star m249 box mag jams

[-Dan-]

hi all

ive got a star m249 mk2, went to use it for the first time on sunday, put some bb's in, pulled the trigger and all i got was dry firing, stoped, pulled the trigger again just to get more dry firing.
any way after many attempts to get the gun to work we figured out that there must be a jam in the box mag. not impressed!

Is this a known problem or am i just extreamly unlucky that it happens the first time i go to use the gun.

got home and had to take the box mag apart completely to remove the stuck bb's as the feed mechanismn is completely enclosed. easy taking it apart, son of a bitch getting it back together.

loaded up the mag again and pulled the trigger, guess what. dry fired, at this point i was getting seriously pissed so i just held down the trigger and to my suprize it fired.
whats worrying me tho is the amount it dry fires befor bb's start loading into the gun. is this normal? is there a way to wind the mag befor you attach it to the gun?

lastly when i did manage to get it to fire it seemed to fire 3 shots then dry fire 1. it did this for pretty much the whole mag.
do you think im just unlucky with the jam and the dry firing, or do you think the box mag has some issues.
let me know your opinions
cheers

[Blastyman]

Are you sure the electrical contacts are making a good connection. There are 4 contacts.

Its possible that that a contact is pushed into its hole too far. They are spring loaded. Just use a pin or something to push them in a bit and align them with the hole and allow it to pop into its proper position.

Mine came from the factory with the contact in the inncorrect position. Luckily its a 2 second fix when you know what your looking for.

This may not be your problem however but it was for me.

[-Dan-]

yes thats the other point i forgot, the amount of times i have to insert then remove then insert the connection to get it to fire is rediculous. can never get it to fire first time, maybe its just a knack thing?

im pretty sure the connections are ok on the box mag side, they seem to be flush with the top of the connection. do u know of any way to wind teh box mag befor you fix it to teh gun?

[-Dan-]

hi all

just an update and to let you know the problem i had and how i hope i have fixed it,

all thought the box mag did jam, hopefully this was only a one off, the box mag was not the reason the gun was dry fireing.

after taking the box mag apart and freeing the jamed bb's i tried the gun again, still no joy.

i then stripped the gun apart and took out the mechbox, befor i opened the mechbox i tried first twisting the air nozzel, i was extreamly stiff, i then tried pushing it in and letting the spring push it back out again, this was also extreamly stiff and the spring was struggerling to move the air nozzel back, i suspected this was the cause of the dry fireing. i then opened up the mechbox, which i must add is a very nice bit of kit! there was plenty of grease over the gears and piston head, and cylinder and pretty much every thing else, way way to much for my likeing, it was literaly dripping with grease.
after a few minuts of clean off the surplus grease i turned my attention to the air nozzel. i tried pulling it off of the cylinder, only to find my fingers slip off the end, A becasue there was still grease on my fingers and B the bloody thing was stuck. any way i got a rag to it and used a bit of force and off it poped.

the air nozzel is of good quaility, it is just to tight a fit on the cylinder, it should move freely back and forth with minimal effort, which it certanly was not.

i used a fine grit glass paper rolled it into a tube and sanded the inside of the air nozzell, i also lightly sanded the cylinder tube, i did this untill the air nozzel moved easily on the cylinder tube.

fixed the mechbox back together and put it back in the gun, loaded up the box mag and gave the gun a whirl.

fired all 2500 rounds in a few minuts with only 1 or 2 dry fires.

fingers crossed i have fixed the problem, but will have to wait and see at the week end when i take it to a game.

sorry for the long post, i hope this helps any one else that is haveing the same issue with there m249.

happy hunting
Dan