Pro Mag 12rd drum wont chamber round when mag is seated

[Sublimeon24s 17]

Trying to determine what might be going on. I just took my DDI-12 to the range with my new Pro Mag drum and a few other mags and the Pro Mag drum did not work. Whether it was fully loaded with 12 rounds, or half loaded with 6 rounds, when I would seat the mag and try to charge the gun, the carrier would stop short before fully chambering the round every single time. Before the range, I noticed when messing with the mag that the follower / dummy round is very hard to push down sometimes, and noticed the same when loading it with live rounds. Some of them loaded easy and others you really had to push down on the prev round hard for it to push the follower / dummy round down and off to the side in the drum. 

 

The mag seats / positively locks in place whether empty or loaded, so I am not sure whats going on. 

 

I do notice the rounds take a bit of a push to strip by hand. The feed lips really seem to be digging into them. Do these require fitting in this area?

 

Here is a pick of where the carrier is stopping every time I try to charge the gun with the drum inserted

 

Edited March 26, 2016 by Sublimeon24s

[Bob Melver 0]

I'm fairly certain that all of the mags except the factory mags need to be custom fitted. The manual will tell you how to do it; It's really simple. You pretty much just shave the lip down a little bit. Do read through that and do a little research before you shave anything, though.

 

If that doesn't work, consider replacing the spring or polishing the bolt. Also consider doing both of these regardless, as they are generally a good thing to do.

[csspecs 1,987]

It is possible that there is a dimensional difference between the DDI and a Saiga-12 that is causing it.

 

Check with it empty and see of the carrier is binding on the drum, it is possible a little filing on one part of the drum or another would solve it.

[Bob Melver 0]

That's a good idea too. A general rule of thumb in these types of cases for me is cock it with both mags inserted and watch the difference. Take the protective covers off, and see how everything moves with each magazine you own, unloaded of course. It will probably become apparent what the difference is; Something is probably catching/grinding. You may also notice that is harder to chamber anything round manually with the drum. 

[Sublimeon24s 17]

Well guys, it looks like it might be the gun itself, seeing that I just got home and noticed the extractor is completely broken off the bolt. It may have been already broken at the time I was trying the drum causing hangup when trying to charge the weapon.

[csspecs 1,987]

Sorry to hear that.

 

I have been following your posts both here and on the AK files. I had high hopes for the DDI import. I hope your gun was just a lemon, or was a problem they can work out.

 

If for some reason your sale of the gun falls through let me know. I'd like to take a look at one.

[gunfun 3,931]

Well guys, it looks like it might be the gun itself, seeing that I just got home and noticed the extractor is completely broken off the bolt. It may have been already broken at the time I was trying the drum causing hangup when trying to charge the weapon.

 

 

Thanks for the report. So far there seem to be a high number of early parts failures. I had high hopes for a quality import, but it isn't looking good.

[altiod223 0]

Sorry to hear that.

 

I have been following your posts both here and on the AK files. I had high hopes for the DDI import. I hope your gun was just a lemon, or was a problem they can work out.

 

If for some reason your sale of the gun falls through let me know. I'd like to take a look at one.

I thought the DDI's were all American, not imported saiga parts.

[Sublimeon24s 17]

 

Sorry to hear that.

 

I have been following your posts both here and on the AK files. I had high hopes for the DDI import. I hope your gun was just a lemon, or was a problem they can work out.

 

If for some reason your sale of the gun falls through let me know. I'd like to take a look at one.

I thought the DDI's were all American, not imported saiga parts.

 

 

Pretty sure the AK's are American made but still using imported parts

 

the shotguns are completely Chinese made (not Russian) and DDI just puts their name on them

[gunfun 3,931]

 

 

Sorry to hear that.

 

I have been following your posts both here and on the AK files. I had high hopes for the DDI import. I hope your gun was just a lemon, or was a problem they can work out.

 

If for some reason your sale of the gun falls through let me know. I'd like to take a look at one.

I thought the DDI's were all American, not imported saiga parts.

 

 

Pretty sure the AK's are American made but still using imported parts

 

the shotguns are completely Chinese made (not Russian) and DDI just puts their name on them

 

 

Not quite right. They have models built on US receivers and some parts from import kits and other models which are 100% US parts. The company is very straightforward about which is which. No dodgery or shady doings there.

 

 I've watched a few shop tours and interviews with the owners. It was less about flag wavy USA USA USA stuff, and more about the cost of dealing with having to constantly tool and sort import parts based on small variances, and also problems with steady supply of parts kits. It worked out to be more cost effective to make all the parts the same in house where they could control all the dimensions than to deal with sorting out all the variations. He also mentioned that they had a very high cost of having to reject parts they bought, and inconsistent keep/reject rates. It made it hard to predict how many complete rifles they could make from a batch of parts and interfered with the ability to contract to a vendor to supply X # of rifles by date Y.  Now the company is completely immune to the whims of customs officials or chief executives for their bread and butter product. IMO a good move. They can still dabble with imports on the side, but if the imports get screwed up DDI is still in business.