Problem with reloads

[Brian Payne]

I have been religiously practicing my shotgun reloads. My times are getting better and I am having very few fumbled rounds. My problem comes after the shells are loaded.

I will load 4 or 8 "dummy" loads. Then I will rack them through the weapon so I also get used to the pump action. Sometimes the rounds in the magazine "stick". By that I mean that they are held up by the little lip that contains the follower after all the shells are removed. The rim of the shell sometimes hangs up on that rim and won't go all the way back to the shell stop (the little metal finger that stops the shells from going into the loading chamber).

After thousands of loadings of these "dummy" rounds, the rims are getting a little beat up. Numerous burrs etc.. I have not had this problem when I fire live rounds through the weapon. I don't know if the recoil keeps the rounds from getting stuck or if it is the rim of the rounds not having any burrs on them. Does anyone else have this problem or any possible remedies?

The shotgun is a HK Fabarm FP6 with Choate Magazine extension. I have tried to polish the suspect area with a dremel and polishing compound but I didn't want to get too aggressive just yet.

Any ideas greatly appreciated. I hope to take the shotgun on its maiden live fire 3-gun voyage sometime in April. I am hoping to have no problems by then.

[EricW]

You have to make your own dummies and trash them frequently. It's just the way it is. On a Rem 1100, brand-new dummies will be so sharp after two or three sessions, they'll slice your hand. If you're getting thousands of cycles out of your dummies, you are miles ahead of me.

[Brian Payne]

Great! I was hoping this was the problem.

Thanks much for the help.

[Religious Shooter]

It's probably more difficult with a pump and the overall technique is more time consuming. But if you want to preserve your dummies' or live shells' rims... you need to intercept the shell that is being pushed on to the carrier.

On the 1100:

- Open the bolt about half-way. (If the new shell jumps out the tube... you've gone to far)

- At this point I stick two fingers in the chamber about 1/2 inch or so from the back of the round that's about to be pushed out of the mag tube.

- Continue to rack the bolt.

- The shell will eject out of the mag tube and will hit your fingers.

- Move your fingers to allow the shell to fully rest in the follower area.

- Take out the shell.

- Repeat until your empty.

What's basically happening is the mag tube spring is so strong that when it pushes the shell against the retainer, there is enough force to peen the rim of the new shell. By using the above technique you are basically just slowing down the shell's ejection speed and lessening or hopefully actually preventing the damage done to the shell's rim.

Of course this will only work on your reloading practice. I don't see how you can prevent the damage when you practice your racking drills.

[AH6IP]

Fellas-

Practice/inert rounds are cheap(Check Brownells). Get a couple of boxes and have at it. If they get bent out of shape, trash 'em. It is well worth the money. And, you WILL get faster and smoover. Smoooove is good!

[norbs007]

Are you talking about the orange colored one that sells for $26.75 for a box of 25?

[Religious Shooter]

If you don't use the above trick you will trash your dummies lickity split. All it takes is ten (maybe even less) or so good ejections and your dummies/shells are apt to start catching.

Ten or so reloads then trash them? ... that's too rich for my blood.

[Brian Payne]

The dummy shells I am using are from Brownells. I purchased a box of 25. They look just like regular shotgun shells with plastic and brass case, and you can see the BB's inside. The primer has already been struck and the case has "DUMMY" printed on each one.

Looking over the shells, I find burrs on the brass and pieces of the plastic on some of the shells are gouged also.

[EricW]

Buy a Mec JR at a gunshow, use corncob for the powder, reuse the spent primers, and make your dummies for next to nothing. Practicing SG reloads is time consuming enough to worry about saving my shells.

[mike.45]

....or simply practice loading the gun with (ahhh) live shells, keep it pointing in a safe direction, not at the cat or TV, no need take off the safety, keep a level head and dont worry about it - live shells get beat up after a few hundred loads so simply blast them off at your next practice session - then repeat...

If you are safe then you have minimised risk, consider removing firing pin if possible, or locking safety as on new Remmys, or dont chamber the shells racking them out but simply depress the mag latch to release the shells straight out of the mag. If you are in a thin walled apartment then think twice - if you are in your yard poining it at a brick wall, then no harm no foul.

Come on ... shoot me down !!

[EricW]

Mike,

If your shotgun has a spring-retracted firing pin, that's probably OK safety-wise. (Although, making dummies is so easy for me, I'll always do that instead).

For anyone with a Browning BPS or similar shotgun with a floating firing pin, I can't advise against using live shells indoors strongly enough. Every one of the rounds coming out of my BPS has a firing pin indentation on the primer. I've never had a round light off due to inertia, but I'm not interested in finding out either.

E

[PacMan]

....or simply practice loading the gun with (ahhh) live shells...

Live shells ...Well, I do it all the times. Not a big deal with Benelli since you can pop the shells out of the tube without activating the bolt. I reserved the dummy rounds (different colors) for the port loading practices - Safety is always ON when I'm practicing this mode.

[kurtm]

Pacdman is absolutely right!!! With the Benellis the rounds NEVER even get into the chamber. I usually use the same 12 shells for a month and then burn them up in practice. I only practice empty chamber loading at the range with these same 12 shells. KURTM