[skeet_man]

On the 4 shot i noticed my gun kick me more than usual

i found the shot shell had blown out from the bottom and it broke off a fin on the rotating bolt. The barrel at the chamber also has a small tiny bulge.

Classic signs of an overloaded shell. Probably a double charge if I had to guess.

i used a remington gun club hull with 17.3 gains of hodgon clays, win 209 primers, 1 oz of shot
and windjammer wads.

I'm surprised a load this light will even operate a Benelli (5500 PSI, 1125FPS)

im always within +- .3 grams of powder

I assume you mean grains, since .3 grams would be 4.6 grains.

 

[1straightshot]

Hi All...
I have been reloading for the past 15 years and never ran into this issue. a week ago i was shooting trap with my benelli montefeltro super 90. On the 4 shot i noticed my gun kick me more than usual, which i thought was odd. As i turned the gun over i noticed that the action was closed and jammed. I tried taking the forearm off and taking the barrel off but it wouldn't budge. well i took the gun home and it rook me about 4 hours to slowly open the action.

i found the shot shell had blown out from the bottom and it broke off a fin on the rotating bolt. The barrel at the chamber also has a small tiny bulge. the barrel will not fit into the receiver.

i used a remington gun club hull with 17.3 gains of hodgon clays, win 209 primers, 1 oz of shot
and windjammer wads. i have been using this hodgon load for years without issues an occasional popper load.
I always weight my lead before reloading and also in between.

im always within +- .3 grams of powder, the shot will vary depending what shot i'm using some shot is heavier than others
the shot could vary about 20 grains depending how much antimony.

any ideas

All that sounds nice but that is not what was in the last shell or there was a blockage.

 

[Savage99Stan]

I'm sorry to disagree but you have no way of proving or knowing what was actually in that last shell. Unless you weighed every component and kept it separate until firing.

 

[carino1973]

Classic signs of an overloaded shell. Probably a double charge if I had to guess.


I'm surprised a load this light will even operate a Benelli (5500 PSI, 1125FPS)


I assume you mean grains, since .3 grams would be 4.6 grains.

yes my bad i mean grains ..

 

[6541]

Thank goodness that you and probably the Benelli are not injured. An increase in felt recoil could indicate that the shot left the barrel at an increased velocity. A barrel buldge near the chamber could indicate increased pressure from a barrel obstruction. Your reload may have had more than 17.3 gains of Clays. You may want to inspect the powder drop path on your loader to determine if powder could bridge in the drop resulting in a heavier charge than normal. I had this problem on a MEC 9000 in which a primer somehow made its way into the powder drop tube.

I also was at a backwoods games shoot many years ago with most shooters shooting "back pocket" loads at 50 yards behind the house. It was a hot and sweaty day with most shooters wiping the sweat off of their face. One shooter, using an 870, must have got a little sweat in his barrel because he developed a perfect 1/16" circular bulge in his barrel about 12" from the muzzle after a shot.

Over many years of reloading Federal Paper hulls, I have had a few hulls blow out a small opening in the base of the hull with an escape of hot gas from the ejection port of my 870. The brass showed a small opening in the rim but no extended brass.

With the base of the hull in contact with face of the Benelli Montefeltro, a blown out hull could wrap around the bolt face.

You may want to open a sample of reloads and carefully measure the powder drop, If some are light and some are heavy, you need to determine the reason and consider opening more shells to determine if you have a bigger problem.

Good Luck.

 

[carino1973]

I'm sorry to disagree but you have no way of proving or knowing what was actually in that last shell. Unless you weighed every component and kept it separate until firing.

I am pretty careful loading the shells. I have a mec 9000 and I always check the powder drops numerous times before starting to actually reload. I then run about 10 rounds that i keep on checking the weights. once im confident that its dropping the correct powder withing +- .3 grains i start to reload, i then check the powder drop every 15 or so shells. I only have one type of powder, one type of wads, one type of hull and one type of primers.. so i cant make a mistake with a substitution. the only thing i can think of that may have happend was that sometimes the wad gets caught on the hull on the down stroke... this then crushes the hull and i throw it away. The shells are automatically moved to the next station with every down stroke and upstroke. so the shells don't go backwards. on the down stroke the charge bar moves and it drops the shot then on the upstroke the charge bar moves and drops the powder then the shells progress to the next stations. Maybe there was an obstruction in the barrel. I sent a picture of the shell to Mec and they said that they haven't seen this happen to shell.

 

[carino1973]

Thank goodness that you and probably the Benelli are not injured. An increase in felt recoil could indicate that the shot left the barrel at an increased velocity. A barrel buldge near the chamber could indicate increased pressure from a barrel obstruction. Your reload may have had more than 17.3 gains of Clays. You may want to inspect the powder drop path on your loader to determine if powder could bridge in the drop resulting in a heavier charge than normal. I had this problem on a MEC 9000 in which a primer somehow made its way into the powder drop tube.

I also was at a backwoods games shoot many years ago with most shooters shooting "back pocket" loads at 50 yards behind the house. It was a hot and sweaty day with most shooters wiping the sweat off of their face. One shooter, using an 870, must have got a little sweat in his barrel because he developed a perfect 1/16" circular bulge in his barrel about 12" from the muzzle after a shot.

