extractor issue on Winchester 88 - a little help!

[roscoe]

If any of you are familiar with the Winchester 88, I would appreciate a diagnosis. I bought one for my father in .308, had the headspace checked, put a sling and scope on and sighted it in, firing 15 or so rounds. It fired fine, and extracted the brass fine. So I sent it to him for his birthday.

I sent him some Zoom caps so he could practice with the trigger and sling before an upcoming boar hunt (there is no rifle range anywhere near for him to get live practice).

But when he cycles the action, the Zoom caps don't fly out, they pull back from the chamber and sit there. I find it strange that the fired brass extracted fine for me, yet the Zoom caps won't. Unexpended live rounds seem to extract somewhat better, but definitely don't fly out the way I think they should.

Is there some reason for this other than a malfunction of the extractor? (One problem, obviously, is that I can't inspect the thing myself.)

I was thinking that maybe the empty brass was lighter, or that for some reason the extractor was not seating properly without the round firing.

Any ideas? Or should I just have him take it to a gunsmith?

Thanks!

 

[243_shooter]

The extraction on my model 88 can only be described as VERY aggressive.. If I try to work the lever slowly (say to catch the shell in my hand for reloading) 75% of the time the empty cartridge will hang up in the reciever, and 95% of the time a loaded cartridge will hang up in there.. Even if a fired cartridge doesn't hang up, it'll actually bend the case mouth..!

If I just work the lever normally, it'll eject great (and throw them a fair distance), although it still manages to sometimes ding the casemouth on the way out.

I asked a similar question on another board, here is the link, got some pretty good answers (also have some pics of the dent's mine puts in the case mouths).

http://www.loadyourown.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/000223.html

Leo