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930SPX and FTE

B

bradyblack

.22LR
hello all. i've had my 930spx for over a year now, and i've put a lot of rounds through it. i did the whole break in period. i cleaned it well, and then oiled it, before i went to the range yesterday. out of roughly a hundred rounds of full power ammo, i still had 4 failures to eject. i find that unacceptable. the brand of ammo doesn't seem to make any difference as to when it happens.

i've been considering sending it off to Aimpro to have the action polished. any idea if that would help? because at this point, i'm kind of ready to throw my hands up and give up on this gun. it's been doing this for the entire time i've had it. and frankly, if i don't feel i can trust my life to it, i see no reason to keep it around. i would really like this thing to run properly, but i'm pretty close to giving up.

any advice would be much appreciated. thanks.
 
The only "rhyme or reason" I have found is that my 930 (non-SPX) seems to be very picky about the hull type. Most of the cheap target loads out there (at least Estate & Winchester anyway) seem to use a cheap, aluminum, short-base hull. My 930 as about a 1 in 10 failure rate with these cheaper hull types.

I haven't tried them; however, I am told that the shorter hull bases WILL work, as long as they are made of the traditional brass (or brass-washed) material. I also find that when I use shells with a full hull, they just feed and extract much, much nicer.

I just had a friend stop by my desk and he has corrected me on my terminology. Apparently the "short-hull bases" are called "low-brass" and the longer, "full-hull" shells are called "high-brass" ... maybe somebody can confirm that? (I am OCD about having my terminology right ... don't talk to me about "clips" unless you are shooting an SKS or M1A. ;)
 
No rhyme or reason would describe it. High or low brass doesn't seem to make a difference. I've went through a whole box of the walmart Remington cheap stuff no problem, then had full power Remington slugs give me problems.
 
So...I have actually been cruising some other forums (on other sites) for this issue and found a couple of things. Here is an excerpt of text that seemed to resonate with me and something that I will probably try. The description this guy gave of his 930 FTE issues sound very similar to yours and mine:

=====================================================
"I finally decided to put the gun under the microscope to see where the problem lied.
I found that the chamber was rough as could be. I ran my finger around in it and I could feel the scratches and grooves in it. That's always a problem.

Also, I noticed that the extractor wasn't really grabbing the shells worth a crap. It seemed to not reach in toward the bolt face enough. I fixed that too. I had to remove the extractor from the bolt and file down a little area where the extractor met the bolt body. this allowed the extractor to reach in towards the center of the bolt face a little more, ensuring that it has a good bite into the shell casing. This also gives a slight bit more pressure on the shell pushing it to the left hand side of the gun during cycling ensuring good engagement on the ejector, that makes sure that it throws the old out with authority and gets it out of the way for the new cartridge instead of jamming like mine always did. The extractors seem to be like rough cast, or rough forged and that allows for alot of variance between production runs. Some may need help. Re hardened the steel and reassembled.

Lastly I noticed that there are two sets of gas rings in the gas piston. Each one has its own gap. Ensure that the gaps are opposite of each other, just like piston rings in an engine. This will reduce lost compression, or in the case of the shotgun lost gas pressure.

So, polish chamber, align gas rings and adjust the extractors attitude and you should be on your way to a happy gun.

I did all this in about an hour, my gun instantly ran like it should after the fixes. Im 100% positive that the three fixes I did directly improved the operation of the gun."
=====================================================

I don't have another 3-gun comp until the middle of February, so I think I am going to get out the dremel, polish the chamber, check my gas rings & extractor, giver another good cleaning and go out with some assorted ammo (inc. the low-brass cheapys that I have been having problems with) and see if I can get this thing cycling again.

ONE LAST THOUGHT ... since this guy is talking extractor, I wonder if just a really good cleaning of your extractor would help. I have an old Remmy 550, 22LR and all kinds of gunk gets built up under the extractors and makes them very ineffective. They aren't easily removed, so I just have to soak my entire bolt in gun cleaner and then it is good to go for another 1000+ rounds ... until it starts FTE'ing again. Maybe your extractor has a lot of build-up under it?
 
I'm gearing up for 3 gun and I found that after a 1000rds down the pipe my SPX 3 gen started developing an extractor issue. I need to polish the chamber and file down the extractor. Maybe I'll ask Dave's Metal work to see if he can do some action work and polishing and beveling on the 930 for 3 gun...
 
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