I bought my wife a Remington Nylon 77 Apache which is the magazine fed version of the nylon 66. I paid 200 dollars including a decent scope and 3 new Remington 10 rounders in the package as well as the 5 rounder. The issue I am having is the magazine cacth/release will not hold any of the magazines in. Are there any gunsmiths experts on this rifle that can assist me in repairing it or charge a moderate fee for repair?

Is the spring on the mag catch/release button okay? I mean, when you insert a mag, the little guide bar should go through the hole in the center of the catch part on the back of the magazine, and the little "angled" part at the bottom of that same catch portion of the mag should catch on the top (inside) part of the mag catch/release button assembly in the rifle. As long as the catch at the top of the release button assembly is there and isn't bent and the return spring is functioning, it should work. What sort of shape are the mags in? I'm guessing the mags aren't the problem though, since none of them are working. Shine a light up in where the catch piece in the rifle is and see if there's a bunch of trash in there or anything that could be keeping it from hooking up to the mag properly. Also, does the mag release button feel like it's got a decent amound of spring tension on it? Or is it just flopping around? Maybe the spring is broken or came loose? I'm just guessing here. I wish I could see it. That sure would make things easier. Anyway, good luck figuring it out. Those are nice rifles. I've had one since the mid '70's and love it.

The mag catch locks the mag in place. Retract the mag catch when you insert the mag and then make sure it is pushed all the way forward to lock the mag in place.

If that doesn't work, go to the nylon rifles group on yahoo. Lots of guys with those rifles over there

sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/nylonrifles/

Thanks for the replies, I will look to see if it is full of crud and give it a thorough check. I will try to get a friends digital camera and get some shots of the old girl.