Need some help cincerning staggered feed magazine

[mugsie]

I may have done something stupid. I bedded my stock a long time ago, it's a 12BVSS in .223 but it has the staggered feed mag. The mag is attached to the receiver when I remove it from the stock, so I believe it's the stagger feed. Well, at one time I had removed the magazine, bedded the stock, then replaced the mag. (managed to break a tab so I needed to purchase a second mag). I put it in and proceeded to shoot. My rounds, when loading, hang up and don't feed correctly into the bore, but I'm using hand loads and they were seated long. Today I tried commercial ammo and they too hang up. I fear I may have inserted the mag backwards. The follower has a long bevel and a short bevel that the round sits on. My follower has the long bevel closest to the bolt, so when it loads a round, instead of the bullet facing upwards, it's not, consequently it hits the barrel slightly below the bore, causing the bolt feed to stop. I have to jiggle it into position. The follower also has a cut out which rides in the magazine ridge. This cutout is closest to the barrel and not the trigger group. Since the follower will not simply reverse in the mag well, due to the cutout, this is what has me thinking I put it in backwards.

My question is - how do I remove the magazine from the receiver. It's been so long since I did this I can't remember how I did it. I also did a search on staggered magazine removal on here but didn't yield any results. When I did this years ago, I learned how to remove the mag through this site, but can no longer find any pictures or instructions etc.

How should the mag be facing when it's properly attached to the receiver? I tried different rounds, commercial build and they too hang up. I thought it was because my hand loads were hollow point and too long, but since the commercial ones hung up too, I think it's me.

Can anyone help me out as to how to determine if the magazine and follow is in properly in the first place and if not, how do I remove the magazine from the receiver without destroying yet another magazine?

I can't believe I screwed this up as bad as I did, but facts are facts and I most likely did. Thanks for the help.