Shell extractor spacing

[BrianJ]

I have been having problems with extracting shells from the SA-20 tactical. The action seems to be going through the full motion and most shells eject but some extract from the chamber but drop down before ejecting and I end up with a live and a fired shell in the action, jamming the gun. This is actually a replacement gun as my original could not be fixed after several months...different issue, this one is way improved.
I noticed that when I manually cycle shells or snap caps, they always drop down and I end up with 2 shells in the action. it is much better when firing but still an occasional problem.

I noticed a visual difference in the distance between the bolt face and the inner face of the extractor on this gun. A larger distance. This is just an observation as I cannot compare them without the old gun. I am going from memory which has been known to be faulty on occasion.

This gun is less than a year old. Does anyone know what the spec distance should be? If not, can anyone measure it? I measured .085 right now with feeler gauges (.030+.025+.020+.010) and the rim of the shells is very loose in the opening. if I cycle a little slower, manually, I can actually see the shell slip down.
If anyone from Mossberg is on line, is there a spec distance for the extractor face to bolt face? Should the fit be tighter to grab the shell rim better?




Any help appreciated.

 

[LAZY EYED SNIPER]

Howdy BrianJ,

I don't have any experience with the SA-20, but we can point you in the right direction. We have a contact at Mossberg that should be able to help. E-mail your question to Joe and keep us posted...

Joe Zakher
jzakher@maverickarms.com

 

[BrianJ]

Joe is great.
I have an email in to him but I know he is busy and it takes a while for him to get back. He is out of the shop this week, I got an automated reply. He has helped me greatly in the past. I wanted to see if anyone knows what the spacing on their gun is just to see if this is near average. I imagine there is probably a range that is considered acceptable.

BrianJ

 

[LAZY EYED SNIPER]

Wish I could help.

There aren't as many active SA-20 owners here on the forum as we would like, but hang in there and hopefully someone will chime in. You might look through this sub-forum and PM another owner with your request...

 

[BrianJ]

Might have answered my own question. In fact I think I was asking the wrong question. The extractor hook, it turns out, does not grip the rim of the shell to hold it back against the bolt, but only to pull it back out of the chamber until it hits the ejector tab.
The problem it seems is that the extractor hook was not moving far enough toward the center of the bolt to hold the shell against the side of the action as the shell was pulling back for the rim to hit the ejector tab. With no pressure on the shell casing, the shell would drop down into the lower part of the action and jam.

I noticed this by inspecting several other shotguns, both single and dual extractor, (this is a single) and the action on my semi-auto Sig Sauer 226. The ejecting shell is held against the side of the chamber and the action by spring pressure from the extractor hook.

I was able to file about 10/1000 of an inch off a boss on the body of the extractor (2-3/1000ths at a time) where it contacts the bolt, allowing the extractor hook to move in further very slightly, enough to keep pressure on the extracting shell. Once it worked I polished the surface and reassembled. The system now works perfectly. Learn something new every day.

Next time I would likely have a gunsmith do the work but at the time, I was looking to correct a problem I thought was strictly hardware replacement.

Should have spent a little more time initially investigating.

 

[LAZY EYED SNIPER]

Either way we're glad you got it figured out.

Thanks for sharing your progress and results. I'm sure this info will prove useful for new SA-20 owners...