Safety and Top lever stuck

[Richard Flanders]

The investigation is long over on this issue in my shop. It is most likely the Winchester AA shells. Take a half dozen AA's + the same in STS's and stand them on a table. Take a dial caliper and put it on the table and around an AA extractor rim and rotate the shell and watch the dial indicate an out of round rim. Then try it with the STS hulls and you'll see that they're pretty round. AA's are the worst of every type I've tested. I can shoot old papers or Rem STS hulls in my old VH12 all day with no issues; try a few AA's and I'm having to sometimes break it open over my knee. Same in the Repro 28. It's not the gun; it's the shells.

BTW, the newer generation AA HS hulls are worse than the older generation with the nice thick sturdy plastic.