Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Sticking Shotgun Shells

Lately, especially in warm weather I am having trouble with shotshell hulls sticking in the chambers.

This is most prevalent in my older Ithacas and one older Mossberg 500. I have polished the chambers and installed new extractors and ejectors which helped but didn't eliminate the problem.

I have been told that the plated steel hulls on cheap ammo contribute to this.

What brand/type of shells should I purchase to avoid the steel rims?

Thanks for the help.

Gary

I'm suspecting plastic buildup in the chamber. I use a 10ga bore brush spun with an electric drill to melt residue from chambers and a 12ga brush in choke tubes.

If these are really old guns the chambers may be cut for paper shells and have no relief for the folded plastic....this can cause pressure to increase some...usually it just causes a little more recoil....but could be the cause....I never saw anything that indicates a dangerous condition but it's something to think about...

Try some good shells-Winchester AA, Remington and Federal that are not the promo offerings. The steel headed shells often do have a tendency to not return to their original diameter after expanding on firing. Off brand cases also may have a rim issue. They usually will work in O/U and SxS, but have issues in autos and pumps.


Have an 870 that hasn't seen a bore brush in decades. The good shells work fine, the off brands often get sticky. Same with a Perazzi O/U. The chamber has maybe seen a bore brush 3-4 times in 30,000 plus. Obviously rusty chambers would be another issue.



Addition: Have frequently seen plastic significantly accumulate in choke tubes.To the point you could scrape off curls of plastic with a pen knife. However, it would come from the wads. Also never had a significant buildup in a fixed choke shotgun. Have yet to see the same in the chamber.

My Browning BPS wouldn't cycle the Lellier&Bellot (Chech). Had to use it up in a
single shot.

The Winchester cheapie scare the worst by far. Universal, Super Speed, Super Target and other such names have been used. I have seen these lock up more than one shotgun and they can be a bear to get out. "Mortaring" the stock on the ground was the only way to open pump actions and I've seen two stocks broken this way. Semi-autos and break actions required a cleaning rod or long dowel and a hammer to eject the hull.

This was not in all guns but in enough that I won't buy these shells even though the gun I was using at the time cycled them fine. As mentioned, it is due to the steel head on the hull as steel does not shrink as much as brass. And don't let a brass or silverfish head fool you, that is merely a wash covering the steel and not an indication of what the base material is.

I have not seen any problems with Remington and Federal hulls in the past though both companies have recently changed some of their shotshell lines. I have seen some Remington Gun Club type hulls with zinc covered heads but have not tried them new. They have reloaded and worked fine in the three shotguns so far.

Some Euro hulls are problematic, Sellier&Bellot have a reputation as does Suprema and occasionally Cheddite. Some of the newer Federal lines are using Cheddita hulls which may be a cause of the recent complaints.

The top end lines of any of the manufacturers will be fine but at the lower end I would stick with Rem of all lines, all Federal/Estate lines, Winchester AA, and any import other than S&B. They cycle fine but the. hulls do not lend themselves well to reloading using the components I keep on hand. My guns have cycles Suprema and Cheddite without problems so I am not adverse to shooting them currently. If I begin to have problems I will change my tune.

What happens is when the single extractor tugs on a hull from one side it tips the hull against the side of the chamber making it stick harder. The proper way to open the action is to stick a range rod down the barrel and pop it against the base of the hull while trying to open the action. Range rod forces the hull against the bolt, keeps the hull straight, and isn't forced against the side of the chamber.

Takes almost no more effort than normal even with a real stuck one if your timing is good.

Getting a chamber brush and using it routinely usually solves this.

This first
"I'm suspecting plastic buildup in the chamber. I use a 10ga bore brush spun with an electric drill to melt residue from chambers and a 12ga brush in choke tubes"

Then this
"Try some good shells-Winchester AA, Remington and Federal that are not the promo offerings. The steel headed shells often do have a tendency to not return to their original diameter after expanding on firing. Off brand cases also may have a rim issue. They usually will work in O/U and SxS, but have issues in autos and pumps.
Have an 870 that hasn't seen a bore brush in decades. The good shells work fine, the off brands often get sticky. Same with a Perazzi O/U. The chamber has maybe seen a bore brush 3-4 times in 30,000 plus. Obviously rusty chambers would be another issue"

If the problem still exists then check the chamber. Years of shooting steel head shotgun shells could have created a slight internal ring in your chamber. When shotgun shells all used a brass head, the brass was much softer than the steel. That is no longer the case as some of the steel rims used on the shells today are stronger that the barrel steel. Many rounds of this type ammo could have generated the internal ring or recess. Steel does not expand and contract like brass and the expanded steel section may be creating a hull that is hard to extract. Some manufactures have started chrome lining the shotgun chamber to basically hard plate the chamber ID.

The Winchester shells you mention are the ones I have the most trouble with. Even the cheapest Federal shells do not exhibit the problem. I guess I need to use up the shells in the guns that will eat them [my High Standard Flight King has yet to hiccup nor has my 870] and avoid them in the future.

My chambers are cleaned and lightly polished FWIW. The Win shells still stick frequently.
Thanks folks.

Kinda interesting. For 4-H trap we used the promos we could get the best deal on, Federals, Winchesters, whatever. In all instances, club and shooter's guns, hard to open actions were traced to a buildup of something on the chamber walls. Could be surface rust, carbon or other gunk, or an invisible slightly tacky coating. Vigorous cleaning, sometimes burnishing with 00 steel wool, always fixed it. If it is shell heads causing the problems something must have changed in the last two years or so.

I maintained the club guns, semi-autos. Routine cleaning was with bore and chamber brushes and modified Ed's Red and Brownell's plastic solvent when buildup was found. When I began to see signs of weak ejection the chamber would get more attention with the chamber brush and plastic solvent and normal ejection would be restored.

To see what would happen I let one Rem. 1100 go on with no attention other than routine cleaning. Wasn't long until ejection came to almost nothing and it began to stovepipe and not kick the hull clear of the action. On examination no fouling could be seen but the chamber felt slightly tacky and then it was work to get it all out of the chamber. Tough stuff to remove. Best guess was that something used in manufacture, mold release or whatever, was left on the hulls and transferred to the chamber and became tacky in the heat of fast rounds of trap. But that's a guess, perhaps it was the nature of the cheap hull plastic.

Didn't pay attention because it didn't really matter at the time but it seems to me the chambers needed more attention when we had Winchester promo loads. On the other hand one year we got some Federals that left A LOT of carbon and unburned powder. Now with the kids' guns it could've been anything. That's where I occasionally had to use steel wool to get things working smoothly.