M14 Forum

MesaRifle

Last spring I worked on a customer's Browning Gold Hunter gas-op 12 ga (3.5" magnum). This owner uses this gun a LOT, and is usually engaged in a sort of unofficial competition every fall and spring goose season out here in central WA. Last spring he had sorta-kinda cleaned it, superficially, at the end of every season. nothing too involved, not even taking the wood forend off. Consequently it was pretty dirty, full of grass, wheat seeds and some pine needles, plus shotgun powder fouling and some melted plastic from the wads.

He brought it in because it was no longer reliably cycling, neither ejecting all rounds, nor chambering new ones. When I took it apart, cleaned it all up & put it back together, it still didn't always reliably cycle, though of course it was a lot better. Problem was, as I told him, the main recoil spring, as well as the gas sealing rings, etc., are all considered wear and maintenance items in these gas guns, especially when they are used so heavily (he shoots between 1500 to 2500 rounds each season).

So I replaced those components, and voila! It then cycled clean, fast and reliably when I test-fired about 10 -12 rounds through it. BTW, those big 3.5 inch HiVel loads really do KICK! Hard! Ouchy!!!. Anyhow, he used it the rest of that season, firing another 250 - 300 rounds with no problems, and then did his usual season's-end partial cleaning, and put her away.

Goose season opened last weekend here, and he took it out with a new box of Federal Ultra-Shock 3.5" steel magnum "T" shot. Again, OUCH!!!!

But this time, different story. He fired off 3 rounds at approaching Honkers, but then the fourth round would not chamber. He looked at it, and saw, WTF? The plastic part of the spent case was still in the chamber. Now, I'd actually lightly honed that chamber when I did my work, and it was glisteningly smooth, no corrosion or roughness.

Well, he managed to bump the stuck pastic tube out of there, and continued to hunt. Four more rounds, but then, yikes, it did the same thing again. The brass part of the cartridge was laying on the ground, and otherwise it all worked correctly; a dead goose lay out at about 50 yds! A long shot at a passing Honker. He then picked up a spent and ejected round, and noticed that the head had almost come off. I wonder how they attach the brass to that plastic tube.

Now this guy's a stickler for keeping things clean, and so he wipes all his new rounds down, but then... he lightly spritzes them all with Remington Rem-Oil, which dries completely shortly after you spray it on, and then he wipes the dried rounds down and places 6 of them into a new clean baggie and puts that container into his ammo bag.

So likely there's little to no chance there's sand or other contaminants in or on the shells, eh? Rem-Oil's a sort of graphite-based dry lube in a flashy carrier solvent, so it doesn't leave anything that would attract dirt, etc. I wonder however if that quick-dry solvent might possibly be loosening the means by which Federal attaches their plastic tube to their brass. Adhesives? A crimp? Doesn't seem to have such a thing when I do a visual inspection on these rounds.

Anyhow, anyone else ever hear of this problem? I've got a call in to Federal this morning, but their message is that they "aren't able to answer the customer service phone right now, so please leave a message..." etc.

Hmmm... I wonder if this might be one of those ammo recalls I see occasionally in the big magazines.