I have an S&W 52-1 that sometimes spent cases fail to extract (not eject) I am using a 148 grain Bearcreek HBWC seated flush with a slight roll crimp sitting on 2.9 grains of HP-38. The spent cases will cycle just fine when put in the magazine and cycled manually. Should I increase the powder charge slightly? The gun and chamber is very clean.
S&W 52-1 failure to feed issue.
- Thread starter Troystat
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cherrypointmarine
Member
Have you changed out your mag springs lately . Mine was doing the same , changed the recoil spring and mag springs and all was good . Had the same trouble on one of my semi autos and it was thee mag spring . Don't really know if the recoil spring was the culprit , but changed it anyways .
I don't have a loading manual to check, but it could be that the slide isn't moving far enough aft for the empty case doesn't hit the eject pin and the empty case is put right back in the chamber where it came from.
I had a Ruger 22-45 do this.
I had a Ruger 22-45 do this.
Kp321
Member
I am using 3.0 gr 231/HP-38 and have no cycling issues with my 52-1's even with a slide mounted red dot sight. I really don't see how .1 gr of powder could make a difference. Make sure the chamber is very clean. Steel wool wrapped around a worn bore brush and spun at moderate speed will give a nice polish with no danger of oversizing the chamber.
Protocall_Design
Vendor
You need more powder. I would use 3.2 of W231/HP38. That is a close equivalent of 2.8 of Bullseye.
I don't know that I would ever use steel wool inside a barrel chamber. That is a risky proposition at best. If I did it would be the finest grade of steel wool I could find. A better solution in my estimation would be to use bronze wool that many hardware stores sell. I would soak the bronze wool in something like Kroil first and then go at the chamber. I wrap strands of real copper Chore Boy pads around a slightly worn bore brush to clean barrels and chambers. Just make sure the copper pads are not the copper washed style steel wool pads. If in doubt use a magnet to check. I don't use a drill for this.
For lesser fouled chambers and barrels I use VFG Intensive pellets for cleaning. No drill needed with these. Put some JB bore cleaner on the pellet and clean away with elbow grease. Follow up with JB bore polish on VFG Comfort pellet and it should get the job done. If the chamber is really crudded up you may have to do this procedure a couple of times, but you have no fear of doing any damage to leade, lands or groves.
I have also just started using a cleaning paste form a company called TCS Products. It has shown some really good results and you may want to give them a try. I like it better than the JB Bore cleaner I normally use.
650 FPS is too slow for your load, but I am happy to see you ran it thru a chronograph. Federal factory wadcutter ammunition ran 735 FPS in my M-52 and my handloads duplicate this speed with Hornady 148 HBWC bullets. I use WW231 or Solo 1000 which is no longer available. Solo 1000 was a very clean burning powder and it's too bad we can't get it anymore, but WW231 works well too. I never cared for Bullseye powder much at all. Good Luck!!
Rick H.
For lesser fouled chambers and barrels I use VFG Intensive pellets for cleaning. No drill needed with these. Put some JB bore cleaner on the pellet and clean away with elbow grease. Follow up with JB bore polish on VFG Comfort pellet and it should get the job done. If the chamber is really crudded up you may have to do this procedure a couple of times, but you have no fear of doing any damage to leade, lands or groves.
I have also just started using a cleaning paste form a company called TCS Products. It has shown some really good results and you may want to give them a try. I like it better than the JB Bore cleaner I normally use.
650 FPS is too slow for your load, but I am happy to see you ran it thru a chronograph. Federal factory wadcutter ammunition ran 735 FPS in my M-52 and my handloads duplicate this speed with Hornady 148 HBWC bullets. I use WW231 or Solo 1000 which is no longer available. Solo 1000 was a very clean burning powder and it's too bad we can't get it anymore, but WW231 works well too. I never cared for Bullseye powder much at all. Good Luck!!
Rick H.
gwpercle
Member
The two reloading manuals that I have give starting loads
of ... 3.5 grs HP#* - Lyman - 743 fps .
and RCBS 4.0 grs HP38 @ 848 fps .
That 2.9 gr. load may be at the edge of 100 % functioning ...
I would bump it up just a bit to make sure the cases extract 199 % ... test some loads with 3.0 grs , 3.1 grs and 3.2 grs and see if they perform ...
I have a hunch your magazine springs ... are not the problem ... try just a little bit more HP38 and see how that works ... Good Luck ...
Load Safe,
Gary
