Bolt Opens During Firing?

[HGM22]

I've been watching some youtube videos about various shotguns recently, and in more than one I have seen a half-extracted shell hull in the chamber after firing but before the slide is racked. Is this normal? For all pump guns?

Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUHAEvbf_I4

 

[JoeMal]

Doesn't look normal to me...my pump certainly doesn't do that, nor have any of the other pumps I've used

Maybe it's because it's been sawed-off?

 

[bigalexe]

Normal operation if you don't hold the fore-end. I busted my thumbnail in half yesterday by placing my hand behind the slide with a 3" Magnum in the chamber. Normally I can get away with this using target loads but I guess not with the heavier loads.

Just an additional note: if the slide does open all the way on a pump gun, it doesn't necessarily mean the gun picked up another shell from the magazine tube.

 

[jmr40]

Happens all the time. The bolt unlocks as soon as the gun is fired. Depending on the recoil sometimes the bolt will move slightly to the rear. It also depends on how you are holding the forend. You may not realize it if you have a firm grip on the forend. This guy was not holding the forend at all.

 

[Milkmaster]

Sounds normal to me! Especially if it is a Winchester Speed Feed with the rotary locking bolt.

 

[GRIZ22]

Remingtons don't others do. Someone can probably post a complete list.

 

[jmr40]

All 4 of my Remington 870's do.

 

[sidibear]

Benelli Supernova does.

 

[Virginian]

Any decent pump gun will do it if you don't have a hand on the forend. The Winchester rotary bolt has nothing to do with anything. It's called inertia - with apologies to Benelli. The recoil throws the whole gun back, and you stop everything but the bolt and fore end. My Wingmaster Magnum will come all the way back ejecting the hull if you shoot it one handed with even light dove loads.

 

[JoeMal]

Maybe I need to start shooting my shotgun one-handed to experience this then

 

[Carl N. Brown]

Winchester in the 1960s made a semi-auto and a pump shotgun models on basicly the same design. The pump would open quickly under recoil.

The recoil of my old S&W 916 will unlock and open the bolt solely through momentum of the mass of the bolt and slide.

Added:

if the slide does open all the way on a pump gun, it doesn't necessarily mean the gun picked up another shell from the magazine tube.

True. I have a shotgun that requires you bump the slide forward to properly feed a shell from the magazine. Since I had gotten used to pulling back on the slide on the 916, pulling the gun into the shoulder as I do with a rifle, this newer shotgun would misfeed often when I shot it from the shoulder. I gave up and put a pistol grip on it: my instinct with a pistol grip shot gun is push forward with the slide, pull back with the pistol grip.

 

[Slamfire]

I had a Walmart new, Winchester 1200 pump, that not only unlocked, but ejected high brass rounds. Low brass rounds would open the action and partially eject, often jamming the next round.

I wrote Winchester, this was when snail mail was how you communicated, and got a stupid reply, quoting the owner’s manual that the “action stayed vault tight” during ignition.

Given that customer service must be smarter than I, and therefore the problem was due to something that I caused, I tried an experiment. I shot once with high brass, putting my hand between the forend and the front of the receiver. Putting my hand between the slide would certainly keep it in place if inertia was the only problem.

That one shot darn near crushed my left hand. Thank goodness hands are pliable, but it hurt. The forend smashed through my grip and the high brass shell partially ejected.

That is when I decided that the shotgun was defective and Winchester Customer Service a bunch of clowns.

Well clowns, hope you had a backslapping good time in the unemployment line.

Walmart took the shotgun back and refunded my money. Yippie for Walmart.

I bought a Mossberg 500 to replace the Winchester. That shotgun has never hurt me, but it will partially unlock when shooting slugs or buck. That is due to inertia, not a defect in design or manufacturing.

 

[jmr40]

I still think your Winchester was fine. Sounds just like every pump I've ever owned. Brownings, Benelli's, Remingtons, Winchesters, and Mossbergs, I've owned all did the same. This is a Mossberg in the video. Lighter loads are much less noticeable, often only unlocking the bolt, but I've had quite a few turkey loads completely eject the shell.

 

[rcmodel]

The only pump shotguns I ever fired in my life, and thats a lot of them, that would open and partially eject on firing all by itself is the Winchester 1200/1300 series.

My borther-in-laws 1200 will rip the forearm through your hand so fast it will leave blisters when shooting Magnum loads.

Never did seem right to me, but that's the way they made them.

rc

 

[Cosmoline]

Mossbergs do it a lot with the magnum slugs.

 

[1KPerDay]

My 590 doesn't do it with express buck or 2 3/4" slugs... I haven't shot 3" slugs as I like my wallet and my shoulder.

 

[mnrivrat]

I've cured this problem on several different brands of pump shotguns by adjusting the bolt lock system.

To have it open a little is generaly not a problem and doesn't hurt anything. To have it sliding half open or more can be annoying . The bolt unlocks as the hammer falls. If it unlocks prematurely there is enough pressure left in the barrel to blow the bolt back .

The fix is not hard if you know what to do.