12 Gauge A-Bolt - Bolt won't open after 3rd shot

I posted this under factory rifles, but didn't get many looks....

Was just at the range testing several different brands of slugs in this gun.
Remington
Winchester
Federal
All loads were 2 3/4 designed for rifled barrels.

Of the factory loads nothing seemed to group well past 50 yards except the Federal Truball loads.

While shooting the Truball rounds, the gun locked up. The bolt would operate, move from the closed to open position, but would not unlock and open.
After playing with the gun for 5 minutes or so the bolt was able to cycled open. The casing didn't look any different than any of the other that were shot from the gun. After cycling the gun a few times and looking things over, I mounted the gun in the lead sled and shot more than 10 rounds remotely (Remington and Winchester), the gun fired and opened as it should. I loaded gun with 3 rounds of the Truball, and after firing the gun three times the bolt locked up again. It appears that this gun doesn't like these Truball loads.

What say you, anyone have any ideas?

Scott

None of those slugs are designed for rifled guns. "Rifled" in this case refers to raised ribs on the slug itself. The foster type slugs will expand to fill most bores with minimum bearing surface. You've probably leaded the rifling in your barrel something awful. A true sabot or wad type sabot like the Lyman 525 are designed for rifled barrels.

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Originally Posted by Hogtamer

None of those slugs are designed for rifled guns. "Rifled" in this case refers to raised ribs on the slug itself. The foster type slugs will expand to fill most bores with minimum bearing surface. You've probably leaded the rifling in your barrel something awful. A true sabot or wad type sabot like the Lyman 525 are designed for rifled barrels.

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And that's how I leaded the Heck out of my new 20ga. 11-87 barrel. LOL Gp

Yes. I misspoke, this are rifled slugs for smooth bore guns.
I had already tried them in my smooth bore pump and the results were pretty dismal. I want to try the A-Bolt, as I was curious how they would group from a rifled gun.

No leading to speak of after 30 or more firings.

My question/concern was why the bolt locked up after shooting the Federal rounds?

Had a problem with Remington low recoil or another type of shotgun ammo a while back. As the barrel/chamber heated up, the plastic shell wanted to bond or stick to the chamber. after the gun cooled, it would fire and cycle normally.

A chamber cleaning seemed to help.

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Originally Posted by dsh1106

Yes. I misspoke, this are rifled slugs for smooth bore guns.
I had already tried them in my smooth bore pump and the results were pretty dismal. I want to try the A-Bolt, as I was curious how they would group from a rifled gun.

No leading to speak of after 30 or more firings.

My question/concern was why the bolt locked up after shooting the Federal rounds?

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Amazing! I've never seen a rifled barrel shoot Foster slugs without leading the Beejeezers out of it! You're a lucky man!

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Originally Posted by centershot

Amazing! I've never seen a rifled barrel shoot Foster slugs without leading the Beejeezers out of it! You're a lucky man!

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I did clean the gun with my boresnake, but not any more than I would normally.

Scott:: See if you can find some Lightfield Slug ammo. In a rifled gun they are as good as you're going to get. Or try some STI Sabot Slugs like the ones I make my Non Toxic Slugs with. The accuracy with those is superb and I know you've seen the pic of the group I shot with my A5 with Hastings Rifled Barrel. 1x1.5" at 50 yards with open sights.

The Lightfields are "Discarding Sabots" that impart spin to the slug and then separate immediately after leaving the muzzle. They also have a Tail Wad that stays with the Slug all the way.

The STI Slugs are NON Discarding and stay with the Slug all the way. Last pic is one with a Lead Insert instead of Brass.

As far as the Ejection Problem it sounds like a rough chamber to me.

Randy

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Originally Posted by centershot

Amazing! I've never seen a rifled barrel shoot Foster slugs without leading the Beejeezers out of it! You're a lucky man!

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I've tried rifled foster slugs from every rifled gun I have. I've never had them lead at all. My roughest bore is in my barrel for my Benelli Nova, a barrel made by the older pre-2005 Ithaca company. It is so rough you can see the tool marks as though it was bored with an 80 grit sandpaper. That barrel is very touchy on the load it will shoot. It is a 1:28" twist, but didn't shoot any sabot slugs well that I remember. The very best load in that barrel was Remington Slugger's, the high velocity 7/8 ounce version. Not a spec of lead in that barrel after 25 shots.

