[Sea Ray]

I have a (new this summer) Browning 12 Gauge Super Light Full Line Dealer shotgun that for some reason just started to dump an extra shell on the ground almost everytime I shoot. It will also do it when I am manually unloading the gun. It almost looks like the latch on the side is not out far enough to keep the shell in the magazine and lets it slip right by. I called Browning and the tech said that he has not heard of this problem before. It is now at Gander Mountain (where I bought it from) he also had not ever seen this problem before. I'm wondering if anyone has ever had this happen & what you might think it is.

 

[Sea Ray]

Has anyone else ever seen this??

 

[simmonsguns]

If the carrier is sticking up than the next shell will just drop out of the gun and not onto the carrier.
I have seen this before, check the carrier spring for function, just push up on the carrier there should be enough tension that the spring will push it back down, it could also be binding inside the receiver also.

 

[Sea Ray]

The carrier i don't believe is the problem- it has plenty of spring in it and seems to not be sticking. I think the problem is when the carrier is in the up position (feeding the shell into the chamber) that a shell pops out of the magazine tube (under the carrier) and onto the ground- it almost looks like the latch that barely touches the side of the shell in the mag tube to keep it in place is not doing it's job and letting it out of the tube. I was hoping that 10 other guys have seen this and would say "oh all you gotta do is replace this or that"--unfortunately I can't find one other instance of this happening (which is a good thing for Browning) it just makes trying to figure this out a little more difficult.
Thanks for your reply!

 

[simmonsguns]

If all else fails, call Midwest gun works. ken and mike have helped me with some of the newer gun models that we don't see much of.
Shell latches wear out but in a gun that does not have much use on it or at least under 1,000 rounds, something is keeping the latch from returning back to full capture.
I checked the shop for one today and no luck, let me know what you find out.

 

[Tangarm]

Once long long ago in a far off land I looked down on a couple occasions and saw a live shell at my feet. Not that you are doing this but I simply was not pushing the shell in far enough.

 

[Worc]

Once long long ago in a far off land I looked down on a couple occasions and saw a live shell at my feet. Not that you are doing this but I simply was not pushing the shell in far enough.

The Gold is unlike most other auto loaders where this is not possible in this case. The Golds have two cartridge stops with the primary one on the front of the bolt. When the bolt is all the way foward the first round is only held in place by the cartridge stop on the bolt. As the bolt moves backwards so does the first round in the magazine. The other rounds are then held in by the secondary cartridge stop. It continues to hold those rounds until the bolt get around 3/4 of the way foward. The secondary stop releases the rounds and they are stoped be the primary stop at the front of the bolt.

I've seen this happen on a Charles Daly semi auto and two of my buddies 11-87's. I've never seen a Gold do it or even heard about one doing this.

It took me about ten minutes to make my Gold feed a live shell under the carrier while hand cycling it. I had to hold the carrier up and let the bolt go foward very slowly. I'll check it again tonight to look at the secondary cartidge stop.

 

[Worc]

The bolt latch and secondary cartridge stop should be fairly straight. Have you ever cleaned the trigger group?

 

[Sea Ray]

Your description is much better than mine- from what you are saying I believe the problem is with the secondary latch. This would be the latch that you can move by pushing the bolt release button on the side of the receiver. It would be the latch that just barely catches the side of the shell, not the one that sticks up about 3/8ths of an inch that you can see in the bottom of the receiver. For some reason when it is cycling something must be causing that secondary latch to push in just a little causing that extra shell to pop out of the magazine.

I have had the trigger group out a fews time to clean it, everything seems to have went back together correctly- (you almost can't get it wrong) the only thing I noticed is it is tighter than heck trying to get it back in the receiver, but I'm guessing that is the way it is supposed to be.

I don't have the gun with me anymore or I would spend some more time studying it- it is at Gander Mtn waiting to be looked at, unfortunately they are way backed up due to the firearm opener coming up in a few days.

Thanks for taking the time to look at your Gold- if you think of anything else let me know, I'll pick up my gun and fix it myself.

 

[Worc]

Thanks for taking the time to look at your Gold- if you think of anything else let me know, I'll pick up my gun and fix it myself.

Sure thing. If you had your gun you could watch it again. The problem is even when letting the bolt go foward slowly by hand. The rest of the action is working quickly.

The trigger group controls the carrier. If you had yours you would see the carrier is a two piece. There is the longer main one and a shorter inner one towards the back. When both carrier parts are up. The inner one is against the bolt latch/secondary cartridge stop which holds the shell in the magazine tube when the bolt is not foward. When the carrier comes down. The inner part slides off the bolt latch which then pivots releasing a round from the magazine tube. That round pops out the the primary stop at the front of the bolt.

 

[Sea Ray]

I have a vague mental picture of what you're describing- do you think that the carrier is coming off the bolt latch to early letting the shell pop out of the mag? I'm wondering if something got bent in the carrier or trigger group causing that piece to slide off the bolt latch early- if thats the case I would almost need to have two Golds to put all the stuff side by side to see if something looks different.... the more I think about this the more I should probably just be patient and let the pros look at it- it is under warranty and won't cost me anything other than heartache from not being able to use it.

One thing that comes to mind is one time I was trying to get the trigger group out of the receiver and like I mentioned earlier it is tight as heck-- I pulled up a little on the end of the carrier for leverage (I first tried to pull straight up from the trigger gaurd but it didn't want to budge) That carrier seems to have a little give in it if you pull on it-- I wonder If I bent something when I did that, I didn't pull very hard and wouldn't have thought that I bent it but maybe it doesn't take much??
Does yours fit in there super tight or does it go in and out fairly easy?

 

[Worc]

All six of the 12 gauge Golds that I have cleaned have tight fitting parts including the trigger groups. I wrap my right index finger aroung the trigger gaurd and give it a quick yank. I do it mostly straight up with just a slightly foward direction pull.

It could be the secondary carrier (small inside one) is dropping down two soon for some reason or the primary (long one) cound be comming down too slow. See if the GM smith can barrow a trigger groupp from another gold and they cycle the gun to see what happens. If it still does it with a different trigger group. It wold more than likely be the bolt latch/secondary cartridge stop.

 

[Sea Ray]

Well, low and behold- I stopped in on Sat to see if it was done and it wasn't. But he was nice enough to grab the gun while I waited and went thru it (shot it several times) and determined that the latch (the small one on the side that the bolt release moves) just needed to be bent ever so slightly to stay in contact with the shell for another half second. I'm not sure if it was bent from Browning or if it got bent while using it... but we'll give it a try and see how it goes.

Thanks for all of your time and ideas on this....I guess put it in your memory bank, if you ever see this you'll know where to look!!

 

[hdcycles]

Oh man been searching the web to see if anyone else has this problem. Just bought my first shotgun. A mossberg 500 and its doing the same thing. Sounds like a simple fix but I have never broken down a shotgun before. What do you guys think I should do.

 

[moocher]

Sometimes if you drop the bolt on a Gold with the barrel removed it will bend the shell stop that keeps the shells in the mag tube. It is a small thin piece of metal that is right in back of the mag tube and is vertical when the gun is held in firing position. See if that is bent and that might be your problem. The book that comes with the gun expressly tells you not to drop the bolt without the barrel in the gun for exactly that reason. Hope that helps you.

 

[Worc]

Sometimes if you drop the bolt on a Gold with the barrel removed it will bend the shell stop that keeps the shells in the mag tube. It is a small thin piece of metal that is right in back of the mag tube and is vertical when the gun is held in firing position.

It's the primary cartridge stop that is mounted to the bottom front of the bolt that was spoken about in some of the above posts.