20 Bore Question

[dead-eye-dick]

I decided to raid the piggy bank and buy a few more guns last weekend

 

- you can never have to meny     now that Mr Binladen is back on the sceen :evil:  -

 

One of which was a silver pigeon 20bore, as I dont have any 20bore snap caps, i thought I would use 2 SPENT cartriges.

 

When I got then home and dried them out I found that they didn't fit...

 

The brass base was far to tight to push into the barrells.

 

Do they expand when fired...if so how - as they are held tightly by the inner wall of the barrell.

Or had they expanded after being ejected??

 

As i don't have any 20b  cartriges I don't know if the gun will except them.      :what:

 

As an aside how meny of you use snap caps  -  how important are they.. :)  

[lazza]

Spent cartridges do expand.........I found that out the same way as you just have,........except that I got mine well & truly jammed in, & it took alot of cutting & fiddling around,along with mutterings of "what the **** did I do that for"............Best just wait until you obtain some snap caps!..

[NeVeTaS]

I use snap caps in my beretta, dunno if it's important?

[neil]

I did exactly the same thing with my 12bore silver pigeon,one good tip for getting them out if it does happen is stick your cleaning rod down the barrel and give the cartridge a bit of a tap,that shifted mine.The daft thing is i've got a set of snap caps anyway.Some people swear by them but i've heard (and i'm no gunsmith) that all you do is releave the mainsprings only to put pressure on the ejector springs instead,so what i do is use them for a bit then leave them out for a while.Theres been a thing going on in the sporting gun letters page about sticky 20g shells fora while now some chap wrote in thismonth and recons you need to go for cartridges with deep brass heads.Probably thebest bet isto buy a box or two of each make and see what suits it

[Cranfield]

Like everyone else, I once tried to use spent cartridges instead of snap caps and found out that they do expand.

The only difference was, I used a garden bamboo cane and a mallet, to get mine out.

 

I use snap caps in my "best" gun (for the first time), but not in my general purpose gun.

I have never had any problems with springs, in guns where I have not used snap caps.

I think they are a bit like religion, you either believe or don,t.

 

When I read the letters in Sporting Gun a few months ago, about sticky 20 bore cartridges, I spoke to two friends who have 20 bores.

Neither has ever had a problem and use various makes of cartridge, depending which is on "special offer".

Could it be a "gun thing" ?

If I get a 20 bore, it will be a semi-auto........no problemo. 8)

[dead-eye-dick]

Until you get one jam in that.....Big problemo..  

[Cranfield]

Buy Benelli semi-auto 20 bore........never jam.....that why, no problemo.    

[Deako]

but no good on a driven day!...........I've used a 'twenty' for the last 15 years, always beretta............you don't need snap caps at all, I've had one of my guns stored with the springs cocked for the last 8 years, no probs. If 20 bore carts stick on ejection, try using the ones with high brass, Hull sterling game are superb, with few sticking problems.