Serbu Firearms, Inc., Tampa, Florida

[Mark_Henry]

Now that I'm starting to reload my used brass I've noticed something peculiar (well, not really peculiar, more annoying). When ejecting a hot case the pin ejector tends to slap the casing against the inside wall of the receiver. IF the case is cool (IE I wait a minute or two after firing to eject) all is well. However, if I shoot a round and then eject the case that smack against the inside wall of the receiver puts one heck of a ding in the opening collar of the brass case. Of course, I can fix this during reloading, but some cases are *really* dinged and its puts alot of pressure on the Lee press to put it back into shape.

My initial thought is to loose the pin style ejector and replace it with a Mauser style leaf spring. However, that would mean machining a slot in the receiver, making the spring and then significant modifications to the bolt.

Before I go this route is anyone else running into this "problem"? If so, what are you doing about it? Also, Mark - have you given any thought to a spring type ejector?

Thanks,
_________________
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All that is useful is simple."
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Massimo Maddaloni

[mrkubota]

I've never seen anything like that happen with my cases (unless I drop them on the concrete).

I just tried chambering and ejecting some of my empties in my BFG. I can hear the case mouth ring when it hit the receiver wall as it's extracted, but still, no deformation at all. (LC 97 brasss)

What kind of brass/ammo are you using?

[Lazarus]

Think about what the temperature inside the chamber is when you rip off a round! The more rounds fired, the hotter the build up of heat. Look at the size of the heat sink we use as barrels. Sorry I keep coming back to prairie dog shooting for examples but in Texas temperatures, we have to rotate our guns to keep the shells from detonating just due to the heat build up. When we find a target rich environment it’s not unusual to shoot several hundred rounds in a row. You do that with a single hot rod rifle and you will waste a barrel before lunch. The brass is soft to begin with and the heat makes it softer. Let it just touch anything when ejecting and it will ding like you are talking about. Try opening the bolt with just a little less “gusto” and see if that helps. The ejector might kick it out with a little less force and it might not ding on whatever it’s hitting on now. Remember the extractor/ejector springs are new and stiff now. As time goes on they will loosen up and might not throw the case in the same manner. In AUTO rifles the case mouths tend to look like the letter “D” as they come out.

If you haven’t tried it… get yourself a can of Hornady “One Shot” case lube and spray it on the inside of your necks and LET IT DRY for about five min’s before you resize. That will help eliminate a lot of pressure/friction on your expander ball and arm! By all means continue to use something to lube the outside of the case also! Be sure to clean the inside of your dies! The crud on the outside of the cases will build up on the inside of your dies. Is it possible to install a longer handle on your Lee press? That would help your leverage but might be a death sentence for your press. I don’t use a Lee press so I’m just guessing. When I load the 50’s… it’s like loading 223’s with my press.
Lazarus

[markserbu]

Hadn't heard of that one before. Since you built this gun from a kit, we'll just blame it on you.

I wouldn't think about changing the ejector for 2 reasons: 1) Trying to put a groove in the proper spot in the bolt will severely weaken it. 2) The plunger-type ejector keeps the bolt lugs in contact with the barrel extension at the moment of firing, and I consider this to be an important design feature in this gun. Remember that this is not a striker-fired mechanism, and because of that there's no striker spring pushing the bolt back.

[Mark_Henry]

[markserbu]

Mark,
I'm all for tinkering around with stuff...hell, that's how I got here! But when it's MY stuff that you're tinkering with, and I've already told you it's basically dangerous....well, it's better that I don't even hear about it; I sure can't help you out, unfortunately. And I don't really want to get into a technical discussion of this nature, either. You never know who reads this stuff and I've given away enough free info over the years as it is.

[Mark_Henry]