Rechambering shotgun ammo?

[4given]

I know it is not a good idea to rechamber pistol and semi auto rifle ammo due to bullet set back and potential damage to the priming compound in the primers.

What about rechambering shotshells in pump action or semi-auto shotguns? Obviously there is no bullet set back issues but what about the primer? Is there a limit to how many times I can rechamber these rounds?

In order to unload the magazines of my shotguns, you need to chamber and eject each round. As we all know, shotgun duty ammo is expensive and hard to find right now. If I have unloaded the duty ammo from my shotgun I have invalidated these rounds? Are they no longer reliable? If so that would be a drag.

[BehindBlueI's]

I know it is not a good idea to rechamber pistol and semi auto rifle ammo due to bullet set back and potential damage to the priming compound in the primers.

What about rechambering shotshells in pump action or semi-auto shotguns? Obviously there is no bullet set back issues but what about the primer? Is there a limit to how many times I can rechamber these rounds?

In order to unload the magazines of my shotguns, you need to chamber and eject each round. As we all know, shotgun duty ammo is expensive and hard to find right now. If I have unloaded the duty ammo from my shotgun I have invalidated these rounds? Are they no longer reliable? If so that would be a drag.

With a pump, you can unload the magazine without chambering each round. With the 870, you lift the feed ramp out of the way and press the retention arm in and the next shell will pop out the bottom, repeat until empty.

My thought is from a pump you should be good. You can control the speed of the feed, so to speak, so you aren't getting the primer compound battered by floating firing pins, by the acceleration of a slide, etc. I would *assume* most semi-autos operate the same, but that's outside my wheelhouse so I'll defer.

[alamo5000]

I know it is not a good idea to rechamber pistol and semi auto rifle ammo due to bullet set back and potential damage to the priming compound in the primers.

Personally I think some of that is left over thinking from 50's era manufacturing. With modern stuff it's not nearly as big of a concern. Yes if it's reloads that's still a good rule of thumb so we can't completely throw it out but overall it's not as big of a deal these days. Same thing with primers, but probably even less so than the bullet set back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beuZNcFWuBY

[BehindBlueI's]

Personally I think some of that is left over thinking from 50's era manufacturing. With modern stuff it's not nearly as big of a concern. Yes if it's reloads that's still a good rule of thumb so we can't completely throw it out but overall it's not as big of a deal these days. Same thing with primers, but probably even less so than the bullet set back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beuZNcFWuBY

It's still a concern.

See: https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....m-rechambering

[4given]

With a pump, you can unload the magazine without chambering each round. With the 870, you lift the feed ramp out of the way and press the retention arm in and the next shell will pop out the bottom, repeat until empty.

My thought is from a pump you should be good. You can control the speed of the feed, so to speak, so you aren't getting the primer compound battered by floating firing pins, by the acceleration of a slide, etc. I would *assume* most semi-autos operate the same, but that's outside my wheelhouse so I'll defer.

Good points. With my auto I can gently let the bolt down when rechambering. That would probably help.

[4given]

Well I found this alternate way to unload my Stoeger M3000 in the manual so that solves that problem. I imagine most other shotguns have a way of doing this too.

[BehindBlueI's]

Well I found this alternate way to unload my Stoeger M3000 in the manual so that solves that problem. I imagine most other shotguns have a way of doing this too.

Yeah, that's what I was talking about. My nomenclature was probably bad, but that's the same thing.

FWIW, I was in the "shuck it until it's empty" camp until police academy where I was shown how to properly unload a pump shotgun.

[4given]

Yeah, that's what I was talking about. My nomenclature was probably bad, but that's the same thing.

FWIW, I was in the "shuck it until it's empty" camp until police academy where I was shown how to properly unload a pump shotgun.

It was your comment about tthe 870 that made me go looking. Thanks!

[LtDave]

Back in the day, the biggest problem with shotgun shells in 870's was the crimp opening up and letting the plastic fill loose in the mag tube or action. Shells were invariably the Remington or Winchester 9 pellet 00 load, whichever one was cheapest to buy at the time. This was a "feature" of letting the tube magazines stay loaded while driving around 24/7 with the gun in a vertical rack. Guns were unloaded/loaded two or three times every day at shift change.

[GearFondler]

When you say "rechambering" this implies the shell is loaded into the chamber and then ejected unspent, and then loaded again.
Repeated ejection can allow the extractor to chew up the cartridge rim, especially with cheaper ammo.