Took my 39-2 to the range today

[toocool]

Not as good a session as I had hoped. I found this one in a local Gander Mountain a few months ago, and just got to shoot it today. between my son, his girlfriend and I we put maybe 75 rounds through it and had a few failures to eject. Ammo used was WWB and some brand I had never heard of - Brown Bear. It had some weird coating on the cases and I suspect that coating caused issues. Before I panic and send this back to S&W to be checked, I want to put some better ammo through it to see if I'm having extractor problems or some other issue, or if it was just the ammo.

On the plus side, this thing is a sweet shooter. It pretty much shot everything where we aimed it and the DA to SA transition wasn't a problem for any of us. (I was also shooting my Ruger P345 and had no problems with the DA/SA transition on that one also). The grip was comfortable, trigger pull was smooth with no perceptible overtravel.

All in all I had a good range day. I plan another range session next weekend, if finances allow.

[p0838]

Were you using hardball?

[tgwillard]

I know from using reloads which I did not properly resize I had some FTE problems with my 6906. However every factory round and all those reloads I did properly resize never caused a problem ejecting. Do try some different ammunition before making a decision to send back to S&W.

[LoboGunLeather]

Brown Bear is one of the Russian brands, lacquered steel cases. Failures to eject might be the result of irregularities in the rim dimensions.

[john traveler]

Agreed. Brown Bear is a Russian manufactured brand. The lacquered or varnished cases used in .223 caliber ammunition have been reported to cause numerous extraction difficulties in AR-15 type rifles.

Irregularities in extractor groove dimensions are likely caused by buildup of lacquer in the groove. I dunno what process they use in coating the cases (spraying or dipping), but I've seen lots of cartridges where the case coating builds up in the extractor groove, often to the point that the extractor claw can not get a firm grip.

[toocool]

That's kind of what I thought. We were just shooting FMJ, both the WWB and the Brown Bear. The lacquered cases felt weird anyway, but that was the brand the range sold, and I didn't have time to go somewhere else. For the next trip I will make sure I have an adequate supply of better-quality ammo.

[Vulcan Bob]

Plus one for good ammo. Also make sure it's properly lubricated, the 39 does not like to run dry.