Hulls sticking in chamber

[MTMilitiaman]

I have a Remington Model 870 Wingmaster Magnum that I bought as an 18th b-day present to myself. Besides being a sweet firearm, it holds a special place in my heart because of this. It has fired thousands of rounds without any problems to speak of and I highly recommend the model. However, I have noticed that both my Wingmaster with its 3 inch chamber and my brother's Wingmaster with its 2 3/4 inch chamber will sometimes have hulls stick in the chamber. When this occurs, extraction can be difficult and I have had to brace the butt in my hip and pull downwards with force with both hands to get some particularly stubborn rounds out. I have been inclined to say they are hot loads but the problem persists surprisingly enough mostly in 2 3/4 inch light field loads. It has happened with factory ammo, but does admittedly occur more often and with greater severity with my dad's reloads. However, unlike most of his loads, these are not designed to be barn burners--they are moderate loads designed to get about 1200 fps with 7 1/2 shot.
I have been very impressed with this shotgun since I have had it but I am curious to know whether or not this problem is ammo or gun related. I have been remotely considering purchasing a shotgun specifically for home defense and have pretty much narrowed my choices to the Benelli Nova and the Remington 870. I need to know if the problems with sticky extraction are ammo related and can be expected to persist in the Benelli or if my Remington is misbehaving.

 

[sm]

Chambers can and will get dirty and gritty, compounded by the plastic hulls. In the days of paper shells this was not a problem...not very often anyway.

Take Wisps of Scothbite's fines grit or 0000 steel wool around a bristle brush, twist and turn. Or - chuck into a battery drill to clean chamber and the whole bore.

If using steel wool make SURE all is removed - it will rust. Hence the reason I more often suggest the Scotchbrite.

Reloading - always make sure the hulls are re-sized. Chambers can and do vary. Best example are hulls fired in a pump/ autolader - then NOT re- sized and they will not fit your O/U- chambers vary.

Most shotgun failures are due to dirty chambers and dirty extractors.

Regards

 

[A Cleaner]

Just a thought...

...cheaper rounds have always been part of the equation when this happened to me (mostly Federal). Switched off the cheap stuff, no problems since.

 

[sm]

Hull quality...we we used to have it ...

Fed Bulk pak has always treated me right.

I think Rem and Win mis-understood the "two pc hull" descriptions...NOT supposed to mean the imitation cheesy base is to come off the rinky-dink inferior aped plastic hull part.

Wanna ask how I really feel about some Hulls?

 

[foghornl]

Yeah, sm...

Don't be shy and hold back...tell us how you REALLY feel about some hulls...


Now installing foamy ear plugs, muffs standing by on the desktop

 

[Dave McCracken]

About all of the extraction probs I've seen with 870s have to do with dirty and/or corroded chambers. Some have bores that glisten and chambers that look like sewers.

Use the Scotchbrite pads or 4/0 steel wool on a dowel to get that chamber clean. Bet the probs vanish....

 

[HSMITH]

I've had to polish the chambers on a couple 870's to keep hulls from sticking. I used a new 10ga bore brush, wrapped tightly with a patch and then covered with JB Bore Paste. Chuck it up in the drill and polish the chamber and forcing cone, polish it until it is dead smooth.

Even with the cheap soft plastic hulls I don't have sticking problems any more.

 

[sm]

HSMITH -

Agree with the 10ga brush. I have used Happich Semichrome in the same manner.

I think we both ( and others) have taken a portion of Al rod, bent it, so as to fit into chamber with gun assembled to get a person up and running while on the field. Bailed out a number of folks with pumps, and semi's. Cheaper than buying an dedicated "chamber tool".

Used to keep them at the ranges, Duck blinds, and dove fields...

 

[mete]

Buy a good gun that has chrome plated bore and chamber.Doesn't rust and doesn't get dirty very easily and when it does it's easier to clean.

 

[Tacoma]

Use a good bore cleaner that is advertized to work on plastic too. ( Shooters choice works if memory serves.) I have also found that some of todays cheap /bulk ammo with non-brass basses stick more frequently. The Winchester 100 round wally world " value" packs are especially troublesome in my guns.

Lastly, I'll assume that if you are relooding, you are doing a full resize on each hull.

 

[Gary G23]

I recently experienced this problem. It had nothing to do with the gun being dirty. The problem was out of spec ammo. Changed ammo and the problem went away. Never clean a gun if you don't have to.

 

[sm]

< looks to make sure Dave ain't around the corner>

Once upon a time [tm] we had ammo that was spec'd. Even the less expensive Western OD green Dove loads, the Western Auto , Otasco, Sears Roebuck....

Just because I could...I ran my SX1 without cleaning, just to see. I had cases of AA, Peters and Fed Paper Target loads. All I did was shoot it, wipe off exterior when finished , shoot and repeat. I know I ran over 2k rds in one week alone. IIRC I went somewhere around a month' s time, and at least 5K rds or socould have easily been closer to 7k ( I was spending a lot of time at the range) ...I would not have cleaned it then - except I shot in a hard downpour , one of those hard to see the clubhouse, or the cars in the parking lot.

Had the best time shooting in the rain, drenched to the bone...was gonna be in a 3 way shoot off...them 2 had had enough. 99/100 to take the monies works for me.

 

[Wags]

Heres a step by step tutorial on chamber cleaning. I wouldn't do any honing unless the polishing doesn't fix your sticking problem. Be careful.....

http://www.msduckmen.com/ and scroll down to the bottom of the page to Gun Maintenace, then choose chamber polishing.

 

[sm]

In all due respect.

DO NOT use the Hone as described. Take it to a gunsmith with the proper tools, and skills to do this and other more serious work.

I have seen a hone used on a gun bbl -used improperly I might add. Ruined a fixed choked O/U it did. First hint after the hone was used to remove a sticky chamber, was how much "easier" the shells inserted into chamber. Then POA/ POI was way off as a result of "getting the plastic fouling build up " removed...then "trying" to re-size the hulls...

Sometimes it is wise to heed the " if it ain't broke - don't fix it" advice. If indeed something needs fixin' a whole lot better to let those with skill , experience and tools to do the fixin'.

Oh...less time and money will be spent if you don't "fix it" before you take it in. It costs money to "unfix" stuff.

 

[TrapperReady]

It costs money to "unfix" stuff.

Yup. And the more money you "save" doing it yourself, the more money it costs to "unfix".

Wise man, that Steve is. Very wise.

 

[Selfdfenz]

I've encountered this issue with the cheap bulk pack shells that have steel rimmed cases. I reload some stout loads in SPS cases w/o problem.
I polished the chamber on my 835 and still had the issue with el cheapo WM stuff.

S-

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

It costs money to "unfix" stuff.

And the corollary: "If it ain't broke, mess with it until it is."

 

[sm]

About the other end



See I had this really neat pipe cutter , but no pipe to try it on.

Now I just knew that 20 ga bbl was tighter than full - see just because it says so , don't make it so. Not to mention that bbl was a tad long.

So I shot a slug thru it, bulge confirmed it was tighter, aha- just as I thought. So I shot again...testing the integrity of the metallugy of course. I had to be thorough in my research and all.

So not only did I improve the patterning/ grouping of that bbl, I had a refrence as to where to shorten it. I got to use that neat pipe cutter I needed to try out anyway.

If you use the splits in the bbl, one also has a reference for the long cuts when you make a wind chime. Matched up well with the other pcs from other bbls to give a nice chime.

All that testing proved my theories correct - except one. That wind chime attracted hummingbirds....did not have that part in the plan.