Help! .410 feeding problem

[308 One Shot]

I have a Rio Grande SS .410 that will not feed more than one shell at a time from the tube. It works fine like that. But two or more in the tube it always jams and it will not kick the shell up to the chamber when another shell is in the tube in front of it. I've already worked on the extractor( filed and fitted), because it would only on occasion extract. It's great now. Not afraid to work on it, but don't have much experience on lever actions. It's already been back to factory once and nothing was fixed at all. I don't trust them now. I like the rifle, but it's no good like this. Any help would be very much appreciated.

[Ranch Dog]

Welcome to the forum 308, hopefully some of the 410 guys will pitch in soon.

[akuser47]

Welcome, I cant help but i can wish you luck keep us posted.

[308 One Shot]

Thanks for the welcome guys. Well I finally took the Rio Grande all apart and found it rough finished inside. I tried working the action 500 times first like I've read ,but it didn't seem to help at all. So I polished all the rough edges per some Youtube videos I watched for the Marlin 336 action. Action is much smoother now but I still can't keep the shells from coming out of the tube more than one one at a time. Could the feed stop be formed wrong on the feed ramp? If I could figure this out I think it would work just fine. Any suggestions?

[Ranch Dog]

In a 336 action, it comes down to two parts; the lever and the carrier.

Marlin Cutaway.jpg

As shown in the picture above, when the lever is closed the rim of the case should be sitting up against the detent in the bottom edge of the lever's internal extension. As the lever starts it's cycle, that detent is moving aft which allows the shell (in the case of a shotgun) to move aft along the carrier. The timing of the carrier's upward movement is simply a matching of the surfaces on the upper extensions of the lever, the aft edge and the carrier. There is probably something wrong with the timing, the shape of these two surfaces as that mate. The carrier is simply not coming up soon enough in response to the levers' movement. That movement is controlled by the features cut into the edges of the "north" end of the lever. There are not cartridge stops are any other device in a 336 action, it is all carrier response as it slides along the edge of the lever.

I would take the gun apart and start with just the carrier in the firearm. Make sure in flops up and down without any interference while turning the gun upside down and back up right. The next step might be to add the lever back to the gun, without the bolt and see how the two parts react (lever and carrier) to each other during lever movement.

From there, I would probably pull the cap off the magazine tube and stick a shell in using a wood dowel to provide the feed pressure. I would want to see how is stops in the "closed" position and then watch it move aft on to the carrier.

Something is not right with the match of the features of these two parts. Somehow the carrier is coming up to slow, allowing more than one shell to enter the carrier. The trouble is all this happens at the very end of the stroke so you have your work cut out for you. This might be something for Rossi to deal with.

[308 One Shot]

Thanks alot Ranch Dog! At least now I feel I know where to start on this. I have tried pushing the shell in the feeding tube back in to get it to catch on the end of the carrier. It will catch and hold the shell(just barely), when I push in and downward on the back end of the shell. So it just makes sense about what you said it about it being out of time. I removed no metal off the end of the lever( just polished) , but I suspected that it would have a bearing on the position of the carrier in the closed position. I will take it down again looking very closely at the areas you mentioned. Hopefully I can figure out how the get the carrier to rise up a little higher to hold the shells in place until needed. Maybe I'll also use a marking pen too on the internal parts ( where they mate up) so I can find out a little more that way when it's all closed up where their touching. I'll proceed carefully here. I'm just an amateur on this as I have worked on quite a few other firearms I've had and generally figured out the problem eventually. I''ll remember it for sure when I do. If I do figure it out it'll be because of your help. Thanks again. I'll keep you posted on the progress on this.

[308 One Shot]

Well Ranch Dog, I've finally got some time today to look into the feeding problem on the Rio Grande. I took all your advice and ended up at the point with just the lever and the carrier(no bolt and watched carefully how everything mated up inside. I determined that the carrier was still not rising up high enough to hold the shell from coming out of tube when it's not supposed to. I tried an experiment of putting some tape (guerilla tape .016) on the "north" end of the lever as you said this is where the movement of the the carrier is really controlled. Afterwards I tried out the action and it feeds shells (12-15 or more) perfectly now. I think that someone at the factory got a little wild on the grinder. Since it's stainless I'll take the lever to someone I know this week to build it up a little with a welder and I'll grind it back down to a spec I have miked it at now with the tape on it it. I think it will work fine after this repair. Thanks again for all your help on this matter. I'll let you know for sure though after working some more on the lever. Michael

[akuser47]

Def. Keep us posted on your outcome. We all learn from this thank you for reporting back.

[Ranch Dog]

Outstanding find. Like I alluded to, you are now our resident 410 go to guy!

[CHX77]

308 One Shot: Your feeding issue sounds just like an issue I had with my RG3030. It only did it occasionally, but still often enough to need fixing. There are articles and videos out there covering this problem with the Marlin 336 that offer different remedies. The fix I chose was to bend the front of the carrier up slightly. I can't recommend this method to everyone but if you feel comfortable doing so, it does fix the problem. If I had a welder, I might have gone the same route you're choosing.