Just spoke with Tim at Taccom regarding some feeding issues that I have been having with their upper, bolt, bonnie packer mag adaptor, and 15-22 magazines.

First of all, the customer service at Taccom has been top notch and if I'm not able to get the issue resolved they offered to do what they can to get me going if I send everything to them.

Here's the issue, independently all the parts function just fine but as it was explained to me the S&W magazines have alot of variance in feed lip height which is the cause of the failure to feed. As you can see from the image below the bottom of the bolt catches on the lip of the magazine.

http://imgur.com/ewt3f5J.jpg

Suggested fix is either putting a chamfer on the lip of the bolt or filing down the feed lip on the magazines. From the picture is looks like I would have to file a decent amount off of the lip and wanted to see if anyone here had any experience with this before just hopping in.

Will the lower lip affect reliability? I also purchased one of the speed loaders and wonder how it would affect its functionality. Also, can the chamfer be accomplished with a simple file?


I'm beginning to wish I would have just bit the bullet and stocked up on the blackdog magazines and saved myself the whole hassle. Tonight I will experiment with a magazine and try to answer some of these questions for myself but I am just looking for other input before I get too deep into it.

I had(still have) the same problem. I have way to many mags to file down all the feed lips so I tried to bevel the bolt first.  It did not work for me.  I put the project on hold and just sbr'd a m&p 15-22.  One day I'll file away some more on the bolt and see if I can get it to work.

Hey Guys!
We sell these in the UK and are having the same issue. What we found is the SAW mags do vary ALOT from batch to batch. Funnily the 10 round mag works the best! The difference in height between the mag catch and top of the feed lips can vary by 1mm.
The fix we found is to machine the bolt, on the bottom sides (sharp edge) at 45 deg by very small amount to clear the tallest of mags. You can dremmel it, but its a bit "Red Jacket" !
What can also work is to find a mag catch that allows the mag to sit lower in the well.
i will post up the pictures of the bolt when i can.
Tim is aware of this, and is working on it !!
Try a 10 round mag as these normally seem to be ok.

I've tried the 10 round mag and it still didn't work for me so I pretty much just gave up on the idea because whenever I take a dremel or file to something it never turns out well. With my discount at Brownells, plus the sale on their site, along w/ the current CMMG rebate I just went ahead and bought their Bravo conversion kit. From my understanding the the adaptor and S&W mags should work with the CMMG bolt.

I will send my bolt back to Taccom and see if they can work something out on it. If not I guess I'll just be switching over to BD mags, Joe Bob's has the 50rd drum on sale for $50 right now. Hopefully they can do a little work to the bolt because ?I'd really like to keep the different magazine types consolidated. However, if I pick up the right adapter for my lightnin' loader I may just switch over to the BD mags anyway for the simplicity.

You can send the bolt to Tim and he can modify it himself I think.

Nothing against Tim, but if you just use a CMMG bolt and the Better-Mag adapter, you won't have any of these issues.

Yes the SW mags and adapter work 100% with both our CMMG Bolts..One has a CMMG barrel, the other a Taccom ULW barrel..

I am having the same problem, anyone have any experience filing down the S&W Mags to get them to work?

It looks like I just need to take some off the right side of the feed lip.

Just to add to the database, I recently purchased a TACCOM upper from Shadowcop that had a TACCOM bolt carrier with a CMMG stainless steel bolt. When he tested it with his Boonie Packer mag adapter and S&W mags he had no problems. When I received the upper, I added the TACCOM reliability kit to the CMMG bolt and have had no issues with the Boonie Packer adapter and 25 round S&W magazines I purchased just last week. I have only put a total of 750 rounds through 3 magazines so far, but so far so good. My magazines do not have any lot code identifiers on them but I suspect they are recent manufacture considering how popular these magazines are. If Shadowcop's older S&W mags and my new S&W mags both work, the magazine feedlip tolerances may not be the issue or may only be one of multiple issues. Does anybody have both a TACCOM bolt and a CMMG bolt to compare geometry side-by-side?

I will in a few days I just ordered up a CMMG last night to replace my Taccom (guess its going up on Equipment Exchange)

I also spent last night sanding and filing one of my S&W mags lips on the side that it appeared to be catching, I got the feed to improve but I never got it to a point where it was reliable or consistent in feeding. On mine the right side of the feed lip was the issue, you could see where the bolt was digging into the side of the lip as it tried to close. It was enough of a pain in the ass that I decided to just sell off the Taccom and go with a CMMG Bravo Kit, I have too many S&W mags to have to spend an hour plus to get them to work, plus the filing and sanding I did was noticeable enough that I didn't really feel comfortable going any further, plus my patience ran out

I went to test the pistol with my new CMMG bolt and had about an 80% FTE. Time to take it back to the lab and figure out what the heck is going on.

Curious of the  type of FTE's, stovepipe?, partial retraction of bolt?  What type of ammo?

Have you performed forever4's recommended tweaking of new barrel and break-in of barrel and BCG?  His recommends can be found here:

 http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_3_15/526872_How_to_make_your_AR_22_run_smoother_NOW_with_pictures.html

I run primarily Federal Champion Target Lead nose 1240 fps. Not sure if that is adequate for barrel break in. I am about to try to methods in the post for buzzing the chamber as well as polishing the feed lips. One thing I did notice and wanted to ask about is pictured below. When I hit the bolt release, the bolt does not close all the way. If I manually charge it, it slams shut but it consistently stops short when using the bolt release.



Also, is there a way to just get the collar for the CMMG bolt? I bought one that has the chamber adapter on it and I want to be able to swap it out for a regular collar for use in dedicated uppers. It seems like I'm having two different issues between the S&W mag adaptor and the FTF/FTE

CMMG sells their barrel collars on their web site, about $35 IIRC.

I just checked and CMMG didn't list the parkerized collar and the SS are expensive.

PSA has the same SS collar but cheaper and in stock.

http://palmettostatearmory.com/index.php/ar-15-05/conversion-kits/cmmg-ss-22-collar-go-no-go-gauge-22ba415.html

Does any one know if the OLD Spike's Tactical ST-22 will work with this adapter and the S&W mags? If not I'll stick with my BDM mags and not look into this any further.

I buzzed the chamber as well as polished the feed lips today so hopefully I can go test tomorrow. I have a suspicion that it actually may be the lower that is causing all the issues. It seems like the mags are seating too high which is causing the bolt to hit the back of the feed lips.

Know for certain as in having tried it, no.  But the old ST-22 was identical to the Ciener-improved Atchisson and pre-Evolution series CMMG, so it SHOULD.

Are you using a notched or rounded hammer as the .22 conversions don't like the notched hammers.

As stated, it should. Does you Spikes run well?

Dave N

Backed the mag release off a couple twists and it seems like the mags seat better. Ran some dummy rounds through a couple different mags and they fed without an issue. The ejection was erratic between 2 and 6, but that could be attributed to changes in pressure when charging. I feel confident(ish) taking it to the range.

Potato Pic

I have not had any problems with it so far.