As for the truball's sticking, I would lean towards a rough chamber. It wont hurt anything to give the chamber a quick polish with some fine steel wool. You only need to do about 1" into the chamber. Also try the high velocity 7/8 oz Remington Sluggers. Sometimes the 1 ounce works better, sometimes the 7/8 oz works better. I have never found the reduced recoil slugs to shoot well.

I shoot remington sluggers in my 870 with a Hastings 24 in fully rifled barrel, almost exclusively. Have not experienced much leading at all.

Greetings, since I had failed to pick up a Browning A - Bolt I was reading your post with great interest.
Can you please measure your barrel OD at the muzzle for me.

Very strange behaviour that the gun action locks up after third shot.
I would blow the bolt, inside with high air pressure then:
Spray a shot of WD 40 in to the bolt and at the locking area, at the range before you start shooting and see what happens.

Lets see what happens.

Best regards,
Ajay K. Madan
Super Blazing Sabots

Scott,

Early testing with the Lee key drive in Claybuster 11/8oz. wads in the 12ga USH gave outstanding accuracy, until suddenly it went off the rails. I never played with it enough to pin an average number of shots before plastic fouling sent accuracy South.

One other thing I have learned the hard way is that when your accuracy goes away you probably need to clean your barrel. My Hasting Rifled A5 barrel took me an hour to finally get all the plastic fouling out of. After running a bore snake thru it it looked really clean so I never questioned it.

However after the accuracy went to pot I decided to actually run a patch thru it, and the amount of crud that followed blew me away. It was like it was in layers. It was literally an hour with Brushes, Magic Potions, more brushes, more cleaners, and then a boatload of patches before I finally got a clean patch thru it.

Accuracy came right back. I now clean it after every shoot. It also fouls quickly. Trying to find a way to mitigate that.

Randy

Rand:

Have you tried mica or powdered graphite? Just toss the slug/wad assemblies into a baggie with some mica or graphite and shake. BPI sells the mica and they recommend it for many load recipes.

Just a thought.

Longbow

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Originally Posted by SuperBlazingSabots

Greetings, since I had failed to pick up a Browning A - Bolt I was reading your post with great interest.
Can you please measure your barrel OD at the muzzle for me.

Very strange behaviour that the gun action locks up after third shot.
I would blow the bolt, inside with high air pressure then:
Spray a shot of WD 40 in to the bolt and at the locking area, at the range before you start shooting and see what happens.

Lets see what happens.

Best regards,
Ajay K. Madan
Super Blazing Sabots

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Ajay
The barrel measures .975 +/- .001 at the muzzle (measured with calipers)


Just as a side note - at the time I originally posted this I had just purchased the rifle and had only shot one box Hornaday SST's thru it, along with a "FEW" .735 RB loads.


I will provide a warning to anyone buying the A-Bolt Shotgun: I you use a bore snake to clean the gun, be careful or you will breakoff the ejector in the receiver.
These are a thin piece of spring steel and it doesn't take very much to brake them.

Kent; yes doing that now. Haven't gotten to shoot any yet. We'll see and if it works, I predict a jump in sales for BPI

Randy

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Originally Posted by Hamish

Scott,

Early testing with the Lee key drive in Claybuster 11/8oz. wads in the 12ga USH gave outstanding accuracy, until suddenly it went off the rails. I never played with it enough to pin an average number of shots before plastic fouling sent accuracy South.

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Hamish

I've loaded and shot about 150 rounds of .735 round ball.
Avg - 5/8" at 50-75 yards, 1-1/2" at 100 yards.
Longbow was nice enough to share this load data with me.
- 2 3/4" Fiocchi hull
- Winchester 209 primer
- 36 TO 38 grs. Blue Dot (limited by recoil) ****I started at 34 grains and settled at 36.5 grains *****
- X12X gas seal
- 1/2" hard card wad
- 1 x 0.125" nitro card
- .735" RB
- Roll Crimp