Last round fails to feed ...every time

[OakyJuan]

Hello All, new guy looking for some help/advice. My friend asked me to take a look at his BMAG because of the failure for the last round to cleanly feed into the barrel.

I took the rifle to my home and gave it a good cleaning, which it needed, and then gave it a quick test. The little rotary mag is a pain to load, but when I got to firing it loaded and cycled perfectly up until the last round. I slow cycled it and could see that the last round was not indexing up like the previous rounds had. All other rounds pop up cleanly under the extractor and line up perfectly for feeding. That final round seated properly at first, is pushed forward nicely, clears the back of the mag, but the back of the cartridge does not rise up nearly enough to be properly seated.

I called my bud up and asked him how long it had been doing that. He said pretty much 'came that way'. I asked him if he had the original receipt (no) or if he knew when he bought it? Best he could recall about 2 deer seasons back (probably Nov. 2015). I went online and checked the serial number and found out that it does fall under the safety recall for the bolt handle.

That being said, I could see no correlation between the recall and the failure to position the last round. I told him about the recall and suggested that he first try a new mag. Which, today after testing, proved to be the wrong call. The new mag performs in exactly the same manner.

At that point he said he would just take it to a gunsmith. I told him to hold off a bit until I could at least check in with some other BMAG owners to see what/if any experiences or suggestions could be offered.

Since the rifle does a recall on it anyway, should I tell him to just send it back to Savage and have them look it over.... or just get the 'recall kit' and then take it to a local gunsmith?

I know he should be the one posting this but he is not one for the 'net' or anything with a keyboard. He likes the little BMAG for critter control and is quite good with it. Accuracy does not seem to be an issue. After warming up the little stinger I am really interested in one as well.


Any and all responses are appreciated!

[Grandoug]

I have the BMAG .17, and I have found the Hornaday loads and shoots best in my gun. (as opposed to the Winchester) I struggled with learning how to load the rotary mag at first, but now it comes pretty easy. I have not experienced the first in last out problem you are describing. I have three different mags and they all function the same. While it is still covered by the recall I would send it back to Savage, and explain the issue. They will replace the bolt, and can possibly tweak out the load issue.

[OakyJuan]

Gunsmith looked it over and then contacted Savage. They basically said they understand the problem and it is to costly to repair it.
So my friend (original buyer) said it is going to the trash pile. Last Savage he'll ever buy. He owns prime quality hunting rifles so I can see his frustration being told by the factory that it's an out of the box failure...sorry.