Member
Joined: 23 Jan 2006
Posts: 75
Location: Manhattan, Kansas
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Before I bore you all to death, please understand that I am not a trained gunsmith. And I don't hold myself out to be one ! I have been tinkering with firearms, mostly rifles, for many years and have built, refurbished or modified a bunch of them. Just for myself. Not commercially. I am fortunate that in my vocation I have become quite adept at fixing and rebuilding aircraft engines and components. I have a well set up shop with great tooling.
Now to the Citori. I have a bunch of them. I shoot competitive trap with a Citori. I have NEVER had a FTF with any of them.
Last December, while on my annual deer hunting trip to western PA., I stopped in an old friends gun shop to say Hi. Knowing I am a Citori nut he offered me a used 2003 model, 16ga Feather Lighting for a price that I am ashamed to confess. He told me that a local had traded it in out of frustration. This gun had been back to Browning THREE times and still had major FTF issues with the bottom barrel. Because I like a good challenge, and the price was so sinfully low, I bought it.
When our own Society member, 16gaugeguy mentioned that "Head Space" might be a contributing factor...The light went on. I' ve dealt with head space problems on many rifles but never even checked it on shotguns. I checked the head space on this Citori with five different brands of shells. the top barrel ran from .005 to .010. With the same shells the bottom barrel ran from .010 to .016 ! I also took some new unfired empty,
never loaded hulls, checked them and then ran them through the resizer
on my reloading press. Each gained an additional .002 to .004 head space after resizing. That told me that resizing "Can" compress the base rim and
thus contribute to too much head space.
Bored yet ? Hang on we're just getting to the good part ! I found that the real cause of the deviation in head space between the top and bottom barrels was.. the machined recess in the chambers where the shell base rests. The bottom barrel recess was machined .005 DEEPER than the top barrel recess ! This was undoubtly the main cause of the excess head space problem.
THE FIX.... I simply ran some good quality SILVER SOLDER around the base for the recess ( not the extractor ). I built it up to about .008 then used valve lapping compound and took it down to to a .005 total build up. This brought the head space , with all shells under .010.
The test....Fired 75 rounds, five different brands including some resized hand loads, through the bottom barrel at the trap range last Sunday. NO FAIL TO FIRES ! In my mind this Citori is now reliable.
If you are having a FTF problem , have your local gunsmith check the head space. I'll bet Browning would not recommend or attempt this fix.
Good luck to you frustrated Citori owners. I love mine. Especially the Cheap one I just bought !
Thanks 16gaugeguy for the insight.
Rabbitdog. |
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