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New shotguns can have a
very tight shell chamber. This is intentionally done during manufacturing
so that as the gun is used everything “wears” in and loosens up. Close
examination of the chamber will show that factory machining marks are also
present. All of these factory dimensions and surfaces need to be worked on
to make the shells drop out easily Under normal, non-competition use this
“wearing” in can take months if not years and hundreds of fired
rounds.
To speed things up and get a new shotgun ready for CAS competition there
are some things that work quite well.
Oiling of the chambers is
not enough. The chambers need polishing and quite possibly honing to
loosen up the shot shell fit in the chambers. The goal is to have the
fired shot shell drop from the chamber by itself as the action is broken
open and the barrel is tipped upward or needing nothing more than a quick
downward jerk of the barrels to dislodge the spent shot shell.
Here are a few ideas that
we have heard for coach gun chamber polishing:
- We have successfully used this procedure on an
external hammered coach gun and an internal hammered coach gun. Our
coach guns are 20 gauge and we used an oversized shotgun swab (in this
case a 12 gauge swab) and some automotive rubbing compound. Chuck the
swab into an electric drill and heavily coat the swab with rubbing
compound. Force the swab into the chamber (it will be a tight fit but
will go in) and run the drill at a medium speed while moving the swab
up and down the chamber. Careful with the drill speed as excess
rubbing compound will be squeezed from the swab and fast drill speeds
will sling the compound everywhere.
After a
minute or two you will notice the barrel warming slightly as you hold it.
This is a clue that the rubbing compound is working as friction is heating
the barrel. Remove the swab, clean the chambers and inspect the surface
finish in the chamber. You will notice that the machining marks are no
longer appearing crisp and sharp. Repeat the polishing procedures until
you are satisfied that the machining marks are smoothed. You have not
significantly increased the chamber diameter with this procedure, only
smoothed it out. Clean everything thoroughly.
Next a
quick trip to your local shotgun range to test your work. If everything is
perfect all shells will easily drop out after firing. If not, then a few
more minutes of polishing should do it.
- We heard that instead of using gun oil in the chamber
use Pledge furniture wax. Not much detail is available, but we assume
a liberal coating is needed and allowed to dry before use. One concern
we have is what happens to the wax due to the heating as the shell is
fired. Will the wax soften and cause stickiness?
- Another suggestion we also heard is to use a gun
quality graphite oil in the chambers. This idea is probably to leave a
graphite coating inside the chamber that is extra slick.
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