Wadcutter Sticky Extraction

[Ben_hutcherson]

I'd appreciate some thoughts about what could be going on with something I experienced the other day.

I was shooting a 4" M&P from about 1920 the other day. The gun is new to me, and this was the first time I'd shot it.

I started out shooting wadcutters. I've loaded a lot of Hornady 148gr HBWCs. I've been using 2.7gr Bullseye, a CCI 500 primer, and seat them flush with a tiny bit of roll crimp to knock the flare off the case. This load shoots great for me, and normally the brass will fall out of the gun after firing.

In this particular M&P, I found that I needed to the ejector rod a good "pop" to get the brass out.

I tried some wadcutters from this same lot of 50 in a different gun(Colt Official Police, the only other 38 special I had with me that day) and found that the fired brass fell out as I would expect.

I also tried some other 38 special loads in the M&P, including 4.8gr Unique under a 140gr cast RNFP and 4.8gr Unique under a 158gr Berrys Plated. Both of these loads ejected with only a light push on the ejector rod.

Any thought on what could be going on with that particular gun/load combination?

 

[Troystat]

Could it be crud in the cylinders or poorly reamed cylinder holes? Strange that the more powerful loads cause less problems. Maybe try bumping the charge of bulleye up to 2.9 grains. Maybe a combination of crud from the bullets and powder combined with a low pressure load. Good luck.

 

[rwsmith]

This is a long shot......

This is a long shot, but it MAY be a factor in your case.

Low pressure rounds do not seal the case wall against the cylinder walls upon firing as do higher pressure loads. You might be getting some crud blown back behind the case mouth that is causing it to stick.

 

[Ben_hutcherson]

Thanks guys. I gave the cylinder a thorough cleaning(including breaking it down and sonicating it) so we'll see if that changes anything. The chambers are NOT pitted on this gun, something which I imagine could cause the problem I'm having.

 

[Nevada Ed]

If the ejector rod and system is not damaged and works smoothly........
the chambers are not pitted where the cases are located.......

it has to be the load that you are using.

As mentioned, bump that load up .2 grains and see if that might solve the problem......... that load might be too light for that M&P.

Good luck.