doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Hard to open with certain ammo

I have a 20 gauge Winchester 101, 30" barrels choked full and full. When I acquired it a few years ago it was unfired since it was brought back from Japan in 1967. Since then it's been shot 3 or 4 hundred rds give or take.

Before I ever shot it I took the butt stock off and used spray cleaner and air pressure to clean any old lubricant off and then re-oiled with Wilson gun oil.

The gun shoots fine with pretty much all ammo except the White box Winchester you get at Walmart....save your Walmart jOkes.

The gun is hard to open with the Winchester white box 20 ga. ammo. My buddy shot it the other day and was struggling with breaking it open. I remarked...takes a man to shoot that gun.

With most other brands it's a little stiff but it's okay. Gun works fine with Remington Gun Club ammo but who knows their future.

Any thoughts other than don't shoot the cheap Winchester White box ammo ?

I�ve had failures to eject using this ammo in my Beretta 303s, both 12 and 20. Only brand I�ve had trouble with. I have not used it in break open guns.

jOe, try a very light polish of the chambers...not much else you can do?

I don't know the primers in this ammo. It may be that these primers are softer than most. With some firing pin dragout. The lower firing pin having excess protrusion and catching in the primer when the gun is open. In other shells you feel it but the primer indentation is less.

That would be my guess, and I would look for drag marks on the spent primers and pull the firing pin to examine the tip under magnification.

I've had this problem with my various Beretta o/u's and a couple of my Spanish sxs's. I have experienced it with all kinds of "economy" ammo. I disassembled a couple of Estate shells the other day that were all bent out of shape, straight from the box. I had Remington's on which the metal heads pulled away leaving the rest of the hull in the chambers,
Remmington made that good, but I didn't have the lot #, etc for the Estate shell. With 20 bure I just quit buying them for use in my 686. My learning, spend a little more and have fewer issues. I also usually run my hands over all of the shells when drop them into my ammo pouch.

try taping a spent hull with painter's blue tape, same problem brand, fire the bottom barrel, open and see if there are traces of primer being dragged. Re-cock gun, repeat procedure with top barrel. Issue could be failure of gun to rebound striker which isn't as noticeable on harder primers. Might be easier to see on unfired shell but with tape over primer or maybe just blackened with Sharpie. It goes without saying, but I will anyway. Don't try candle sooting on unfired primer. Gil

Also I would, using a decent caliper, measure the respective diameters of the hulls, particularly the brass near the rim--those that hang up and those that don't, also before and after firing. The other Gil

The Winchester white box ammo all eject perfectly...once you wrestle the gun open.

Leave the gun at home and shoot your pair of Boss over unders, I mean under overs.