Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire ALERT! Federal 10 gauge EXPLODES in chamber

Thanks VarmintGuy. Yeah I don't understand the need to snipe or to be demeaning when the intent of these forums is to share information on a platform that reaches a wide audience.

On a side bar, did a fire training for the department in Gateway and got to do some revisiting in the immediate area. How things have changed. A burger in Gateway is $17-20 and locals can barely afford to get groceries unless the travel into Bozeman or similar. The pioneer families are certainly not on board with all the recent rule changes, especially for those bordering the Park. Bison controversy is a real sore spot for many of those that grew up subsistence hunting the area.

Just because one brand of ammunition works doesn’t necessarily mean another will, especially with shotgun shells and their widely varied rim diameters and construction. As said it’s likely an incompatibility issue with a chamber or headspace one one end of tolerance and ammunition at the opposite end of allowable tolerance.

If it works with Boss shells you should use them.

“Warning” people about possibly decades old Federal brand ammunition you don’t even have a lot number for isn’t going to do anyone any good. And I don’t see where you have much right to be upset with Federal for not warranting them since you have no box, lot #, or even proof of purchase or that they aren’t reloaded.

I guess I left out one important note. I hunted five days and shot 14 others of the same shells, from the same box, from the same gun and did not have an issue. I use them primarily as "swatter" loads as I normally use BB or BBB if shooting steel, and #2 Bismuth. It is a well known fact that the Browning Gold Hunter can be problematic with ejecting certain shells. Again, I did gunsmithing for over 20 years and saw this frequently and the primary fix was to hone the chamber and polish the feed rail (both of which I did over 15 years ago when I got the gun) and make sure there were no burrs on the ejector. I honestly probably shot 30+ shells in that five day period. Each night I would take the action out (simple one pin removal) and clean and inspect it for any foreign matter. The barrel would get swabbed with mop/cleaner and then dry patch. The piston assembly was cleaned and barrel ports inspected and cleaned to make sure gas ports were open and allowing full function of the piston assembly. Now, for the untrained it seems like that would take a good deal of time. I did all of this in ten minutes or less each night and that is why my gun runs reliably.

More fodder for the experts to dissect.

I have not had the opportunity to get back to the storage unit where my ammo safe resides as I suspect I have more boxes (which I advised the Federal rep I would supply the lot numbers and return any full boxes if they wanted them) as I typically buy ammo by the case. So, slow motion recap...shot same shells many times with no failures...but it only takes one time. Just to further dispell any other doubts about firearm reliability, I shot two Boss shells immediately after the failure and no issue, even with all the crap from the misfire still present in the action as shown in the photos the very night I removed for routine maintenance. If you look closely at the photo it is the fibre material used to capture the brass/plastic hull and it was not allowing for easy travel of the spring and follower for cycling.

I suspect a manufacturing defect. I had a few WW AA 20 gauge shells where the brass split while sitting in the box. Probably 20 or more years old. I never had that problem with other lots of 20 gauge, 28 gauge, or 12 gauge. I suspect the brass was somehow stretched too tight.

https://parkerguns.org/forums/showthread.php?t=40971

Boss is not your friend.

Boss Ammunition has a love/hate relationship. The only reason I brought them up it is well known that Boss Shotshells (cheddite) are problematic in a whole host of semi-automatic shotguns, especially gas operated systems such as the Browning Gold. This was more of a recent discovery as Boss is not that old. Keep in mind the Browning Gold experienced extraction/ejection issues nearly from its onset. When I conferred with Browning custom shop years ago they came up with the solution of honing/polishing the chamber and feed rail along with inspection/deburring of the extractor. I shoot HUNDREDS of goose loads every year (well, not so much the prior year) and let alone the same failure over ten years ago (with Federal shells with the "engraved goose" on the shell base (circa 2002) I have not had any issues...period. I fully understand this shell is 20+ years old. I have some old Remington T (even some old F that cannot be used on waterfowl but do a real number on coyotes) that have fired without failure or hint of fatigue.

I am sure Federal is well aware of the issue and the corporate "brass" (pun intended) are distancing themselves from admitting they had issues with certain lots or runs of shells. Again, my warning was well intentioned as I will NOT shoot any more of these for sure! I don't want anyone getting hurt that may have hoarded these shells for that "day" when they can get out on the water or in the field for pursuit of the Canada goose.

I'm confused?

So, do they work or don't they?

Man I wish I could find some of the RP hulls that split and wouldn't eject from my BPS.

You noted that Browning had an issue and knew it.

I never got around to polishing my chamber but that was on my list just didn't get there. Need to keep that in mind.

Of course as noted I've seen bad rounds in about every make of ammo and I"m far from the person that because of a few rounds to say n never a certain brand. They all have failures.

OTOH I don't know that I can ever forgive Bill Ruger for his AW debacle so I do have issues sometimes that I shouldn't. I suspect we all do.

Sure hope I recall and have time to polish on that browning chamber when I get back to Alaska. Going to have to google that process for dang sure.

