Shotgun behavior in Clay shooting session

Grousing

Grousing

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Hi,

I have a Browning Cynergy feather over / under 12ga since 2 years now, use it for grouse hunting but never used it for repetitive clay shooting. Yet I thought to practice for the grouse season, so I went this morning and shot 4 box of shells on clays.

The shells are Challenger Target load 8 12ga 1-1/8 oz 1150 fps. Bought them at about 9$ each box...

Now sometimes, not every time, when I shoot both barrels, the shotgun becomes a bit difficult to open, as if the lever is jammed a little, then with some effort it opens. It did not happen every time and not if I shoot the bottom barrel only.

I never had this issue before although I never shot that much with it and not these specific shells.

So do you think the shells are the issue here? Can they jam the opening mechanism if their metal part is not well manufactured? Because I found some metal residue in the action when I disassembled it at home to clean it...

Also at one point toward the end of my session, the shotgun became very hot and closing it took some effort. When I came back home, it opened and closed smoothly. So I presume the heat effect on the metal could cause this?

Thanks
 
Your shotgun is very new and your observations are not unusual in a new gun. They are jointed very tight by the manufacturer to allow for break in ( wear in) to achieve perfect fit. This makes the gun stiff to open and close and it becomes more pronounced as the gun heats up in sustained repeat shots as you correctly suspected. The break in required will depend on the closeness and accuracy of the original fit, the smoothness of the mating parts, proper hardness of these parts, to some degree the robustness of the ammunition used during this period, proper cleaning and lubrication of the hinge and locking surfaces and other smaller influences. In a gun that sees only 4-5 boxes for hunting per year this could take many years. In a fine quality gun like a Beretta, Browning, Caesar Guerini target gun built for years of high volume shooting this can extend to 3000 to 5000 rounds before the gun is effortless in opening and closing.
The fact that you found metal particles while cleaning the gun could indeed be from the metal portion of your shells and may be just caused by a tight gun and a poor fitting ammo combination or it could be that you have a sharp edge that is scraping the shell. If these metal particles were in the chamber recess or on the standing face of the breech look for obvious signs of scraping or scratching on all surfaces of your shell heads and try to determine where this mark would originate on the gun. If the particles were in the area of the hinge it could be a sign of poor fitting or poor cleaning and lubricating and needs to be determined and dealt with before you have a real problem. Also, powder particles in the action are common and easily confused with metal particles. A magnet will attract steel such as the metal in Challenger ammo, it won't attract powder or the brass in the top quality target ammo such as Winchester AA, Remington Premier or STS of Federal gold medal. If still in doubt splurge on a box or two of best quality target loads and see if the probem is still there.
 
Look at the primers on the shells. Challenger uses chedite primers that can be pierced from the firing pins. If the pins are infact piercing the primer, they could be getting stuck and making it difficult to open. Usually happens with the bottom barrel.
 
Primers are a common problem for challengers and some guns. Mine will break the bottom barrel primer more often than not. I like the shells but gave up on them because of the primer issue.
 
Thanks for the answers. I did not notice the primers being pierced or anything like that, I did not pay attention to be honest. Yet I think it is a shell issue but will do more tests to see.
 
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