Question

Customer brought in a Remington 58 12 Gauge complaining of poor ejection, no ejection, jamming. After verifying the pressure selection dial set in the correct position, I test fired a low base round which ejected OK. Completely disassembled and thoroughly cleaned the shotgun per his request. After reassembly, test fired two more low base and two high base rounds with ammunition pressure selector dial set correctly. Ignition, extraction, ejection, feeding and bolt lock after last round were normal. The empties did not spin out of the gun like a loaded round when ejected manually.

Of course, when the customer fired the gun, it “jammed” the first and only three shots with the fired case at 90 degrees to the bore and the next round feeding up. When he returned the gun, I removed the trigger group and took a close look at the extraction and ejection sequence while cycling the bolt manually, sometimes slow and deliberate and other times rapidly. A loaded round ejects fine, spinning out of the ejection port. Empties will sometimes make it out of the ejection port, sometimes not. The only thing I could see that even remotely appeared to be contributing to the poor ejection was the extractor slipping off the case rim at some point when the case was at a 30 to 45 degree angle out the ejection port during the ejection cycle. So I installed a new 1100 extractor and spring (close to identical to the 58 extractor) and tried the manual cycling again still without great results. Reassembled the gun, and test fired three rounds. All ejected fine. Took the gun to the range, and fired 9 more rounds. All ejected OK except one, which happened to be the last round out of the magazine. It remained in the ejection port at 90 degrees to the barrel with the bolt locked back. Went through the entire checklist in the Remington Field Service Manual for No Ejection for this model, and everything checks out: the ejector is not loose, damaged or worn; the action is smooth and does not bind slowing the timing; the original extractor appeared OK, but the new one may be a tad better; the feed latches and carrier timing appear correct; and the chamber is smooth. So, apparently with the new extractor, the gun is ejecting much better; it did have one no eject in 9 rounds. Thoughts? Due to the age of this gun, I wonder if paper versus plastic hulls would have anything to do with the symptoms. Thanks for your input.