Nelson Conversion feeding issue

I have what I believe is an early Nelson Conversion that has feeding issues. The most common problem is it won’t reliably strip the second round from the magazine. I called Nelson and they gave me some suggestions. When inserting the magazine, the rear lip of the magazine was pushing up on the ejector when the magazine was held in place by the mag catch. The suggestion given was to file a little material off the top of the hole in the magazine where the mag catch engages the magazine to lower the magazine so that it barely sat beneath the extractor. This worked Initially, however the problem has returned. I also tried a 6 lb and 8 lb recoil spring and it didn’t make a difference. I’m using Aguila super extra and Aguila Pistol Match and it doesn’t seem to make a difference which ammo I use.
I have this conversion on a Les Bear lower with a 18lb main spring.
Can anyone provide some suggestions on correcting this problem?

Thanks for your help,

Marlin

Mine does that when the chamber gets dirty.

Rreid,

The chamber was clean when I was shooting slow fire last night and it happened two times. By the time I got to Rapid Fire in the National Match Course, I had a double alibi. I finished the relay with the conversion on a .45 lower and it only malfunctioned one time. I cleaned the gun today and I decided to drop a round into the breach and it did not completely go the whole way into the breach. It stopped maybe 1/16” from being fully seated. After I cleaned the bore, it dropped in without any issues. Did your breach get this dirty this quickly?
Thank for your help.

swap to an oily round like SK or RWS or Eley.

I ran nothing but SK pistol match and std + in my nelson. 8lb recoil spring


I do run Aguila pistol match in my older Marvel..

Have you tried a different brand of ammo? You have used basically the same ammo, just different levels of QA. Try SK or mid grade Eley. My experience has shown CCI and Aguila is great for training but is very inconsistent in bullet diameters which causes these types of problems. Newer Aguila is not as consistent as the original.
My experience is with about 10 conversions of all brands.

The first round sticks in chamber reducing the blowback force needed to cycle 2nd round.

mewing wrote:Rreid,

The chamber was clean when I was shooting slow fire last night and it happened two times. By the time I got to Rapid Fire in the National Match Course, I had a double alibi. I finished the relay with the conversion on a .45 lower and it only malfunctioned one time. I cleaned the gun today and I decided to drop a round into the breach and it did not completely go the whole way into the breach. It stopped maybe 1/16” from being fully seated. After I cleaned the bore, it dropped in without any issues. Did your breach get this dirty this quickly?
Thank for your help.

The chamber in my nelson will not allow a round to drop in after less than 50 rounds.The Nelson chamber is way tighter than my Rugers, they can be filthy and a round drops in easily. I was having reliability issues until I started cleaning the chamber about every other time I shoot. I also clean the gun in general way more than I had to clean my Ruger.

mewing wrote:Rreid,

The chamber was clean when I was shooting slow fire last night and it happened two times. By the time I got to Rapid Fire in the National Match Course, I had a double alibi. I finished the relay with the conversion on a .45 lower and it only malfunctioned one time. I cleaned the gun today and I decided to drop a round into the breach and it did not completely go the whole way into the breach. It stopped maybe 1/16” from being fully seated. After I cleaned the bore, it dropped in without any issues. Did your breach get this dirty this quickly?
Thank for your help.

I'm not a gunsmith, but I would say if the round won't drop all the way into the chamber and drop back out under its own weight, it's not going to cycle properly. I use Aguila SV and it can get dirty in 50 -100 rounds.

Thank you so much for everyone’s response. I will try some different ammo tomorrow at the range and keep the breach clean and see if it improves. Thanks for your help.
Marlin

Just went through similar issues with my early nelson... however my issue wasn't only failure to feed issues.  I did the fix with the mag release on the magazines.  What also helped surprisingly was a new longer firing pin.  I have 8lb recoil and 19lb mainspring.  Lastly- what made it run reliably was putting in a longer spacer in the magazine, which gives tighter compression and pushes the next round up.  I'd recommend trying this option so it feeds consistently.  I believe the spacer was made out of a 3/8" dowel rod.

Jman,

Do you recall how long you made the spacer?

Thanks!

I use .750" long spacers. If you use Kimber magazines, you may find 3/8" dowel a little too tight. For these magazines, I made mine approximately .365" in diameter.

I went to the range yesterday and tried 5 different types of .22 ammo and they all functioned as they should. I tried Eley Target, CMP Eley Bulk pack, Eley Tenex, Aguila Pistol Match and SK Pistol Match. The only problem I had was one of the Aguila Pistol Match spent cases got stuck in a 90 degree angle between the slide and breech. The only difference between the day that I had many problems and yesterday was I used a Patchworm to run through the barrel after every 10 rounds yesterday to clean out any debris in the breech. Thank you to all who helped with the diagnosis of this problem. 

Marlin

I believe the length of the spacer is 2.25"... I had a buddy that made them for me as he uses them in his kimber magazines, good luck!

In the interest of clarity, here is an image of the three methods I've used to give the magazine springs an additional 3/4" of compression. The 3/4" piece of wooden dowel (top) works fine.