CJW Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 I hit a local shotgun match this weekend. It was the first time I've had my M2 out since last fall. Now, this is a gun that has a little under 4k rounds through it and has never had any feeding/firing issues. Before the match I did a quick field strip. The gun was still clean from last fall, the bolt and carrier looked fine, and I reoiled it to get ready for the match. On the very first stage, the first shot was click-no-bang. I limped through the stage with about every third shell misfiring. The ammo was what I always use—Winchester AA Light Target #8 birdshot and Fiocchi 7/8oz Aero slugs. I found several of the discards on the ground and saw they had extremely light dimples from the firing pin. Okay, well, I stripped the BCG down completely, expecting to find the firing pin channel gunked up. In fact, it seemed fine. There was no obvious gunk, and the pin was moving fairly freely through the bolt. It doesn't seem like it was a cleaning/oiling issue. I'll take it out in a couple of days to see if that fixed it, but... I am a little worried that it went from zero problems to basically unshootable. If the more thorough cleaning doesn't help, what else am I looking it? From previous threads, I would guess the next step is replacing the hammer spring (which nobody has in stock and, according to Midway, won't be available for shipping for two more months!) or, maybe, the recoil spring if the issue is bolt bounce. Am I missing anything else? Any other suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunCat Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 (edited) Is the mag tube nut sufficiently tight and the barrel fully seated into the receiver? Edit - Numrich has hammer springs if you need one Edited March 25, 2014 by GunCat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJW Posted March 25, 2014 Author Share Posted March 25, 2014 Yes, everything is tight. I am compulsive about checking tube, nut, and choke tightness at the preload table before every stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtm Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 (edited) Are the bolt locking lug recesses in the barrel extension nice and clean? I use q tips to clean in there. Is the cam pin and cam pin slot nicely greased up or at least oiled? Is the cam pin cracked? Is the extractor roll pin still tightly installed or has it drifted down a bit? Had that happen oNEC. Edited March 25, 2014 by kurtm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJW Posted March 25, 2014 Author Share Posted March 25, 2014 Cam pin is in good shape and was oiled just before the match. (Been doing that since your clinic at the Pro-Am...) The lug recesses looked clean, but I didn't examine that closely; I will recheck them and the extractor pin tomorrow. Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJW Posted March 27, 2014 Author Share Posted March 27, 2014 (edited) Are the bolt locking lug recesses in the barrel extension nice and clean? I use q tips to clean in there. Is the cam pin and cam pin slot nicely greased up or at least oiled? Is the cam pin cracked? Is the extractor roll pin still tightly installed or has it drifted down a bit? Had that happen oNEC. Lug recesses are clean and weren't really dirty. Cam pin is fine and pin and slot are oiled (and were oiled for the match). Now, as for the roll pin... The extractor seems to be working fine. What is the roll pin supposed to look like? It is recessed in the bottom hole but I can't see it through the top hole. I assume I should be able to see it from both sides... ETA: Compared it to my g/f's working M2 and the pin looks the same, extractor moves the same. Well, it got a throrough cleaning and oiling. I will get it out to the range Friday and see what happens. It's not like I am shooting Tarheel next weekend and need a working shotgun... Oh, wait. I am! Edited March 27, 2014 by CJW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtm Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Ok, don't worry about the roll pin. Next test, lock the bolt to the rear on an EMPTY gun. Hold it horizontal right in front of your face, up right so that you are looking right at the bolt...or where it will close. Drop the bolt with the bolt release button and watch to see if it bounces back. It will to a small degree but if it comes back a bunch, 1/2"-1" you got problems. Let me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJW Posted March 31, 2014 Author Share Posted March 31, 2014 Ok, don't worry about the roll pin. Next test, lock the bolt to the rear on an EMPTY gun. Hold it horizontal right in front of your face, up right so that you are looking right at the bolt...or where it will close. Drop the bolt with the bolt release button and watch to see if it bounces back. It will to a small degree but if it comes back a bunch, 1/2"-1" you got problems. Let me know. Bolt bounce seemed okay—like you said, just a little, but not 1/2"+. I took the gun and a box of AA Light Target with me to the range this weekend. I ran all 25 rounds basically as fast as I could stuff the gun and pull the trigger. One round failed to fire and showed a light primer strike, and the other 24 (well, 25, really, since I put the misfire back in the tube) ran fine. On the failure, the bolt did not seem to be any more out of place than usual, though I admit I didn't check it as closely as I ought to have—it happened in the first eight shells and I expected at that point to see more failures to examine... One thing I did notice is that if I gently lower the bolt (like I do on my chamber flag), the bolt will tend to hang up that 1/2"+ out of battery; or, rather, I should say the bolt head contacts the chamber flag but the carrier lags behind and I can see 1/2" or so of the bolt shaft extending from the carrier. I can push it closed