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Beretta 694 action stuck closed after firing

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#23 ·
DZZ --

This is NOT a firing pin issue as I had the EXACT same problem on my 694 B-Fast ACS.... I only put approx 400 rounds through mine and the action refused to open after the firing the lower barrel only. This happened on at least 8 different occasions while on the line. I was forced to remove the forehand and barrel in order to extract the spent shell. There was a very definite scoring on the face of the receiver that was offset laterally from the firing pin where the brass would scrape on opening. My 694 was less than a month old.

When I contacted Beretta and explained the situation they said that it appeared the tolerances were too tight and there was not enough head space for the shell to eject without scraping the face of the receiver. Given that the the scoring was offset from center, it also appeared that the barrel was not fit properly and not square to the receiver.

As mine was less than one month old I was put off when Beretta told me that the repair time was 6-8 weeks. I explained to them that this was not a "repair" issue related to something that broker while under warranty, but rather a defect that existed at the time of manufacture and that the gun should be replaced and not repaired.
 
#24 ·
DTOSESQ said:
DZZ --

This is NOT a firing pin issue as I had the EXACT same problem on my 694 B-Fast ACS.... I only put approx 400 rounds through mine and the action refused to open after the firing the lower barrel only. This happened on at least 8 different occasions while on the line. I was forced to remove the forehand and barrel in order to extract the spent shell. There was a very definite scoring on the face of the receiver that was offset laterally from the firing pin where the brass would scrape on opening. My 694 was less than a month old.

When I contacted Beretta and explained the situation they said that it appeared the tolerances were too tight and there was not enough head space for the shell to eject without scraping the face of the receiver. Given that the the scoring was offset from center, it also appeared that the barrel was not fit properly and not square to the receiver.

As mine was less than one month old I was put off when Beretta told me that the repair time was 6-8 weeks. I explained to them that this was not a "repair" issue related to something that broker while under warranty, but rather a defect that existed at the time of manufacture and that the gun should be replaced and not repaired.
Click to expand...
What’s was the outcome with Beretta and your gun?
 
#26 ·
I had a few boxes of Fiocchi (but not all of the flat I had) and a box of Winchester AA Steel that would get stuck and not eject from my 694... Never had this problem with Federal Top Guns or Remington Gun Clubs/STS. I figured it was just some inconsistent lots.

I hope Beretta gets you your 694 back quickly, took multiple months when I had to send mine in for a fitting problem.
 
#27 ·
dzz said:
I cleaned the gun including removing ejectors, cleaning ejector spring channel, ejector springs, barrels, action, forearm locking and firing ping reset mechanisms and everything else other than removing the stock and cleaning the trigger group. I lubricated everything and made sure everything works. I went to range, I shot one box no issues. On the second box I had action stuck closed 2 times just like in my original post, this happened at around 10 rounds in the 2nd box. As I was taking new shells to shoot, I came across deformed shell (see pic below) and not only that the shell was deformed, it also wouldn't go in the chamber (it is wider than the chamber). Now that I look back it seems like that all failures happened from the shells in the 2 boxes of 250 shells. This specific box of 25 shells showed signs of impact and my guess is that is why that one shell was visibly deformed. While other shells didn't have visible damage, I think is that they were is some way deformed which impacted their ejection. After the box in question, I shot 3 more boxes of the same Federal Top Gun ammo and no issues. So my working theory is that action being stuck and ejection issues are ammo related due to damage of the ammo in transport. I have a Fiocchi box of 250 shells, I'll shoot those and report how it goes.


View attachment 1919707

View attachment 1919708
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That looks like damage during manufacturing, not during transport.
 
#28 ·
dzz said:
I cleaned the gun including removing ejectors, cleaning ejector spring channel, ejector springs, barrels, action, forearm locking and firing ping reset mechanisms and everything else other than removing the stock and cleaning the trigger group. I lubricated everything and made sure everything works. I went to range, I shot one box no issues. On the second box I had action stuck closed 2 times just like in my original post, this happened at around 10 rounds in the 2nd box. As I was taking new shells to shoot, I came across deformed shell (see pic below) and not only that the shell was deformed, it also wouldn't go in the chamber (it is wider than the chamber). Now that I look back it seems like that all failures happened from the shells in the 2 boxes of 250 shells. This specific box of 25 shells showed signs of impact and my guess is that is why that one shell was visibly deformed. While other shells didn't have visible damage, I think is that they were is some way deformed which impacted their ejection. After the box in question, I shot 3 more boxes of the same Federal Top Gun ammo and no issues. So my working theory is that action being stuck and ejection issues are ammo related due to damage of the ammo in transport. I have a Fiocchi box of 250 shells, I'll shoot those and report how it goes.


View attachment 1919707

View attachment 1919708
Click to expand...
I have a deformed shell out of of my box of Federal Top Gun 1 oz 1300fps. Looks like this might be a common manufacturing defect.

Image
 
#29 ·
JosephxSxN said:
I had a few boxes of Fiocchi (but not all of the flat I had) and a box of Winchester AA Steel that would get stuck and not eject from my 694... Never had this problem with Federal Top Guns or Remington Gun Clubs/STS. I figured it was just some inconsistent lots.

