Stoeger and TTN shucking problems -- shells stick

[Okie Sawbones]

I have a Stoeger Supreme 12 and a TTN 12, both tuned by gunsmiths and honed. Neither will shuck shells reliably. I have tried Winchester AA FL8, Federal Top Gun, Winchester Winlite and Remington STS.

I purchased honing oil and a flex-hone 180 & 800 from Midway. I have honed the guns three different times using my cordless drill, each time going to the range to see if they will shuck shells.

Does anyone have any words of wisdom? Tips? One fellow at the match yesterday suggested wiping the shells down with ArmorAll. Has anyone ever tried that? Thanks for any help -- it is frustrating plucking shells manually.

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

       Try useing shells with brass heads and smooth hulls, the aluminum heads expand too much not allowing the shell to fall out freely, and it seems the plactic corrugated expand too much also,

                                                               TW

[Major 2]

What 10Wolves said .. but to answer your Armorall question ...YES and I found spray silicone worked even better on AA's with my old Stoeger.
My TTN has not had any issues shucking

[Okie Sawbones]

Remington STS and Winchester AA FL8 are smooth and use brass heads I believe. That doesn't seem to be the problem. The Top Gun and Winlite are ribbed, plus I don't think the Winlites use brass heads.

I guess I'll hone them a fourth time, get 'em slick as a hound's tooth with the 800, then try Armorall on the shells and see what happens. Thanks for the replies.

[Pettifogger]

You are missing an important piece of information.  What kind of load are you shooting?  Factory or reloads?  BP or smokeless?

[Whiskey Hayes]

Okie

You don't need to go to the range to test your polishing efforts, just use 2 empty hulls.  When the cold empties fall out with barrels held vertical fresh fired shells will fly out with a slight jerk backwards.  I have a flex hone from Midway and Brownells neither beats a Scotchbrite pad wrapped around a cleaning brush.  Polish for 30 seconds and test, then repeat.  I did have a ring in both chambers about 2/3rds of a hull up the chamber that took quite a bit of polishing to remove.

WH

[Abilene]

  These are factory loads you are using, right?  Usually the Win AA hulls and STS have no problems.  Is it possible that the chambers have been honed too much (oversize and/or bulged in the middle?)  Are the hulls clean when they come out of the gun and are the chambers staying clean?  If the chambers are oversized possibly blowby is getting around the hulls and making them sticky.  Have the openings to the chambers been beveled?  Wondering if that could be contributing to the problem.  Don't know about Stoeger, but most TTN's need little or no smoothing to shuck hulls.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[Major 2]

I had felt a little ridge inside the chamber on my pre-BUB Stoeger. I used a 12 Guage mop and fine valve grinding compound and a cordless drill in and up a down movement.
That solved the ridge issue.

I've done nothing to my TTn bought NIB in 05, and have not had to 

[Okie Sawbones]

No, these are all factory smokeless loads -- Winlite, Remington STS Low Recoil, Winchester AA FL8, and Federal Top Gun. There is no blow back. The shells are clean as a whistle. The chambers were beveled by a gunsmith.

It's strange. My TTN will shuck anything. My wife's wants to stick with everything. I thought it was just her technique until I fired it as well...had to eat a little crow. 

Anyway, I honed the devil out of it, especially slicking it up with the 800. I have Armoralled all of the shells. I'm off to the range tomorrow to see how it goes.

BTW, I tried the empty hull drill, Whiskey. The STS drop out. The AA do not. I don't have any empty Winlites or Top Gun to try.

Thanks again...

[Pettifogger]

The last three cases of Winchester feather lites (AA12FL8) I got don't shuck worth a darn.  Winchester changed to a two piece hull a while back and now the plastic material itself seems different.  The crimp blows out when fired, but then doesn't retract like it used to and it sticks the case in the chamber.  I had to switch back to Remington STS to get reliable shucking.  Remington still uses a one piece compression formed hull.  I am saving the AA's for my 87 since it doesn't like Remington hulls.

[Okie Sawbones]

Good to know, Pettifogger. That explains a good part of the problem. I'm going to take my AAs out to the next shoot and sell them at a bargain price.

[August]

Folk around these parts, who are concerned about consistent shucking of fired shells, ONLY use Remington STS shells.  Winchesters have always bitten me at some point in a match, so I don't use 'em any more, in spite of the pretty, red color.

Now, here's the fix.  Get a pistol rod and attach a 12 guage bore mop to it.  Find a zip-lock that will hold it.  Get some 303 Aerospace Protectant (which is a super, duper silicone spray) and spray that mop down real good.  Put the mop in the zip=lock and put the zip-lock in your gun cart.  Run said mop through chambers after every second, or third stage.  Warn the RO to duck 'cause there's empty shells comin' his way -- pronto!!!

[Pappy Myles]

Heres a thought, though I havnt tried it.............

years ago when I shot NRA high power, we would treat our barrels and bullets with molybarium dysulfide.   its a very fine dry powder that sticks to anything and everything.    Would treating the chambers with this stuff work?