from the bolt handle, but it definitely offers a little resistance when that happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gondo Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 Ok, don't worry about the roll pin. Next test, lock the bolt to the rear on an EMPTY gun. Hold it horizontal right in front of your face, up right so that you are looking right at the bolt...or where it will close. Drop the bolt with the bolt release button and watch to see if it bounces back. It will to a small degree but if it comes back a bunch, 1/2"-1" you got problems. Let me know. Bolt bounce seemed okay—like you said, just a little, but not 1/2"+. I took the gun and a box of AA Light Target with me to the range this weekend. I ran all 25 rounds basically as fast as I could stuff the gun and pull the trigger. One round failed to fire and showed a light primer strike, and the other 24 (well, 25, really, since I put the misfire back in the tube) ran fine. On the failure, the bolt did not seem to be any more out of place than usual, though I admit I didn't check it as closely as I ought to have—it happened in the first eight shells and I expected at that point to see more failures to examine... One thing I did notice is that if I gently lower the bolt (like I do on my chamber flag), the bolt will tend to hang up that 1/2"+ out of battery; or, rather, I should say the bolt head contacts the chamber flag but the carrier lags behind and I can see 1/2" or so of the bolt shaft extending from the carrier. I can push it closed from the bolt handle, but it definitely offers a little resistance when that happens. I think most benellis do what you described in your last sentence... the source of the "benelli click" I think. Have you checked to see if the firing pin is nice and smooth and if the channel in the bolt where the firing pin moves is nice and clean all the way through? You can run a qtip in there and if you pull a little cotton of the head you can push a little bit of the end through the firing pin hole on the bolt face. I saw my brothers SBE2 stop getting light primer strikes after cleaning this area really well. May not be your problem but wouldnt hurt to check. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJW Posted March 31, 2014 Author Share Posted March 31, 2014 I think most benellis do what you described in your last sentence... the source of the "benelli click" I think. Have you checked to see if the firing pin is nice and smooth and if the channel in the bolt where the firing pin moves is nice and clean all the way through? You can run a qtip in there and if you pull a little cotton of the head you can push a little bit of the end through the firing pin hole on the bolt face. I saw my brothers SBE2 stop getting light primer strikes after cleaning this area really well. May not be your problem but wouldnt hurt to check. Gondo, I did fully strip and clean the bolt & carrier after I first had issues and everything seemed okay—that was my first suspicion, as well—but I will go back and redo it with the q-tip trick. I definitely want to make sure that is clean! Should I be putting any oil on the firing pin when I put it back together? On my ARs I tend to just rub the firing pin briefly with whatever oil is left on my fingers after lubing the bolt & carrier, so that is also what I do on my M2... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gondo Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 I think most benellis do what you described in your last sentence... the source of the "benelli click" I think. Have you checked to see if the firing pin is nice and smooth and if the channel in the bolt where the firing pin moves is nice and clean all the way through? You can run a qtip in there and if you pull a little cotton of the head you can push a little bit of the end through the firing pin hole on the bolt face. I saw my brothers SBE2 stop getting light primer strikes after cleaning this area really well. May not be your problem but wouldnt hurt to check. Gondo, I did fully strip and clean the bolt & carrier after I first had issues and everything seemed okay—that was my first suspicion, as well—but I will go back and redo it with the q-tip trick. I definitely want to make sure that is clean! Should I be putting any oil on the firing pin when I put it back together? On my ARs I tend to just rub the firing pin briefly with whatever oil is left on my fingers after lubing the bolt & carrier, so that is also what I do on my M2... Mmmm sounds like a good question for kurtm on lubing the firing pin, but personally i usually wipe mine off with a cloth that has years of CLP on it from cleaning gun parts.... i usually use rem oil on my benelli... there is probably better (like synthetic motor oil that i use on my ar-15) but ive been shooting a benelli so long now and using the same cleaning method that has worked for me that it is really hard for me to change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike cyrwus Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 no lube necessary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJW Posted April 10, 2014 Author Share Posted April 10, 2014 Well, the shotgun ran fine at Tarheel last weekend, so apparently the deep clean was all it needed, even though it didn't look that dirty in the first place. Lesson learned... Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larry weeks Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 Just looked and we (Brownells) have the hammer spring in stock, now that you've solved the problem and don't need one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJW Posted April 10, 2014 Author Share Posted April 10, 2014 No worries, Larry. I will probably pick up a couple just for the field repair kit! Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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