BibleGateway.com Verse Of The Day

Monday, May 07, 2007

Winchester 1300 - Possible Issue Shooting Slugs?

My father just bought the rifled slug barrel for his Winchester 1300 12 gauge, and brought it up this weekend to try it out. I gave him a couple of my Lightfield Hybrid EXP sabot slugs to shoot through it, and the when he fired, the action came all the way open and ejected the shell without any intervention.

He thought maybe he was inadvertently pulling the slide open because he wasn't expecting that much recoil, so I tried it. I rested the gun over the "V" of my pointer finger and thumb, not holding the forestock at all. The action came all the way open and ejected the spent casing for me as well.

Now we aren't sure if the barrel is keeping the bolt from fully locking properly, or if this is a side effect of the Winchester "Speed Pump" feature (I never really knew what that feature was supposed to do anyways), or if it is a matter of too much shell for the gun to handle?

Each shot was dead accurate at about 70 yards, and it didn't seem to be an "unsafe" condition as it was firing accurately and ejecting the spent casing, but it could definitely catch you off guard in a hunting situation if you are used to doing all the work of pumping a new round in.

I've fired everything from light target loads to heavy 3" magnum turkey and goose loads to rifled slugs through my Mossberg 500 and never had this happen, so I can't image a 2-3/4 slug being too much for a 1300 to handle.

My initial research on the web found another guy in a forum that this happened to, but haven't been able to find too much more info on it. I'll have to keep looking, and in the meantime he was going to have a gunsmith look at it to see if there is an issue with the bolt locking mechanism.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is why the 1300 is called a slide action and you 500 is called a pump action. This is normal functionality with the 1300. It should also do it but just slightly wich regular shot shells. The higher the pressure the farther back the 'pump' will go. Mine will eject 3 in. magnums and it does take a while to get used to.