I went to a pheasant farm the other day with a friend, and it was her first time hunting birds. Normally, I bring a spare rifle, but this time I did not. My Benelli's have never let me down... in 15 or so years. I broke this one down (an M2 model)and cleaned it a couple months ago and have used it once since then and it functioned flawlessly. On this day, the snow was melting and the dirt was pretty slimy... while trying to climb small hill I was slipping and sliding. One slide in particlur ended up with the gun in the grass, and got some mud on the bolt and in the action. What a bone head move on me.
I fairly easily cleaned the visible mud out, but the rest of the day the gun would not fire. I could hear the firing pin moving forward but the primer was not marked. Cycled it repeatedly and tried to warm it up etc (only 40 degrees, shouldnt have been too cold). Could not get the gun to fire. I am going to break it down and clean it again and suspect I will find some mud or dirt somewhere that slowing things down enough to make it not function. My other thought was the Lucas Gun Oil I used. Any chance it would get to be too thick in 40 degree temps and slow things down? I will find out tonight I guess.
