25-20 REM M-25 problem

[roysha]

I am working on a 25-20 M-25 that has a feeding issue. When feeding a round from the magazine, the cartridge will rise to where, perhaps the upper 1/4th of the case is visible in the ejection port and stop cold. Sometimes it is snug and other times the cartridge will flop around with only minimal contact with the "rim guides" on the face of the bolt and no contact with the lifter. I have polished the "camming slot" in the lifter with 600 grit stone in my Foredom thinking perhaps it was scored or otherwise roughened enough to cause the stoppage. I cleaned the plunger and spring that activates the trigger and lifter and made sure there were no burrs there to cause the lifter to catch and/or drag. No joy.
The gun other wise is in very good mechanical condition. The owner says that the situation just gradually got worse with time until it is virtually impossible to close the action with a round in it.
I have completely disassembled the ENTIRE gun and cannot find any thing that would be causing this problem. The bolt face is nice and smooth. The cartridge slips into position, with the bolt out of the gun, with very little resistance and that only from the extractor slipping on to the rim. The cartridge doesn't even get that far up, when the problem manifests itself, so I have eliminated that as a cause.
Without ammunition, the action closes as it should with very little forward pressure on the forearm required.
There just isn't a whole lot of information around on these neat little rifles so looking in a repair manual is pretty much out. I am at wits end. Can someone give me some advice?
Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[nambujim]

No one seems to be responding to this and Model 25's are out of my comfort zone, I specialize on Model 14/141's but there are things the two rifles have in common. You didn't state what kind of ammunition you were trying to feed through the system but I can tell you that both the Model 14 & 25 very much prefer NEW pristine ammunition or reloads made from new brass but OACL is critical.........really critical. If your rifle won't feed using NEW factory ammunition then the problem might be the carrier dog spring.

Other than the above, can't suggest much else but thought it might help!

Jim Peterson
Charlotte, NC