So I'm going to update this for anyone else who might be experiencing issues with cycling light loads. The quick and easy fix is to use a tighter choke. I found I needed modified or better to cycle everything reliably. IC would cycle some target loads, which I'm guessing are a bit hotter, but not everything reliably. Cylinder would only cycle 3" hunting loads or slugs/buck shot. 2 3/4" hunting loads with cylinder will not cycle reliably. That said, target loads are cycling this action at almost the bare minimum, as it isn't throwing shells very far. Meaning it's probable that shooting target loads will cause the odd stove pipe. It's possible this will get better with time as the action wears in, however the gas piston isn't exactly the epitome of tight tolerances where it slides along the barrel, so it's possible this is one reason why light loads are an issue(too much blow by).
Essentially what's happening, is that the choke is creating a pressure spike in the barrel, which the gas cylinder needs in order to have enough impulse to cycle the action. It must be an impulse as the cylinder is really short, so it doesn't have much acceleration distance (3/4" at most). Using the barrel extension changes the timing and pressure of the impulse of the load hitting the choke, so it seems to require a tighter choke for the same effect. I didn't experiment with it beyond a couple mags, but it seems like it's detracting from the pressure, which makes sense.
Also, these guns will *not* cycle a paper shell. Which follows that a softer plastic shell will have similar issues. The feed ramp is...ungodly steep...almost vertical...so it'll probably really benefit from a proper polish and rounding off of corners. Something I'll do in the future when I find my dremel and polishing wheels. A mag with a steeper angle to the follower might also really benefit these guns. Anything to get that shell pointing upwards more. Although...it might run into wedging issues if the angle is too steep. Now that I'm thinking about it I'll have to go re examine the whole set up and geometry to be sure.
Anyways, hope this helps someone out. Realistically these findings should hold true for all semi auto shotguns.
