Hey Gertie, if that is an ATI magazine that the Howa's come with, they have terrible spring tension and they weaken quite quickly. On my 10 round version it actually got to a point it would only take 9 bullets. Pop off the base plate and stretch the spring, it will help a little. Mine did and for some reason I got my 10 round capacity back. Maybe the spring was just bunching up or something. Perhaps look into an aftermarket bottom metal that uses Accuracy or AI magazines. A bit expensive and may require a small mod to the rifle but you will buy reliability and consistency, which might be really worth it if you get into a "situation".

Here's an older thread where myself and another member have pictures of what we did.
http://www.gunsite.co.za/forums/show...ions-pictorial