Stiff Browning 12g break - advice please?

[junctiontwo]

Hi all,

 

We've just bought our first SG's and gleefully took their virginity today! All was good and on arriving home I duly cleaned them both before putting them to bed.

 

My wife's Browning 725 is incredibly hard to break open, to the extent that she has to turn it sideways and rest it her hip. My Winchester WAS quite stiff but a liberal spray with grease plus today's 100+ shells has loosened it already, although I think the weight of the barrels does help a bit.

 

Is it usual for a SG to be so difficult to open? I realise that it will (or should) become easier as it's used but right now even I have trouble breaking it. I've just greased everything thinking it would show a difference like it did with mine, but there's no difference whatsoever.

 

Does this just require patience or should we think about taking it back for adjustment?

 

Thanks a million.....

[Zeus]

Brand new?....If so I would guess it will be stiff until its had a few more rounds through it.

 

If it still doesn't loosen up then yes maybe get it looked at.

 

Zeus

[slimshooter]

They will wear in, went through looking at half a dozen new guns the other day and some were very stiff, after about a thousand cartridges you will find them a bit easier.

[fruity]

Ive had my 692 for about 2 weeks now and starting to find its loosening up after around 600 shells but was pretty tight from new

[GingerCat]

More use, girlfriend had the Same issue, about 1-2k shells thru it and it loosens up nicely. If its still tight then have it looked at but my money is on it being shiny new

Edited August 17, 2013 by GingerCat

[Gunnerbob]

My Browning 525 is still stiff to break having only had about 500 cartridges through. Have been advised that it will loosen with use...

[JustJon]

My browning (525) was similar to yours - bloody good clean sorted it.

Mild grease/lubricant/whatever dried up and making it stiff.

 

Forget greasing it - does it need a great clean? Shop you bought it from would be worth chatting to for an opinion.

[Will Poon]

Yes my first shotgun is the 725 sporter that I bought new just over a year ago , it was very stiff to break open , to the point where my arms would hurt after a days shooting, it's not too bad now as its slackened off abit

[njc110381]

Try cleaning the action pins off and treating them with either graphite or dry lube instead of grease or oil. That makes them run a bit more smoothly.

 

I use Hoppes dry lube in my semi auto and it's very good. I've even used it as sizing lube when resizing rifle brass - it's pretty slippery stuff considering it's like a fine powder when it dries.

 

You can pick up a little tube of graphite powder for not much money from a model shop. If you just want to try a little bit then keenly rubbing a pencil over the barrel block and pins will have the same effect.

[junctiontwo]

Thanks for the tips guys - I'll try all of them!

[Guest cookoff013]

grease the hinge wear areas.

 

a friend of mine had a miroku, never lubricated its hinges and it jammed shut. had to send it away to be fixed.

 

lubricate the hinge mating faces, and the gun should slowly break in, ie wear very slowly and be very smooth. even after 5000+ shells it still is tight, and the barrels should drop slowly when the lever is put to the side.

 

also keep the mating faces clear of grit. it can tear up the metel.

 

i use gungrease, but have used heavy machine grease when was in dire needs. both my miroku and merkel are still very tight and i`ve had them 10 or so years.

[mda998]

i was always advised to grease every moving part when it comes to metal on metal

it makes sense

[figgy]

As been said clean and grease hinge points and bearing surfaces.

 

When waiting to shoot and gun is empty keep opening and closing the gun, it will slacken off to the point it no longer poses a problem for your wife quicker.

 

Berettas are usually looser from new than Browning but a 692 I tried in a dealer last week was very stiff, to the point on seeing my frown the dealer said they're all like that now. The top lever was also stiff, no wonder they coated it in rubber.

 

Seems tighter tolerances are the norm now.

 

 

Figgy

Edited August 18, 2013 by figgy

[fruity]

As been said clean and grease hinge points and bearing surfaces.

 

When waiting to shoot and gun is empty keep opening and closing the gun, it will slacken off to the point it no longer poses a problem for your wife quicker.

 

Berettas are usually looser from new than Browning but a 692 I tried in a dealer last week was very stiff, to the point on seeing my frown the dealer said they're all like that now. The top lever was also stiff, no wonder they coated it in rubber.

 

Seems tighter tolerances are the norm now.

 

 

Figgy

Agree there figgy, as said above my 692 was really tight, but loosened up nice now

[MattM007]

From what your saying, it doesn't sound to me like the guns stiff to hinge open (as in to load/unload) but from your description sounded more like the top lever is tight that physically breaks the action. If this is the case then take the gun back to the shop, I had this with a brand new Miroku MK38 that I thought would wear in and a year and 1000's of shells through it later it never did!! It's probably more likely to be that there's a burr on the bight within the guns action, the bottom plate that slides into the recess on the barrels is probably very tight, this can sometimes be cured with a light stone being passed across edges/surfaces but why should you have to do this on new guns, hope this helps!! :-)

[junctiontwo]

From what your saying, it doesn't sound to me like the guns stiff to hinge open (as in to load/unload) but from your description sounded more like the top lever is tight that physically breaks the action. If this is the case then take the gun back to the shop, I had this with a brand new Miroku MK38 that I thought would wear in and a year and 1000's of shells through it later it never did!! It's probably more likely to be that there's a burr on the bight within the guns action, the bottom plate that slides into the recess on the barrels is probably very tight, this can sometimes be cured with a light stone being passed across edges/surfaces but why should you have to do this on new guns, hope this helps!! :-)

 

Yes it does as the both the hinge mechanism AND the top lever are tight, although I didn't mention this in my OP.

 

I think a return to the store is on the cards.

 

Thanks Matt!