Mousegun
Member
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2005
- Messages
- 738
I recently purchased a Ithaca 12 gauge pump made in 1956 for 2 3/4 " shells as stamped on the barrel. It is in pristine condition.
Me being me, I took it all apart and honed each and every part that contacted another. That meaning, I smoothed out the machine marks but did not remove a bunch of metal anywhere. I have done this before to other pistols and rifles and have tendency not to remove much metal at all, erroring on the side of caution. I then lubed the moving internals and went off to the range.
I bought a box of Winchester Universal shells and on the second shot, I could not rack the gun. The pump handle would not move and it appeared the spent shell was still in the chamber.
After placing a towel on the bench I tapped the stock of the gun down while pulling on the handle and out popped the shell. This happened a number of times during that session.
I can confirm that the chamber was spotlessly clean with no metal burrs or groves and both extractors (there are two) were grabbing the lip of the shell. It just took a bunch of force to get it out of the chamber.
On the next failure, I took the barrel off and confirmed the shell was in there really tight. After prying it out, I took a shell that did extract, slid it into the chamber and it went in and came out smoothly.
So it appears the base of the shell expanded to a point that it locked into the chamber.
The question, after that long winded build up is this. Can anyone who is way more savvy than I when it comes to shot guns, tell me if this is a somewhat common feature of Winchester Universals and what is the nominal chamber diameter of a 12 gauge? I would like to know if mine is too tight or loose. It measures at .814 inch. Also, if anyone knows another possible reason for this failure, please throw it out to me.
Thanks for any response.
Me being me, I took it all apart and honed each and every part that contacted another. That meaning, I smoothed out the machine marks but did not remove a bunch of metal anywhere. I have done this before to other pistols and rifles and have tendency not to remove much metal at all, erroring on the side of caution. I then lubed the moving internals and went off to the range.
I bought a box of Winchester Universal shells and on the second shot, I could not rack the gun. The pump handle would not move and it appeared the spent shell was still in the chamber.
After placing a towel on the bench I tapped the stock of the gun down while pulling on the handle and out popped the shell. This happened a number of times during that session.
I can confirm that the chamber was spotlessly clean with no metal burrs or groves and both extractors (there are two) were grabbing the lip of the shell. It just took a bunch of force to get it out of the chamber.
On the next failure, I took the barrel off and confirmed the shell was in there really tight. After prying it out, I took a shell that did extract, slid it into the chamber and it went in and came out smoothly.
So it appears the base of the shell expanded to a point that it locked into the chamber.
The question, after that long winded build up is this. Can anyone who is way more savvy than I when it comes to shot guns, tell me if this is a somewhat common feature of Winchester Universals and what is the nominal chamber diameter of a 12 gauge? I would like to know if mine is too tight or loose. It measures at .814 inch. Also, if anyone knows another possible reason for this failure, please throw it out to me.
Thanks for any response.
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