After shooting five rounds of skeet with my new Citori Skeet gun, the gun refused to fire on station one. It was as if the safety was on, and the trigger was locked, but the safety was not on. I moved the safety and selector switch around, but the triggers were still locked. Finally after opening and closing the action several times, and playing with the safety some more, the gun would again fire. The gun functioned fine for the rest of the round, but on the next round, it locked up again. It freed up quickly this time, and worked properly for two more rounds, until I finished shooting for the day. This is my sixth Citori, and I have never had any issues with any of my previous Citoris.I am just hoping that the problem doesn't return. Has anyone here had a similar experience with a Citori?
Citori triggers locking up
- Thread starter stubblejumper
- Start date
What you report is unusual for any citori. From time to time I have seen stuck firing pins on new guns. I have never been one to do much cleaning on a new citori, but the new ones I have seen opened up I was surprised how much gunk was inside. Since it is a new gun I would discuss it with the dealer. Good luck.
Good Old Citori
Your Citori has an inertia trigger. Which means the recoil of the first round sets the trigger up for the next. If the gun is held lightly on the shoulder the trigger mechanisum will not reset for the secound round, hence the gun won't fire.
If you sharply strike the butt it will reset, do make sure you have control of the muzzle when doing this. I have seen this more times than I can remember with Citori's on skeet fields. This is the main reason why I always used a Winchester 101 because the 101's have a mechanical trigger set up. Very very dependable.
If you dry fire your Citori you will find you can only pull the trigger once, (one click). Then you will have to bump the butt on the floor to simultate recoil to get the trigger to set for the next pull. If you dry fire a mechanical trigger set up you just pull the trigger twice and it goes click twice because it does not depend on recoil to operate.
The gun is not faulty it is just the way it is, and you have the habit of holding the gun a bit light on your shoulder now and then which as you have experienced, Citori's have no forgivness for.
Skeet loads are rather light especially if your using 1oz loads so this magnifies the issue. You would rarely if at all experience this issue when using field loads.
A good gunsmith can change the Citori over to a mechanical trigger. There are enough variables in skeet, or any clay target game, for the shooter to worry about and master than whether his gun is going to go bang or not when the trigger is pulled. If your a serious shooter you will get a mechanical trigger system either in the form of having the Citori changed, or getting a new gun that has one. If you shoot competively the ref will call this issue a lost target, the difference between winning and loosing at this level is 1 target.
Your Citori has an inertia trigger. Which means the recoil of the first round sets the trigger up for the next. If the gun is held lightly on the shoulder the trigger mechanisum will not reset for the secound round, hence the gun won't fire.
If you sharply strike the butt it will reset, do make sure you have control of the muzzle when doing this. I have seen this more times than I can remember with Citori's on skeet fields. This is the main reason why I always used a Winchester 101 because the 101's have a mechanical trigger set up. Very very dependable.
If you dry fire your Citori you will find you can only pull the trigger once, (one click). Then you will have to bump the butt on the floor to simultate recoil to get the trigger to set for the next pull. If you dry fire a mechanical trigger set up you just pull the trigger twice and it goes click twice because it does not depend on recoil to operate.
The gun is not faulty it is just the way it is, and you have the habit of holding the gun a bit light on your shoulder now and then which as you have experienced, Citori's have no forgivness for.
Skeet loads are rather light especially if your using 1oz loads so this magnifies the issue. You would rarely if at all experience this issue when using field loads.
A good gunsmith can change the Citori over to a mechanical trigger. There are enough variables in skeet, or any clay target game, for the shooter to worry about and master than whether his gun is going to go bang or not when the trigger is pulled. If your a serious shooter you will get a mechanical trigger system either in the form of having the Citori changed, or getting a new gun that has one. If you shoot competively the ref will call this issue a lost target, the difference between winning and loosing at this level is 1 target.
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I have owned six Citoris, and have shot skeet with them for many years, and I have never encountered this with any of my previous Citoris. I fully opened and closed the gun several times, and the triggers were still locked solid as if the safety was on.
Eventually, after opening and closing the action a few more times, and manipulating the safety/selector switch some more, the triggers freed up and functioned again.
I was using the same 1-1/8 ounce 3 dram loads that I used for the previous four trouble free rounds of skeet. I normally use 2-3/4 dram loads, and have had no such issues using them in previous Citoris.
I asked the question, because after owning five previous Citoris, and having shot many thousands of rounds shooting skeet, I have never had any such problems with a Citori.
That has been my experience as well, hence my posting this thread.
Scott Bear
Regular
- Location
- Prince George
I just tried my Citori and a light tap on the butt pad with my hand was enough to reset the triggers. You might have to take this one back to the dealer.
The 101 had mechanical triggers not inertia.
As for the original problem there are several possibilities. Piece of debris that jams up the trigger, a stock that has swollen just enough to impede the trigger occasionally or a safety that is out of spec and is actually on when it shows off. Were this my gun I'd remove the stock and clean the action to see if that helped. As it is a new gun if the problem persisted I'd take it back to the dealer and have them pursue the matter with Browning.
Stumblejumper
Please do not take offence to what I said as none was intended. I only meant to offer adive to help, as that is what you asked.
After spending 37 yrs shooting clay targets my experience is that inertia trigger systems at times do not reset, this is not an uncommon issue. So common with Citori's that ref's during a shoot will call lost target during an occurance not mechanical malfunction. As the usual cause is the gun being held to light to the shoulder.
The inertia system could be set up to light on your gun or could be defective period. After rereading what you describe I would return it to Browning for examination. If it gets a clean bill of health from them then you can take it from there to resolve the issue.
Please do not take offence to what I said as none was intended. I only meant to offer adive to help, as that is what you asked.
After spending 37 yrs shooting clay targets my experience is that inertia trigger systems at times do not reset, this is not an uncommon issue. So common with Citori's that ref's during a shoot will call lost target during an occurance not mechanical malfunction. As the usual cause is the gun being held to light to the shoulder.
The inertia system could be set up to light on your gun or could be defective period. After rereading what you describe I would return it to Browning for examination. If it gets a clean bill of health from them then you can take it from there to resolve the issue.
If the inertia trigger was not set up correctly then only the second shot would be affected. The OP said neither worked and only intermittently. I'm of the view that there is a loose piece inside the action or the wood is impinging on the triggers.
mrgoat,
From reading the original post, I think that it was obvious that this was not typical case of the inertia block not working which you went on to explain in detail. The gun needs to be taken apart and cleaned and/or returned to the dealer.
From reading the original post, I think that it was obvious that this was not typical case of the inertia block not working which you went on to explain in detail. The gun needs to be taken apart and cleaned and/or returned to the dealer.
Since there were no issues for the last two rounds of skeet, I will give the gun another chance this weekend. If the problem persists, I will be within 50 km of a Browning Warranty center in a couple of weeks, and I can have them take a look at the gun.