I am not here to promote any brand and I get no "deal" from Boss. I just know they are hard hitting and heavier than steel. The issue as noted was they are using a higher brass and it is prone to "stick" or cause extraction/ejection issues. If you are shooting a semi-auto than I would certainly suggest you visit YouTube as there are several tutorials on polishing the chamber (especially for Browning Gold). There is even a well known manufacturer of quality hones that makes a hone especially for the 10 gauge. You can go that route or if you want to go on the cheap like I did, you can take a brass bore brush, wrap it with copper wool (the scrubbing pad but MUST be all copper) and fine grit abrasive for first round of "cleaning". You must be careful to mark your cleaning rod so you do not progress past the chamber into the barrel itself. Once you have honed the rough stuff you can progressively polish with finer grit and use a product similar to Flitz for final mirror polish. Again, go to YouTube.

So to answer your question Boss will work but you must read all of the above if you want reliability.

BPS is not a semi obviously but it still has the same issues. Hence the polish. Thats what I would have done without youtube, is a brush and wool and a drill and marked rod section.

Why they don't make low brass only stuff is beyond me. high brass does nothing thats needed. Never has that I can tell. But I could be wrong. We loaded hot steel reloads in the late 80s with super low brass AA hulls... never had an issue.

Bismuth shot works really well as do some of the tungsten stuff at least in Alaska. Shot our emperors with #4 bismuth and no issues pass shooting the birds.

Yeah, my experiences with Browning shotgun chambers echoes yours.. They tend to rust just by looking at 'em.. I can't tell you how many Brownings I'd get in every year with corroded chambers vs. other makes without similar problems..

^ Cant help but agree here, though I dont own the gun or ammo mentioned I've used some really old stuff, and ammo that wasnt cared for properly. Only stuck cases were my fault for not sizing brass on shells scrounged on the ground from the range as a kid.

What is it you think Federal should do about this? Just exchange your 10 year old shells for new ones?

I’d cut the rest of those shells open and check the payload to see if it had perhaps rusted together, or if other issues had developed. Might weigh powder the charges too.

I shoot casual 5-Stand weekly, 2-3 rounds, and have experienced and seen others’ issues with factory ammo from various makers, mostly FTFs and blooper charges. We shoot a number of brands, mostly the cheapest we can find. Never saw anything like this, yet. I have had issues with an old Ithaca 37 that wouldn’t extract some steel-head cases, and a little research revealed that it’s common with older guns, 37s and M12s. The solution is to use brass-headed ammo, which is still available from Federal and possibly others. I bought a flat of their paper shells and they worked perfectly.

Thats even better news in a way. I have 2 browning barrels. I"m going to have to look hard at them. Then polish one or the other if it will, and then send it back to TX to have it salt bath nitrided. That might help quite a bit.

I've shot a 10 for years and had many a shell issue. I bought some federal empties from ballistic products and some with magic marker code on the hull stuck. Turns out they had been used as proof loads and even resizing couldn't get them to spec.

Had Winchester hulls that would tear out the rim rather than eject, the brass was just too soft and was only suited to O/U and S/S guns as they grip a wider % of the circumference to extract/eject.

Had federal hulls that shot the whole tube at the geese leaving only the brass and base fibre to eject.

The # of these was relatively small compared to how many shells were fired and I never felt that I was in any danger from them other than not getting my limit.

Those proof shells stuck TIGHT. Fortunately they were easy to sort and toss.

Most of these issues were with reloads/steel except the Winchester problem.

All were with a BPS cause autos cost way too much for a single shot.

The 10 gauge is a high performance load at high pressure. Wear and tear on hulls is significant sometimes it occurs on its first use sometimes not. I shoot both an AYA matador ll and a bps stalker pump. I haven't polished a chamber on either but the chambers get cleaned after every outing. Any grunge in a chamber makes the hull wall grab or seize at firing and when the ejection cycle starts something has to give either the hull wall relaxes or the head gets a beating dinged rims, split rims, or split heads. I been shooting federals since 1967 in all gauges , back then the case heads were all brass and they cracked and split in all gauges at times. In the 80's with the advent of steel shot most all ammo manufacters went to steel case heads with a brass wash or nickel. Both Remington and ww eventually went to plastic base wads in their hull construction. In 10 ga. Federal hasn't unless they have done so in the last few years. They started evolving to plastic base wads a few years back in the 12 and 20. I think 16's and. 10's are still a rolled paper basewad. I shoot all brands and reload them to see which perform and have longevity. My federal 10 ga hulls will usually go 3-4 reloads before being retired. That's reloaded with 1 1/4 oz lead at 1300 fps for target loads. You want good results with a 10 it requires practice same as anything else. Ballistic Products sells high performance 10 ga components and the 1st thing out of their mouth is use new unprimed hulls they don't recommend loading the 10 with used hulls period. You've used federal for years and no problems and now you had one yet you are condemning the brand and expecting federal to replace them because you had 1 problem . Granted none of us think there should be any problems. Nobody got hurt, your gun wasn't damaged count your blessings. Get rid of the rest of it if you can't trust it anymore. Magnum Bob

What are you doing taking "clients" out to hunt if you have to have them do a safety check on your own gun?

You of all people should be doing a safety check on their gun if need be.

Be careful. It doesn’t happen all the time but I have had multiple cases of silver solder joints failing after nitride. Mostly it was 700 bolt handles here and there and no big deal to polish everything up and TIG them on before sending them back for another trip through the nitride bath. But shotgun barrel lugs were another story, they usually have detents staked in and the salt bath can kill the springs and they can be difficult to get back in exactly the right spot if they need to be reattached. It can end up being a can of worms. 95 percent chance it’ll be fine but have a backup plan if it goes south.