Hawkins Precision Hunter DBM issue??

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Tape dampens rattling and firms it up. just my preference. I think i'll go back to one piece.
Smooth out the feed ramps in this area along the whole lip. They were so sharp it would trash my brass with deep scratches and make it rough/gritty. Smooth it out and it should be good i'll bet. If not i'll stay out of it.

Oh, and when Hawkins sees this. Put a damnn allen wrench in the "spacer kit" packaging. When people pay these prices and you have to go out and search all over town for a 1mm allen it can be a real pita. Most every allen set I found stops at 1.5mm. I found a kit for $17 that had the 1mm i think was the size.
Hawkins, please use less lock tight or use purple strength on that little allen. It bent the ---- out of it.
They have a how to install video and leave out the size and removal of the allen screws for a reason.
Maybe heat it up with a hair dryer first?
Hey 300prc,
I used your tricks with the tape on the mag box and scotchbrite on the underside of the feed lips.
Worked like a charm with my 300wm.
Hawkins says that belted magnums don't work well with the hunter dbm.
Mine is now smooth.
Thanks for sharing!
 
A couple things we'd like to add.

The magazine rattle, when you place rounds into the magazine and have the bolt over the top this snugs up everything. There needs to be some clearance build into this system or when you go to release the magazine it will be extremely hard to get out. If you have an empty magazine in the rifle it will move. It will not with the magazine loaded. We get this question a lot.

The feed lips and magazines are machined from a single piece of billet and the spring is specially made for those magazines to give the correct tension. There should not be any burs on the feed lips. We take great care to have no burs on our products. The very early ones had different springs with too much tension, which we have corrected.

Allen key with the magazines is a good suggestion. Those are small screws

We are currently working with this customer on this issue as well. We pride ourselves on using the heck out of the products. We have not had any issue with scratching brass. We'll look into how those angles are being machined. We find that happens on the stamped steel AICS style magazines as well from time to time.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to reach out.
 
A couple things we'd like to add.

The magazine rattle, when you place rounds into the magazine and have the bolt over the top this snugs up everything. There needs to be some clearance build into this system or when you go to release the magazine it will be extremely hard to get out. If you have an empty magazine in the rifle it will move. It will not with the magazine loaded. We get this question a lot.

The feed lips and magazines are machined from a single piece of billet and the spring is specially made for those magazines to give the correct tension. There should not be any burs on the feed lips. We take great care to have no burs on our products. The very early ones had different springs with too much tension, which we have corrected.

Allen key with the magazines is a good suggestion. Those are small screws

We are currently working with this customer on this issue as well. We pride ourselves on using the heck out of the products. We have not had any issue with scratching brass. We'll look into how those angles are being machined. We find that happens on the stamped steel AICS style magazines as well from time to time.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to reach out.
Hawkins (Nick) has been very responsive to my emails....this is not a question about the quality Hawkins puts out....not at all!! Its a question of what is going on with my specific rifle....I have Hawkins Precision on all my rifles....this is just the first time I used their Hunter DBM.

We'll get it figured out...👍👍👍
 
I'll disagree the machine work is fine but the quality needs addressed on the sharpness of the lip where the brass rides. 3 out of three mags would scratch the crap out of the brass and was rough. There was no burr. Just to sharp, that it would bite the brass. A scotch brite pad or similar with a minute or two smoothed it out so they fed much better. Mine were not an alignment issue.
It just needs to be done before it goes to anodize. These are not scratches tumbling will take out in anyway shape or form.

Customer service was ok. I tried to order a mag a few weeks back and gave up waiting for nick to get back so I ordered from elsewhere, then sent an email to forget the mag. After waiting a day for a link to pay for product I gave up.

I fully understand the need for tolerances so mag will release or drop out. I choose to add a piece of tape so the front of mag doesn't hang lower than rear. We are talking small amount but also dampened rattles. It tightened up tolerances in front of mag since nothing is there to keep it up anyway.
It's usually a two hand operation with the right thumb pressing down latch and left grabbing mag unless your on the ground prone.

