Difficult extraction -- too difficult for my wife

N

nemo2econ

New member
I have a 12 ga. pump shotgun on which the action works great when cycling empty, or when extracting an unfired shell.

My wife took it to the range to practice with firing it a few times so she would be comfortable picking it up should the need ever arise to grab it from behind the door in the bedroom and use it. She shot it and handled it excellently -- but after each shot was unable to put in sufficient force to extract the fired round.

I tried it several times myself. Although I could work the action, the initial (frictional?) release of the shell when pulling the pump back was substantial, so I can see where her problem is coming from.

My hypothesis: the expanded shell plastic, which is still warm of course, simply exerts excessive stick friction on the sides of the chamber such that she is unable to overcome the slide "sticky-force" and get the extraction underway. The chamber is clean and smooth.

We want to use this 12 ga. pump as a "behind the door" defensive shotgun.

Potential courses of action:
  1. try 27 different types of buckshot cartidges to try to find something she can work
  2. buy different shotgun
  3. ignore the problem figuring she will either get the bad guy with the first shot, or that, "in the event," adrenalin will solve the problem even though she has never successfully practiced extracting a just-fired round. (For what it's worth, she is familiar with, and can easily handle, the pump action when the gun is unloaded, and is also familiar with a 22 pump she has been shooting since she was a young girl.
  4. find a low-cost alternative. Here's where you folks on the Firing Line Forum come in. Got any ideas for how we might cheaply remedy the situation? All ideas are welcome, but I'm wondering if applying a lubricant to the few shells in the tube might work? Graphite? Something better or cleaner than graphite?

I don't have the money for option nos. 1 or 2, and 3 doesn't seem like a smart course of action to plan for even though it has likely saved many a woman over the years. So I need some help on option number 4.

I will appreciate any ideas you might have.
 
Without knowing anything at all about the gun other than it's a 12 gauge pump shotgun... it's kinda hard to toss out theories about why the action is so difficult to operate.

My first WAG would be to inspect, clean and lube the living daylights out of the gun... most specifically, inspecting the extractor for fit/function and cleaning the chamber throughly.

After that... ideas start to run towards the arcane.

C
 
Some shells are harder to extract than others. I've got a friend who's got an old single shot shot gun that for the life of us we can't get to eject any shells made by Estate, but that is perfectly fine with Winchester shells.

I would suggest that you try a couple of different shells when you get the chance, but first you should strip your gun down and give it a good cleaning and put a little oil on it. And make sure that there's nothing for it to catch on to. Other than that I don't know what to tell you.

If I were to make a guess I would say that there's something that is catching on to it. I just have a hard time imaging a shotgun shell expanding to such an extent that you wouldn't be able to pump it.

I have a friend who has an old shotgun that one day started catching on to the shells when they were halfway out and we've never been able to figure out what's wrong or why. I think he probably put it together wrong after field stripping it, but he says that there's no way because he's redone it several times.
 
This problem comes up from time to time. The typical cause is a rough chamber in an entry level gun. The solution is simple... polish your chamber. Put the labor into your barrel that the factory didn't.
 
As Z13 posted. Several years back Remington had this issue I believe. One suggestion at the time was to lap out the chamber with a slotted dowel in a drill with burlap and a little polishing compound. But as with everything on the web take it for what it is.
 
+1 polish the chamber.
or you usually don't need to try 27 different shells, try the three big ones, rem,win,federal. some guns don't like some ammo. my 391 doesn't like to eject those nickel looking " brass" remingtons, all the time. but doesn't have a problem with anything else.
 
either have her start working out to get stronger or have her put the butt of the gun on her knee and pull down on the slide with both hands, that'l take longer in between shots but it should work
 
New gun, rough chamber. Older gun, rough, rusty, cruddy chamber from lack of care. I have seen many with a beautiful bore and a chamber that would scare a pig off of slop. In my shop I use a long hone for chambers and rusty bores. Not worth it for a one time job. The trick using a slotted dowel is great but I use strips of emery cloth starting with nothing coarser than 240 and moving to the finest you can obtain. The main thing to watch is to not actually enlarge the chamber, especially at the chamber mouth. Here endeth the epistle.
 
Hope this isn't too far afield from your question, but I've often noticed women having similar difficulties when trying to use a shotgun that's just too large for them. You might consider a shorter stock in addition to whatever other changes you make.

pax
 
Take the gun apart and clean the heck out of it.

Try a box of shells from each of the big three.

Try shorter shells if applicable, ie 2-3/4" instead of 3"

Have your wife try to work the action at "port arms" instead of at the shoulder. That way she'll be using the muscles of both arms.

Polish the chamber.

Take the gun to a gun smith.
 
I think pax may have nailed at least part of the problem- a stock that's too long. Another issue might be a forearm that's too short. If your wife has to reach so far out to get her support hand on the forearm that her support arm is straight or almost straight, she'll have a hard time making the pumpgun work. All the house guns here (Remington 870s) have shorter stocks, cut down about two inches (to 12.5" LOP) and full length 'field' type forearms, whuich are about 9" long as opposed to the shorter approx. 7" long LE or 'corncob' style forearm.

It would take seeing her hold the gun, and shooting it in person, to diagnose exactly what was wrong, but a combination of a sticky chamber and a too-long gun that doesn't fit her properly might explain her difficulties. Shortening the stock is also an excellent time to get a grind-to-fit premium recoil pad put on...

hth,

lpl
 
"Get a new wife?"

See, now I wouldn't have thought of that...she won't let me.

And, Smoakingun has given me a whole 'nuther reason for living, with his sig line!
 
I once tried to get a new gun for my wife
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She wasn't fond of that trade idea and I was forced to lay my lumped up head on the couch for a month over that great idea...:D
Brent
 
the action works great when cycling empty, or when extracting an unfired shell.
Click to expand...

If you can cycle unfired shells easily, then the problem might not be the chamber. When you fire a shell it drops the hammer and the following pump resets the hammer which takes a little more force. Is the extra resistance still there if you dry fire? If so, you might want to oil up the hammer/trigger assembly.
 
Greetings cwf250, and welcome aboard,

May I add to your suggestion, and recommend that the OP have his wife try cycling some snap caps. This would determine if the problem is shucking the action or "sticky" shells. Long, long ago, I had a 20-ga pump that had a chamber that was so rough I once pulled the brass head off of a paper hull. Any of you other gray beards remember those days?
 
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