Thanks Rawroots.
Very ingenious fix and thanks for sharing it! Edit:
I tried making the grooves like you did and it looks like that is the easiest method to prevent pulling the next round back out of the magazine from probe drag. However, if the pellets are not seated deep in the magazine, or if they work their way out so they are touching the clear cover, then the grooves do not work.
I had some micro gouges that were used in wood carving and block printing that made some clean grooves pretty quickly and was able to make one mag "groovy" in just a few minutes. Is there a need to put the grooves farther down than the shortest pellet one plans on using? I did just one groove about 1/16" in from the top, fairly deep and it seems to work 100%,, as long as the pellets are seated deep in the mag, even with using the ball end of an allen key to test, that grips even more than the probe would. Not one single pull back no matter how fast or slow I punch it in and out. But if the pellets are touching the clear cover, then it jams every time.
Just to see if a single hole cover would do the job, I put one layer of fairly thick, clear packing tap on the inside of the clear cover to block the top half of the loading / feeding port on four magazines and I tried to get them to jam with 21 rounds each. Not one single "pull back" caused jam! I don't know now long that tape will stay there but time will tell. If I get ambitious I will probably end up making a shallow recess on the inside surface of the clear cover and epoxy a small piece of clear clamshell merchandise display packaging over the top half of the opening. If you put too much tape on there, then the mags won't fit in the gun.
Now that I know about the set screw below the cover retaining screw, opening these up and doing modifications goes very quickly. I am anxious to try some set screws underneath the small spring loaded ball tipped cover indexing screws as well.
By the way, the small recoil stop set screws that come in the UTG dovetail to picatinny adapters are the same size as those used in the Notos mags. I only have two springers so I have a fairly large collection of those setscrews. More than enough to add to my Notos mag detent screws, eliminating the need for thread locker and making tuning the tension a breeze!
Clear Packing Tape Temp Fix
Permanent fix using some 0.006" stainless steel scope base shim stock from Brownells, glued onto the clear cover with CA glue. The black marks are from a Sharpie used to help cut the shape out. I used regular kitchen scissors. Not a single pull back even when trying to force it with a ball end allen key.
It is fun for me to try to fix stuff that is poorly engineered / built and very satisfying when it works. With my normal hourly rate, those mags will be "worth" about $200 each for my time when I am done!
I too am having many problems with pellets jamming. I have replaced the original mags with Carm's and it helped, but did not fix the issue. I have found that the only pellet that will load without jamming are the RWS 14 grain wadcutters. They come in 250 count tins on Amazon.com. They are also the most accurate that I have found. At 25 yards, I can routinely put 5 shots and they are in the same hole. I am now looking for information on how to remove the barrel so I can grind/polish the barrel feed ramp and possibly decrease the distance between the barrel to loading gate face. Thanks for any assistance.
FA00449 -
Does the probe or a small tool simulating the probe pull the next round out the back of the mag like it will on the factory mags or were you having some other kind of jamming issues? I noticed that the stop tab on the factory mags does not prevent the magazine from being inserted too far on the three Notos guns I have. On mine, that causes the pellet to hit the side of the chamber, jamming it. I put a piece of shim material on the action where the tiny stop hits and that cured most of the jamming that way, but I agree with you that the breech mouth needs more chamfering / polishing.