Fiocchi Hull Mishap

[GH-16]

Over the years I've seen several threads about people having extractor issues with Fiocchi ammo in some guns but not others & I thought I would share a story that happen to my friend two days ago.

We were out shooting a round of sporting clays & had shot about four stations when all of a sudden, my friend couldn't close his Guerini O/U 28ga. On inspection he found that the shell on the lower barrel had slipped past the ejector and had chambered behind/under the ejector.

This was new primed hull on its first loading, so hull wear didn't come into play, it was a new hull from the manufacturer. The gun is in great shape & has never had a malfunction of any sort. We had a heck of a time getting this shell back past the ejector. We did so by taking the barrels off and then using a pocketknife to carefully cut a section of the case rim off to allow clearance for it to get past the ejector & pushed out with a cleaning rod.

After we got the shell removed, we took a few of the other shells from the same batch and dropped them in the gun & noticed they appeared to be a smaller diameter than the factory rim cut on the gun. We finished the round without another hitch, but now my buddy is wondering what he should do with the other hulls from this batch.

Has anyone else experienced something like this with Fiocchi hulls?

[Cold Spring]

Paul, fwiw I’ve shot many factory loaded Fiocchis in 12, 20, 28 and 410 in a variety of guns and never had that problem. However these were not handloads in new or once fired hulls.

[edgarspencer]

My preference is the Fiocchi 28ga. NPE over Chedite, and get better life out them. I have never had an issue. Many Parker 28ga. guns have been known to have tight chambers, and this may contribute to my success with them.

[GH-16]

Originally Posted by edgarspencer

My preference is the Fiocchi 28ga. NPE over Chedite, and get better life out them. I have never had an issue. Many Parker 28ga. guns have been known to have tight chambers, and this may contribute to my success with them.

Yeah Edgar, I've never personally had any issues with Fiocchi hulls myself until this mishap my friend encountered the other day.

I'm now wondering if he got a bad batch of new hulls because he also mentioned that these same hulls had loose primers. In fact, when we tried pushing the shell out with a push rod, the primer backed out & we were able to remove it just by pulling on it with our fingers.

In all the shooting I've done over the years, I've never encountered anything like this. I just wouldn't have ever thought something like this would happen with new cases.

[edgarspencer]

Strange. One would think a loose primer would be because the brass wasn't sized correctly, and yet falling below the ejector sounds like it was sized excessively. Lets hope it was a one-off issue.
To Fiocchi's credit, an issue I have seen, and also by others, is when a Cheddite hull has been through the mill too many times, the erosion, for the lack of a better term, in the powder area, just above the brass, gets so thin that the brass separates upon ejection, leaving the remainder of the hull in the chamber. This has never happened to me with a Fiocchi hull. 20/28 is known to be hotter than other powders, so this may be the the reason.

[David C Porter]

I've found with my Perazzi, 12 ga Challenger ammo occasionally have the same problem. I've measured the ammo when this occurs & some of the shells measured .020 less diameter. Also, the base metal height is shorter than most other ammo & this failure occurs when you drop in a shell & the extractor is full in the out (ejected) position. The undersized shell slides in behind the ejector. Also, the Perazzi ejector throw is a little longer than other guns. Krieghoff's have a shorter throw & never had this problem with my Krieghoff.