A-zoom snap cap = Jammed 30/30

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Calum

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I got some of these to safely work the action and practice dry firing in my win 94, 30/30. I got a few runs out of them, and then all of a sudden the whole rifle jammed up tight! And I mean tighter then Mayor Millers ass at a gunshow. :eek:

Lucky this was in front of my Gunsmith at his store (I bought them somewhere else) , and he took the rifle apart and removed these crappy caps...which I then chucked in the garbage.

www.lymanproducts.com/azoom/index.htm
Just a heads up, IMHO, and my gunsmiths pro opinion they are a total waste of money.
 
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i use them just to make sure my gun is cycling fine
even with no trigger pull i don`t wanna put live 12 gauge rounds in my gun inside the house unless i need to ;)
 
All of my snap caps get a wipedown with oil, no functioning problems ever.

After a firearm dissasembly/cleaning, a snap cap gives me peace of mind that the action functions like it's supposed to, and the hammer falls when I pull the trigger.
 
I have them in 9mm, 12ga, .303, 30.06 never had a problem...interesting, what did he say caused the action to jamb up? bits of aluminum???
 
echo4lima said:
I have them in 9mm, 12ga, .303, 30.06 never had a problem...interesting, what did he say caused the action to jamb up? bits of aluminum???
Click to expand...

Couldn't really tell 100%, but by the looks of the chewed up rims, and from how it looked to me, my guess is the aluminium rims slipped past the cartridge stop allowing a round to feed under the cartridge carrier while another round was in the chamber.

Which pretty much turns ones 94 Winny into a short club, as the cartridge carrier can't go down, which means you can't eject the chambered round, nor removed the round slipped under the carrier, nor can you fire the one chambered round as the carrier position is tied into trigger safety and set up. BTW it is a 1967 top eject version of the 94.

So far regular live ammo, and recently made dummy ammo that I have made from used cartridges does not do this. But I will be doing way more tests before I get into Grizzly country with this rifle. :D

In hind sight I should have taken the a-zooms back to the store for a refund, but the hassle at that fishing outfitter would have probably been more trouble then it is worth.
 
I gave up on Azoom dry fire exercises. I only use them now for pinning mags. For real practice I take my ARs, my wife and 10 mags of live ammo for wet fire:dancingbanana::shotgun:And even at my age I ain't shootin blanks. (OMG I think wendy just :puke:

In all honesty, my azoom 9mm, 40SW, 45ACPs and 223s work great. It's the 308s I have problems with when pinning M14 mags and then trying to get them to feed properly. They are just too short. That, and it is hard to get self leveling followers for M14 mags (as if you can). I just use my dremel to even things up.:)

PS: Calum, I just had a west coast epiphany. Could it be that the 30-30 azooms are shorter than your hunting rounds? Much like my problem with .308s, live rounds work fine in the mag but the zooms being almost 3/16" shorter give me grief when I get into fit and function mode.:confused:
 
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"Couldn't really tell 100%, but by the looks of the chewed up rims, and from how it looked to me, my guess is the aluminium rims slipped past the cartridge stop allowing a round to feed under the cartridge carrier while another round was in the chamber"

What you describe is a perfect example of short stroking (I think that's what it's called) Winchester 94.
 
Interesting. I've never had a cartridge go under the lifter of a Winchester '94.
I've seen it several times, but the rifle had a worn cartridge stop.
Short stroking an undamaged Win '94 typically results in an empty chamber, and nothing else.

Sounds much like the much talked about Marlin jam, particularly when you have to take the rifle apart.
The one that a bud had on a Win'94 was cleared by pushing the cartridge back into the mag with a pocket knife.
Can't do that with a side eject rifle.
 
Calum said:
I got some of these to safely work the action and practice dry firing in my win 94, 30/30. I got a few runs out of them, and then all of a sudden the whole rifle jammed up tight! And I mean tighter then Mayor Millers ass at a gunshow. :eek:
Click to expand...
:D:D



Calum said:
So far regular live ammo, and recently made dummy ammo that I have made from used cartridges does not do this. But I will be doing way more tests before I get into Grizzly country with this rifle. :D
Click to expand...

That'd be a prudent think to do - could well be the snap cap at fault although I have used A-Zooms in Pump/Lever Guns without problems so far.
 
I had some Dummy 357/38 rounds I made up and they would not exit the mag tube. Lock my Marlin 1894 up solid, I had to take the toothbrush and put it in the loading port and push the round up.

I figured was because they were ment for my Pistol they were loaded too long.
 
One thing I have done in the past is dry load some dummy rounds. Used once fired brass with primers still seated. Load some sand, same weight as charge, and seat the bullet. Used this method mostly with 45 colt and 45ACP.

The same method works great with heavier loads for rifles. If you are carefull you won't blow your nose off when test firing a 375 H&H with what you thought was a sand filled cartridge:p
:D:D
 
Firearms with stiff extractors tend to rip up the rims...had similar problems with 9mm and 7.62 snap caps
I may make a few out of A2 tool steel for people that have issues with them
 
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