[Devonai]

Jab-jab. It's sixty years old.

Well, I bought a H&R single-shot 3" 12 gauge for fifty bucks. It's exactly what I was looking for, but I knew nothing about it. I called NEF (almost a local call, but not quite) and they told me it was made in 1940. They also advised against the use of slugs.

It's marked "patented 1900" and marked "12 ga choke" on the barrel.

I tried out some #4 steel 2 3/4" shot last weekend and ended up rather quickly with a failure to extract malfunction. The shell was getting caught on the case mouth where the crimp expanded the mouth. This malfunction occured about 50% of the time, and was only remedied with the insertion of a cleaning rod down the barrel to free the shell.

The most obvious explanation is that the ejector spring is too old.

So, in the immortal words of Kelsey Grammar, "what is a boy to do?"

I'll try switching ammunition brands (Federal was the culprit here), as well as trying out some 3" shells to see if the chamber shoulder will help me out.

Any words of wisdom? And yes, the weapon was cleaned prior to firing.

[Dave McCracken]

Run a handful of lighter field or target loads through it and see if the malf happens again. I'd also get some CLP on the rod behind the extractor and work it a few times. Wouldn't be surprised if there's rustngrunge there binding up things.

HTH....

[kudu]

You might try polishing the chamber to get any roughness or corrosion that may hamper smooth extraction. I once had an old H&R 20ga that wouldn't eject but I could pull the shells out manually. I took the spring mechanism apart and got a bunch of grit and corrosion out of the spring guide. Lubed it. Problem solved.