the magazine and the magazine catch itself. Since the small shelf on the magazine body is pressed in at the time of manufacturing I can't really change that. The magazine catch could also be longer and solve the problem but I don't know if they're cast oversized and fitted or this is just the tolerances I can expect from a Savage rifle. If I could order an “as cast” magazine catch and fit it myself that would be great, but like I said I don't know if the part is originally oversized to allow for fitting or not. My other option is to remove the magazine catch and TIG weld a small bit of material to the end and then fit it. I'm thinking this is my best option. So there you have it...does this sound reasonable? Are there any flaws in my diagnosis? Anybody got a better idea?

Here's a video showing the space between the mag body and the receiver bottom...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_IZY5w7b0EU