Over many years of reloading Federal Paper hulls, I have had a few hulls blow out a small opening in the base of the hull with an escape of hot gas from the ejection port of my 870. The brass showed a small opening in the rim but no extended brass.

With the base of the hull in contact with face of the Benelli Montefeltro, a blown out hull could wrap around the bolt face.

You may want to open a sample of reloads and carefully measure the powder drop, If some are light and some are heavy, you need to determine the reason and consider opening more shells to determine if you have a bigger problem.

Good Luck.

thanks for the reply, i spent a few hours today opening up about 20 shells and they all had perfect powder drops.
The load is listed on the hodgon website.. i have used this for years. its actually the lowest load on the hodgon chart, there are 3 other loads stronger than this one that they publish only by increasing the powder drop. I think the PSI is listed at around 5500

 

[carino1973]

thanks for the reply, i spent a few hours today opening up about 20 shells and they all had perfect powder drops.
The load is listed on the hodgon website.. i have used this for years. its actually the lowest load on the hodgon chart, there are 3 other loads stronger than this one that they publish only by increasing the powder drop. I think the PSI is listed at around 5500

 

[Sky Buster]

Hi All...
I have been reloading for the past 15 years and never ran into this issue. a week ago i was shooting trap with my benelli montefeltro super 90. On the 4 shot i noticed my gun kick me more than usual, which i thought was odd. As i turned the gun over i noticed that the action was closed and jammed. I tried taking the forearm off and taking the barrel off but it wouldn't budge. well i took the gun home and it rook me about 4 hours to slowly open the action.

i found the shot shell had blown out from the bottom and it broke off a fin on the rotating bolt. The barrel at the chamber also has a small tiny bulge. the barrel will not fit into the receiver.

i used a remington gun club hull with 17.3 gains of hodgon clays, win 209 primers, 1 oz of shot
and windjammer wads. i have been using this hodgon load for years without issues an occasional popper load.
I always weight my lead before reloading and also in between.

im always within +- .3 grams of powder, the shot will vary depending what shot i'm using some shot is heavier than others
the shot could vary about 20 grains depending how much antimony.

any ideas

If the hull blew out or split near the head, it may have been caused by the gun
firing before the bolt was fully locked up.

 

[perazzidave]

You have several things to be thankful for. First, you or another shooter wasn't injured. Second you are shooting a Benelli and not a 30K Krieghoff or Perazzi. Sounds like a barrel obstruction or a double charge load. No matter what the problem be happy you still have all your fingers and eyes.

PD

 

[pheasantmaster]

You had a live primer in base of shell.

 

[kgp912kgp]

This thread is worthless without photos...

 

[FelixD]

Out of battery detonation or barrel obstruction.

 

[jk80]

I'd guess out of battery also.

 

[skeet_man]

Can a Benelli even fire out of battery? The famous "Benelli click" if the bolt isn't ENTIRELY closed would suggest not.

I would think for an OOB discharge to result in noticeably increased recoil the bolt would have to have not locked AT ALL, basically making the gun straight blowback. I very seriously doubt this is possible on a Benelli.

Has the gun been modified in any way, including the inertia spring inside the bolt? Did the gun reliably eject your handloads?

 

[skeeljc]

Barrel obstructions will either split the barrel open or bulge the barrel. Damage to the head of the shell indicates the gun either was not fully locked up or something failed causing the breach to fail. Even with a double charge the breach lock up should not give way.

I would return the gun to the manufacturer for analysis. They might not be able to help since the shell was a reload.

 

[carino1973]

Can a Benelli even fire out of battery? The famous "Benelli click" if the bolt isn't ENTIRELY closed would suggest not.

I would think for an OOB discharge to result in noticeably increased recoil the bolt would have to have not locked AT ALL, basically making the gun straight blowback. I very seriously doubt this is possible on a Benelli.

Has the gun been modified in any way, including the inertia spring inside the bolt? Did the gun reliably eject your handloads?

i purchased the gun new in 1990 and i have used it since for mostly hunting and some trap shooting,the gun has never jammed since i had it. its all original no modifications.. did u see picture of the shell i posted earlier? What is out of battery mean? The only damage to the gun is the locking head assembly of the rotating bolt. a small piece of the head broke off. the barrel itself looks fine. u have to really look closely and u will find a small tiny bump on the barrel at the chamber.
the receiver is fine.

 

[carino1973]

Barrel obstructions will either split the barrel open or bulge the barrel. Damage to the head of the shell indicates the gun either was not fully locked up or something failed causing the breach to fail. Even with a double charge the breach lock up should not give way.

I would return the gun to the manufacturer for analysis. They might not be able to help since the shell was a reload.

thanks for the reply, after i shot the shell, i looked at the action and it was almost closed the rotating bolt head had the extractors open and looked like it was trying to pull shell out after it was fired.

 

[Nebs]

I doubt it was a double powder charge. If/when you get one of those, the stack height is so tall the hull won't close on crimping. And, likely, at the shot drop station you will have shot overflowing the hull. To summarize, if you had a double charge, there was something unusual going on with that particular round and you more than likely would have noticed it. What kind of reloader do you use?