16ga.com ~ View topic - 11-48 experiment

Joined: 08 Oct 2005 Posts: 241

I recently had my son and several of his buddies out shooting clays from a bench mounted thrower. To keep things more manageable with several 8th grade boys around we only bring one gun and take turns. That one gun was one of my 11-48’s in 16gauge. I had rwo flats of 7/8 ounce reloads and the boys shot all 500 rounds up. The gun stopped ejecting about round 450 and was a single shot for the last 2 boxes. We ended with sodas and everybody was happy!
Upon getting the gun home I decided to do an experiment. I whipped the outside of the gun down of course but only took the barrel off and cleaned the first 6 inches. The chamber sparkled when I was done. The next day we took the gun back out for winter trap and it ejected perfectly.
The moral of the store for me is if you have issues with ejection on the 11-48 clean the chamber well. After winter trap the old girl got a deep clean.

I've gone thru a rennaisance with my 48's lately - did better than I would have expected .... BUT ... same thing . I used some propietary AM SEL loads and some unique loads out of SPR's data . The gun worked great , but it was like soft plastic buildup in the chambers - you can feel the FED grooves . The loads creamed the targets and were great till this little affliction . It wasn't any kinda showstopper as I usually have fiocchi factories to use as 1st double shot ,but I;m getting less than75 shots till a borescrubbin is needed . ( gun is always 100% after the tornado brush has done a pass or 2 )

Just a suggestion here. I use a 1.1/2" X 2" oblong piece of white ScotchBrite pad to run through my barrels when I suspect plastic buildup and generally once a month for guns I use regularly just as a precaution. Do not use the black or green SB pad material because they will remove metal from the barrels. JF

Member Joined: 05 Nov 2010 Posts: 73 Location: holley ny

just a suggestion if you have not cleaned the action spring in the butt stock do so. was having same tyupe issues and hang ups that would be remidied for a bit by your fix. but found the culprit to truley be the action spring now throws whatever shells i want without a hiccup.

my problem is the chamber gets just sticky enough to let the extractor pull off - the gun still cycles the nect shell onto the empty ... while talking about this with an old Creekside gunsmith (predecessor to Turnbull Rest .) , he noted that unique is/was one of the most likely powders to grab moisture . Similar thing used to happen with 20 ga Rem target loads . We had a squad of 5 rem 1100 std weight 20's once , and 4 of us used the rems . guess which 4 didn't make it all the way thru the round !? The good news is it's much easier to swipe an 11-48 barrel and go again . Next try will be all AM SEL and see how that works .

Member Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 1975

Deerhunter.
Unique has been my main powder for the `6 gauge. Never had the problem with the chamber getting sticky . If you are having problems with the ejector. Look it over carefully if the end is at all rounded it needs replacing. The ejector is cheap and is easy to replace.
As far as the action spring, once it is cleaned it should be okay for quite awhile. One reason for the action spring to get gummed up is from spraying the inside of the receiver and letting the spray run down inside to the action spring. If you are going to clean the breech block and receiver remove the breech block and clean it then, It and the trigger assembly will get gummed up over time.If you don't like doing this and the shell latch comes out, get the shell latch staked in. Any good gunsmith can do that.

George

SPR - my go to powder was and remains Unique . Only seen this sorta thing on & off . The last 2 weekends were crappers , wet damp , foggy etc and my shells were out for quite a while . Phil has been a gunsmith / rifle / pistol shooter for 50 yrs , so i have a lot of faith in him when he describes something . He shoots more in a month than most of us do in a decade . Not saying don't trust Unique , just sayin sometimes (like women) it may need a little extra attn !

Member Joined: 05 Nov 2010 Posts: 73 Location: holley ny

i follow your situation better now have not had this issue. spr 310 the last time i was having action spring issues it was not gum it was pine needles cuasing it to stick in the tube , this was shortly after it had been cleaned out. sometimes it amazes me how things wind up where they do as i didn't recall using it that much in pine stands but...

Following on spr310's suggestion for cleaning the 11-48 and the gunk settling down into the butt spring, when you get done cleaning any of these old shotguns the best rule is to put them away muzzle end down on a piece of cardboard.

After a while when you look at the cardboard, you will be looking at the oil and crap that would have migrated into the stock making it oil soaked and punky.

Just a thought from an old muzzle end down shotgun shooter. JF