Personally, any company or foreign manufacture that wants to produce more firearms for us is a good thing.
Now for an update. Thank you so much for the comments so far. I tore down the shotgun and gave it a through cleaning, as it turns out it really was not that bad but was more or less bone dry. One thing we noticed upon looking at the front of the gas system, (the cylinder attached to the bottom of the barrel) is there were some incredibly rough machine marks on its inside surface. So using 400 then 600 emery cloth we cleaned up the rough edges and polished it up. At the 6 o'clock position there was a gouge out of the steel that looks like a drill bit had hit it, so once again we cleaned that up so that the piston would slide in much better with out a rough gritty feeling. The magazine tube was given a quick polish and the face of the gas piston had a lot of etching in on it, possibly from poor machining? From a low round count shotgun I have no idea what would cause pitting marks. But it was cleaned up and any parts requiring lube were given a light skim.
You can see the pitting and the assembly. A video online shows the owner putting his O ring inside the cylinder at the front of the barrel before sliding it on to the magazine tube. But my O Ring is slightly to small for some reason to fit in the groove provided so it has to fit on the magazine as shown.
You can see the pitting and the gouge in the bottom of it. its smooth now however.
On reassembly and test firing today, the MPA seems to cycle 12Ga 2 3/4" 00 magnum rounds with no problem, six in a row with not even a hiccup. But when loaded with Winchester #4 or Champion #7.5 the action seems to not have enough gas to fully open. It will attempt to cycle but the majority of the time it just loads the spent hull back in to battery. Once it almost ejected it but the tip of the hull was caught on the side of the receiver.
It seems that a high powered amount of gas has no issue cycling the action but a lower amount seems to not open it enough to eject the round.
Upon removing the hand guard, it seems that the piston has about 1/4" play forward and backward. The Return spring and what I would call the operating rod (connects to the bolt) don't seem to push the piston (smart valvue?) all the way forward to a full lock. You can move it forward and back ward 1/4" as i said.
Now when i Install the barrel it requires that I push back the bolt, as the bolt creates a forward pressure on the barrel which is held in by the hand guard and extension. In that last picture I am pushing the bolt back with the barrel to where it normally would sit, but that 1/4 play still existed forward and backwards on the piston.
Does any one have any ideas? I guess I could try a new 0 Ring if I can one. As some one mentioned the gas ports from the barrel seem to be clean and allowed for a tool to be pushed through cleanly.
Would any one else be able to look at there gas system and see if it has that play behind the piston (smart valvue) and does the barrel require you to push the bolt back 1/2" when you install it, and is the charging handle sitting in about the same place?
Thanks!
