My 12 Ga BPS (old style, with the cut-off) is starting to fail to release rounds from the mag. Anyone dealt with this before? Where do I start? I was thinking the mag spring could use replacing? TIA, Dutch.

Dutch--

That's a failure of the shell stop. There are two shell stops. Figure out which one is wrong, trace down what operates it, (action bar) and then figure out how it has to be changed.......then change it.

Thanks Jack. It's the left one (when holding upside down). Taking it apart is not to hard, and I suppose Brownells has the parts? Or should I just have them re-arced like a car-spring? Thanks again, Dutch.

Dutch---

The first thing to do is figure out why it changed. If there's a part worn are broken it's fairly easy, but with a new looking part the job of figureing out why it doesn't work gets more complicated.

I've never seen the inside of a BPS so any advice I give is generic to all pumps.

I have one. The chamber rusts, it does not extract,.......polish the chamber.......maybe a beefier extractor spring??.....nope, better extractor, made one......nope. It doesn't feed from the tube 100%, Model 12 spring helped. By that time the chamber had been polished to big and I got a new barrel, worked for a while, then it rusted and the cycle started again.

I spent last duck opener shooting single shot and disassebling/reassembling the ?*&#ing thing.....removing fired shells from the chamber with a Leatherman.

For now, I will shoot one of my M-12s. If I find a good place to get ducks I will get a Benelli. My advice, send it back to Browning and let them sort it. Once it is working, sell it before it breaks again. We always called them "Jam-O-Matics". They are fine for the once a year hunter that wants to look good, they are not good enough for a serious hunter.

[ 06-18-2003, 18:55: Message edited by: scot ]

A 12ga BPS was the first gun I ever bought, I've had it almost 18 years and if I was only allowed to own one gun that would be it.

I've used it for ducks, upland, deer, and turkey. each with it's own barrel. It's never failed to extract, the only problem I've had is when I don't shuck it all the way, it can possibly get a second shell out of the mag before the first is ejected. It's happened 2-3 times in 18 years always when I was unloading. But that was my problem not the gun's. Now I unload by manually pushing the leaf spring to the side and they pop out.

If the fired shell fails to extract the next in line is fed behind it. You have to remove the barrel to clear it. When you have about 10 minuets of hot shooting at dawn that is not a good thing. Quite frustrating when the ducks are flying!!

I have had the worst luck with steel shot 3" ammo. Fiocci is the worst. The steel heads seem to swell the most of any brand I tried. They do not extract for beans. Something like a low brass dove load is never a problem.

I am glad you have had a good experience with your BPS. My hunting buddies and I are batting 1000, negative. You must have a good one.

I've never had a failure to extract; and I still shot a 40 with it at sporting clays last week. It's a little frustrating, though, to hear that "click" on that double, when you knew you had it.

From looking at it, the fingers don't pop out quite as far as they used to, and the left one is looking a bit ragged, so that's probably it. Dutch.

Actually the few times it happened on mine what I did was push the second shell back into the magazine then shuck it again. Mine also doesn't have the magazine cutoff, perhaps that has something to do with it.

Rob

Dutch,
I have one that is doing the same thing as yours. If you fix it I sure would like to learn what worked.

I have owned two BPS's, both 12ga, one 3" and one 3.5", I shoot left handed so they really appealed to me. the 3 incher had a quirk, once in a while, after firing it would jam up so tight that I would have to slam the butt against the ground to get the slide to rack. I fired several boxes though it to get to jam when I was home so that I could disassemble it and see what the heck was up, but I never got it to jam up in a spot I could take it apart, always out in the field bird hunting. I never figured it out and the gun was stolen out of my pick-up one night, so it remains a mystery. The 3.5 incher has operated flawlessly for many duck seasons, but I hate taking it apart to clean it, it is a SOB to put back together(at least for me). But I have had to on occasion work the chamber with some 000 steel wool to keep the empty's from hanging up.
My advice it to buy an Ithaca if bottom ejection is your bag.

Palmer, here is what I did so far: I filed the rough spots off the little grabber thingy that showed wear, and then I bent the spring back to where they both are the same shape. Looking down, the one on the right did not have near as much curvature. Now they are equal, and the blasted trigger group is a good bit harder to put back in, too.

Anyway, I can still make it "hold" a shell if I go really slowly, but it is much better than it was. I'll shoot a couple rounds of clays this weekend and report back.

The next thing I'm going to do is see if I can scare up some replacement thingies. Just wish I knew how to work the Brownells search feature. HTH, Dutch.

".... and the blasted trigger group is a good bit harder to put back in, too."

That is an SOB, huh.

Here you go, It'll change your life.

Drum Roll Please......

Make two aluminum strips out of beverage can stock. Slide these strips in between the trigger group and the shell stops. It will go back together slicker than slick.

Those shell stops must be depressed to get the trigger group in. The factory must have some kind of feeler gauge looking tools. Actually I have used pieces from a feeler gauge, butter knives, file folder material, business cards, but the tin can trick is hard to beat.

Scot, good tip, but once you figure out how it goes back together, you don't need it. I had a tendency to slide the trigger group in (put pin in the slot, and move it forward) and then down. In other words, I rotate it in after sliding the pin in position.

The trick is to line the pin up, push the trigger group down as far as she goes, and only THEN move it forward.

I fought it for about 30 minutes last night, and then figured it out. The trigger group has diagonal surfaces to allow it to move those shellstops out of the way. You can only take advantage of them if you push the assembly down BEFORE you move it forward. Take a look at it: it's easier to see than explain.

That said, the can trick is SURE to work! Dutch.

Palmer, looks like it's not worth trying to fix yourself. About $15 and you have two new stops and a new magazine spring.

http://www.browning.com/services/gunpartsprices/pdf/bps.pdf

HTH, Dutch.

Thanks Dutch,
Ill go that path. I hate to give up on the old BPS - its got too many notches in the stock to want to start over with a new one.

Palmer, the parts came UPS yesterday, and she is shucking em like she used to. Wish all my fixes were one week and ten bucks.....

Once I had the new stops to look at, it was pretty obvious where the wear points were. No sense in trying to "make them work" with new ones a phone call and a week away. I would consider these "wear items", and replace as needed. Good luck with yours. Dutch.