Better Cleaning for a BHP

J

joe-lumber

New member
I was having problems with my Surplus BHP. I usually shot 150-200 shots per session and out of that about 8-10 shots were jamming, not ejecting the spent shell and preventing a new round from going to battery. Well I really cleaned the barrel very well and used a copper brush especially where the bullet seats ( battery). Cleaned it about 4-5 times until it was leaving no residue of power anywhere in the barrel.
Couldn't hardly wait to see if that was the problem as I thought it might be the magazines. Fired 100 shots of Remington Green/white box and not a hiccup. Can't stress enough in the future to really clean the BHP. I also only used 3 drops of oil total in the slide channel this time as a gunsmith said I was using too much grease. Now I have my confidence back in this 20 year old BHP that was purchased as surplus arms from Israel I guess?
 
What you describe is more typically "extractor" related, although a really badly neglected chamber could make things worse. It sounds as though the extractor is losing it's grip on the casing.

It may not be JUST the barrel and chamber that caused the problem... there can be gunk building up around the extractor or the extractor hook -- which may have been cleaned when the other parts were cleaned. The extractor tip may also be slightly damaged -- just enough that it's sometimes a problem.

Some guns just don't like some ammo, too... Some CZs hate Winchester White Box (or did, some years back). Unless you were shooting the same ammo AFTER you made your cleaning changes, you can't be sure that it wasn't an ammo-related problem.

I've been shooting a T-Series BHP for years, and haven't had the first extraction problem... and I don't clean it all that often.
 
Sounds more ammo related than anything to do with the pistol. If you don't reload, you have to try a box of as many brands as you can to find the ammo your pistol both shoots well and cycles the action.
A bad mag would give you feeding issues. Those can sometimes be fixed by tweaking the lips open a tick with needle nosed pliers.
Anyway, with any pistol changing ammo before you do anything else fixes a lot of issues. Think easy and cheap first.
 
I am going to bet it was a dirty extractor. It is known "weak point" in the gun. It get gunked up and that is the technical term for it. ;)

Glad you got it running again.
 
I've run as much as 1,750 rounds through a Hi-Power without cleaning in one all day long session and never had a problem with extraction like you described. In my experience, cleaning is not really an issue.

However, I did break the extractor claw off a Hi-Power extractor and when I replaced the extractor, I also replaced the extractor spring with a Wolff spring. I then started having problems where the gun would occasionally fail to extract (about 1% failure rate) after I had fired 300 rounds. While cleaning it every 300 rounds worked to solve the problem, replacing the extractor spring with a factory Browning spring returned it to good consistent operation even when dirty.

Seeing as how this is a surplus BHP, I'd give replacing the extractor spring a look. It is a relatively cheap fix and only requires a few punches and a brass mallet to replace. Extractors are also relatively cheap if you want to be on the safe side though unless you see some obvious breakage, I probably wouldn't mess with it.

Short version: IMO, if it isn't extracting when dirty, that is a symptom of a deeper problem than being dirty.
 
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