I hope Beretta gets you your 694 back quickly, took multiple months when I had to send mine in for a fitting problem.
Click to expand...
U people scare me with all your shooting reload problems You better drop off all your components right now and just buy commercial ammo. I will burn your components one shell at a time and get rid of the stuff right away. Lol
Seriously, crap happens I've loaded 10 of thousands shells in 12 and 20 gauge with no problems. But. There are some rules to follow with any ammo.. If you have a funny sounding load CHECK YOUR BARREL. I had a total dud this week. A good hit on the primer, the squad quit shooting and I stepped off the line. The primer never ignited found out after I got home.
I had a problem though, the shell did not eject out of my semi-auto. I took the gun apart to get it out. My gun was dirty. I cleaned my gun thoroughly and it is working fine now. That's a common issue with my Beretta Urika. I usually clean it every 300 rounds and this time it happened earlier than expected.
I load for my family. My father loaded for his family. No problems. I load only Winchester, Federal or Remington according to mfr recommended recipes. I check my loads on occasion, it's called quality control. If something looks strange I check it out A wad goes in crooked. A shell does not want to close, etc. I do use other components, like Claybuster or Down Range Wads. I have used Cheddite primers.. No problems there. There are recipes for those other wads and primers. I don't load max. I like 1160 fps. I guess that is called common sense.
 
#30 ·
nickolas1 said:
U people scare me with all your shooting reload problems You better drop off all your components right now and just buy commercial ammo. I will burn your components one shell at a time and get rid of the stuff right away. Lol
Seriously, crap happens I've loaded 10 of thousands shells in 12 and 20 gauge with no problems. But. There are some rules to follow with any ammo.. If you have a funny sounding load CHECK YOUR BARREL. I had a total dud this week. A good hit on the primer, the squad quit shooting and I stepped off the line. The primer never ignited found out after I got home.
I had a problem though, the shell did not eject out of my semi-auto. I took the gun apart to get it out. My gun was dirty. I cleaned my gun thoroughly and it is working fine now. That's a common issue with my Beretta Urika. I usually clean it every 300 rounds and this time it happened earlier than expected.
I load for my family. My father loaded for his family. No problems. I load only Winchester, Federal or Remington according to mfr recommended recipes. I check my loads on occasion, it's called quality control. If something looks strange I check it out A wad goes in crooked. A shell does not want to close, etc. I do use other components, like Claybuster or Down Range Wads. I have used Cheddite primers.. No problems there. There are recipes for those other wads and primers. I don't load max. I like 1160 fps. I guess that is called common sense.
Click to expand...
Just to be clear the issues I referred to in my post are with factory ammo not reloads, and I clean my shotgun after pretty much every outting (sub-300 rds fired between cleanings.)
 
#31 ·
I’m in agreement with hbar314, my guess is an ejector timing issue also. Mostly due to the scraping taking place on the face of the base of the shell. Round has to be pressing very hard against the breech face to get marks like that.
Firing bin may be sticking some, but usually when that happens there will be a drag mark where the fp swiped across the primer face when action broke open. You said you had to use force to open it but no sign of drag marks, at least not on the round in the picture.
Take a rubber mallet or a small dead blow hammer with you when you shoot. Next time it happens give it a tap on the side of the action. If it’s fp related that may make them easily pull back and function restored. Regardless of what it is, it needs to see the DR.

many people can pull a stock and address fp, issues. Ejector timing issues, not so much!
Very interested to hear what you find out when you finally get it sorted.
 
#32 ·
Just saw that you sent it to Beretta. Probably won’t get as detailed explaination of the repairs as you would get from Cole’s, but in the end you will have a working shotgun and that is the important thing. Good luck on a speedy “recovery”.
 
#34 ·
Trigger1212 said:
I’m in agreement with hbar314, my guess is an ejector timing issue also. Mostly due to the scraping taking place on the face of the base of the shell. Round has to be pressing very hard against the breech face to get marks like that.
Firing bin may be sticking some, but usually when that happens there will be a drag mark where the fp swiped across the primer face when action broke open. You said you had to use force to open it but no sign of drag marks, at least not on the round in the picture.
Take a rubber mallet or a small dead blow hammer with you when you shoot. Next time it happens give it a tap on the side of the action. If it’s fp related that may make them easily pull back and function restored. Regardless of what it is, it needs to see the DR.

many people can pull a stock and address fp, issues. Ejector timing issues, not so much!
Very interested to hear what you find out when you finally get it sorted.
Click to expand...
The extract mechanism is the slot machined into the receiver sides and the round pin protrusion on the ejectors. Timing has nothing to do with this and doesn't come into play until the ejector sears are depressed by their force on the cocking rods to make them clear the end of the ejectors.

The scuff on the brass is interesting but the rim thickness of the shell is unaffected during firing so if it closes easily, it should open easy. One explanation is that the shell is driven hard rearward as pressure builds and if the chamber is rough, the metal base could be sticking to the chamber walls enough to cause the head to drag on the receiver face. If that was the problem, it would be much worse with steel base shells. Hence the often repeated bash of steel base shells when the real problem is the chamber. All bases retract somewhat after firing but imperfections in the chamber wall can easy be severe enough that the smaller amount steel case shells shrink causes them to stick.

This sounds like a hung firing pin but that typically leaves a mark on the primer. Since the OP didn't take the stock off, we're missing a great deal of info. I'm not expecting much from Coles in the way of diagnosis but it would be nice to know what they find.

-Scot
 
#36 ·
One thing I've done in the past to diagnose chamber issues causing hulls to stick is grease the hull brass prior to loading. Just a very light film and they either stop sticking all together or the number that do stick decreases dramatically and with less severity. If you get the gun back and it still experiences the problem, you might give that a try. Ejectors out, 0000 steel wool around a dowl for a close fit then spun by drill while working in and out with plenty of oil has worked on even the stickiest of chambers for me.

-Scot
 
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