Gas Gun Issue

[alma]

My Browning Gold had always been very reliable running bulk Federal from Walmart but at last month's 3 Gun match my the gun functioned perfectly during the first half of the day but started to malfunction on my last two stages.

I wrote this up to range dust, cleaned the gun thoroughly, and tried it again last Saturday at another 3 Gun match.

Unfortunately the issues have continued so now I am trying to diagnose and resolve if possible.

The gun was firing and ejecting shells but was sporadically not loading a new round into the chamber.

This would result in me trying to engage a target, pulling the trigger and getting a "click" on an empty chamber, and having to manually cycle the action to get a round loaded in the chamber. The match required slugs and during the course of the match I never had a failure while shooting Remington Low Recoil slugs.

After speaking with a few shooters about the issue it was suggested that I might be an issue with the gas system that is restricting the flow and causing a short stroking issue. I try to keep the gun clean so I removed and examined the piston assembly to look for broken springs or other issue and couldn't see anything obvious. I did notice the two gas rings inside the assembly rattled when I shook the assembly but otherwise looked to be in good condition with very little build up on them. I will try to clean them out as best as possible but I am wondering should be shopping for new gas rings or perhaps even a new gas assembly? I noticed that for around $100 Briley sells a steel gas piston option that would accept the internals from my current assembly. Also, I can get a new OEM assembly for around $75. Would it be worthwhile trying a new one if I can't see anything physically wrong with the current one?

Thanks in advance for the advice.

[bushmeat]

How long have you had your magazine tube spring? It gets tired and the Federal bulk hulls are not the smoothest.

[alma]

Mag tube spring is about 3 months old. One thing that leads me to think that this is not the culprit is that the malfunctions don't seem to be dependant on how many rounds are in the tube.

Given that this is a Browning Gold there is a significant deficiency in design for running longer tubes in that the spring tension of the mag tube puts direct rearward force on the bolt causing gun to not lock up. This also results in a "bang," then "click" but in that case the fresh round is in in the chamber, just not far enough in the chamber. This new issue is not even sending the round onto the lifter as far as I can tell.