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capthowie

Over active ejector

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My Naval Officer son-in-law was out shooting with me the other day and he commented on how far the spent casings fly.

I had two of my JSAR's at the range that day and both were spitting them out farther than anything he had ever seen. Seemed normal to me, as I always have warn people to the right of me that I am not doing that purposely.

I am thinking of setting up a secondary target to my right to see what kind of a grouping I am creating with the flying brass.

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Far ejection usually indicates a weak mainspring. Check length of your main springs, they should be 12" long. Most of the springs have taken a set over the years. It sometimes causes cases to hit frame and ding them pretty hard just below shoulder.

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Here are some casings from both guns with distinctive signatures. One of the rifles did in fact have a shorter mainspring (11 1/2") the other measured 12''.

At the time I wasn't aware of a problem, so I am not sure which casings belong to which rifle. But in view of Joe Scott's observation, I guess we know.

Question- Are the other markings that are further down on the right three acceptable?

JSARCartridges003.jpg

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The last two seem to have a hole through casings, this is not acceptable. Number 3 seems to have sideways markings from inside chamber. I have never seen a casing with such marks just from ejection. Inspect chamber very carefully and have a casting made of chambers. Try the 12" spring in the other rifle. Measure spring wire diameter, it should be .055" diameter. Also check buffer spring for smooth operation. Anyone else have input?

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It might be worth another trip to the range to verify which case comes from which gun(main spring).

IMHO, as for casings, with that much deformation, I would not reload the cases...the brass would be worked too much, and "fire forming" would be too much. If it were me, I would invest in a new mainspring, Joe probably has them, and then retest. If the problem is solved, I would put new spring in each gun.

This is one of those times a video camera, setup on a tripod at the range, would come in handy...take video of the shots, then step thru frame by frame to see the cases ejected and get a feel of what is happening and when.

Know my daughters video camera can do that, and my sons regular digital camera can take short video clips...Might be fun to do just the same...see your JSAR in SLO-MO.

ArtR

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I studied a stripped receiver and bolt with empty case in position on front of bolt, watching for where it might hit frame. When the back of case reaches ejector, the front shoulder is just at the cam cut in the top of receiver. I think because the extractor lip is longer on top, the cases tip upward and hit the corner where the cam cut meets the long roller cut. Not sure yet why they hit so hard as to dent cases. It may be that some extractors/ejectors are ground or function slightly different. For military use, dented cases didn't matter, for reloading cases, it sucks. Check the bad cases and see if the ejector marks on back are 90 deg to dents. With dent up, I think ejector should be at 270 deg. (west). Not sure why dents are at different positions along cases. Case 3 still has marks which look like a milling cutter or tap left them.??? Does anyone else have a gun which leaves this amount of damage?

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You don't mention whether your two rifles are regular military or Winfields. Joseph, couldn't the misplaced recoil buffer tube cause this as you have stated before assuming that they are Winfields? Cordially, Alasdair

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Yes, as a matter fact one of the guns was a military and the other was a deluxe Winfield. The Winfield is keyed at 8" ,but was the one with the 11 1/2" mainspring and had a slight tacky old oil residue on it and the buffer . The military was at 12" and lightly oiled and clean.

Before I replace the springs, I really need to document exactly what's going on. So another trip to the range is in order. I'll try to capture the action with the camcorder.

The ammo was made by Winchester -Super X 30.06 SPRD 150 Gr Silvertip

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