In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.

Brass shavings in a semiauto...

fastcarsgofastfastcarsgofast Member Posts: 7,179
edited September 2013 in Ask the Experts
I took in a S&W SW40VE on trade a while back. I haven't shot it yet, but did tear it down for a thorough cleaning since it was dripping with oil from the previous owner. What I found other than oil was brass shavings in utterly every orafacice of the slide assembly.

I've been told it could be from an over pressure issue or an untuned extractor. I was wondering what the friendly neighborhood experts thought about it.

Comments

  • charliemeyer007charliemeyer007 Member Posts: 6,572 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Sounds like burrs to me. Go shoot it some and then recheck.
  • beantownshootahbeantownshootah Member Posts: 12,776 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Hard to say. . .it could be a lot of things from a burr in the chamber, extractor hook, magazine lips, or somewhere else, to evidence left over from a previous "kaboom" incident.

    Assuming you've inspected the gun properly and it otherwise looks OK to shoot, one simple way to help find the culprit is just to load the gun, cycle a few shells through it by working the action (KEEPING MUZZLE POINTED IN A SAFE DIRECTION WHEN YOU DO THIS), then inspect the cases carefully to see where (if anywhere) brass is being scratched/shaved off.

    If you're having trouble seeing it, or your cases aren't clean, you could mark them up with a sharpie marker first to help emphasize the location of brass scratching.
  • SilentRageSilentRage Member Posts: 103 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Another possibility,could be from use of a brass cleaning rod? I use one for all my guns and it does leave little pieces of brass all over. There just specks not shavings and its not,so much that I cant wipe it or blow it out.
  • fastcarsgofastfastcarsgofast Member Posts: 7,179
    edited November -1
    These shavings were in the firing pin channel and behind the extractor, so I don't think a cleaning rod is the culprit.

    I field stripped the gun and placed a round in the slide as if it were in battery. The extractor was digging into the side of the case, not just grabbing the rim. I filed a little off and function tested it. All seems well for now.

    Thanks again.
  • v35v35 Member Posts: 12,710 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I wouldn't be using a file but a Dremel and Cratex rubber bonded abrasive wheels to polish sharp edges around chamber mouth and wherever else the pistol scrapes brass.
    Use a black marking pen to paint a few cartridges.
    cycle them to determine what needs to be deburred/polished.
    You don't want to disable that extractor by indiscriminate filing.
    Also look at the bottom forward slide edge.
Sign In or Register to comment.