Glad the op will get it figured out.
That usually happens when someone take issues to a public forum.

Honestly, I like most their stuff other than the bubble on rings. It's clean. I just hope they take it as constructive and look into it.
And please throw a dang Allen in the clear package when you're sealing up the parts. 😉
 
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I'll disagree the machine work is fine but the quality needs addressed on the sharpness of the lip where the brass rides. 3 out of three mags would scratch the crap out of the brass and was rough. There was no burr. Just to sharp, that it would bite the brass. A scotch brite pad or similar with a minute or two smoothed it out so they fed much better. Mine were not an alignment issue.
It just needs to be done before it goes to anodize.

Customer service was ok. I tried to order a mag a few weeks back and gave up waiting for nick to get back so I ordered from elsewhere, then sent an email to forget the mag.

I fully understand the need for tolerances so mag will release or drop out. I choose to add a piece of tape so the front of mag doesn't hang lower than rear. We are talking small amount but also dampened rattles. It tightened up tolerances in front of mag since nothing is there to keep it up anyway.
It's usually a two hand operation with the right thumb pressing down latch and left grabbing mag unless your on the ground prone.

Glad the op will get it figured out.
That usually happens when someone take issues to a public forum.
Honestly I like most their stuff other than the bubble. It's clean. I just hope they take it as constructive and look into it. And throw a dang Allen in the clear package when you're sealing up the parts. 😉
This is Nick. If I missed your email or you waited more than a day or two, that is uncommon. I pride myself on being as fast as anyone in the business to reply. I am also the only customer rep for the company. If I was traveling for say a PRS match, it may have taken me an extra day.

One thing I tell folks to keep in mind these are machined magazines and not stamped steel. Generally if the tips of the feed lips are sharp enough to mark the brass it goes away when they wear in. Just ran new brass on a new magazine, no marks. A scratch on a piece of brass also normally goes away after tumbling and does not effect the integrity of the brass.

We look at the forums as much as possible. We are happy to take feedback and and improve. We're looking into adding an allen key. Those are small an uncommon for sure.

Please note when we talk about and support our products we do so with a large volume of experience and testing. Including constant competitive shooting and multiple hunts a year. It helps us know how everything works in a practical application.

Thanks, have a good night.
 
Nick, out of the 2 new L/A 280/30'06 mags I have, one has a small burr on the underside of the magazine lips, enough so that you can catch a fingernail on it. Can this simply be dressed up with a needle file? If so, could you use a product like Birchwood Casey's Aluminum Black to protect the exposed raw aluminum?

Thanks for any advice!

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You can touch them up if needed. Wouldn't mind seeing that magazine if that's the case too. I had not tried the Aluminum black on the magazines have to say. The billet aluminum should not rust on you either. Though I have to admit, I'm not a metallurgist.
 
You can touch them up if needed. Wouldn't mind seeing that magazine if that's the case too. I had not tried the Aluminum black on the magazines have to say. The billet aluminum should not rust on you either. Though I have to admit, I'm not a metallurgist.
Nick...sent you a PM and an email...

Thank you!!
Jeff
 
Having the same issue with my 300 PRC on a Kelbly action. Rough feeding, tearing up brass, slop in the magazine fit, and difficulty removing magazine.

Hopefully some of the tricks in this thread will relieve some of the issues.

Thanks for the tips.
 
Having the same issue with my 300 PRC on a Kelbly action. Rough feeding, tearing up brass, slop in the magazine fit, and difficulty removing magazine.

Hopefully some of the tricks in this thread will relieve some of the issues.

Thanks for the tips.

Hopefully… good luck.
 
Hey 300prc,
I used your tricks with the tape on the mag box and scotchbrite on the underside of the feed lips.
Worked like a charm with my 300wm.
Hawkins says that belted magnums don't work well with the hunter dbm.
Mine is now smooth.
Thanks for sharing!
That allowed you to feed a belted magnum??
 
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