Loading Problem with Mauser C96

[browningautorifle]

I don't like the look of that case. In fact, I don't think I should be able to see it at all!

The cartridge sits in the bolt face. If the extractor snaps over the cartridge, the rear of the casing will no longer be visible. I think it's the correct cartridge and the extractor is just a bit of a problem.

The first photo shows the breech face.

[jmoore]

Something that strikes me as almost too glaringly obvious to mention, but having had it come up before in the "real world", is the pistol chambered in 9x19?

Otherwise, it does seem that the cause is a sticky extrator. Assuming that the rounds can be manually pivoted into place from above and the bolt then closes fully...

[Ludwig99b0]

You got me worried there, Patrick .... Damn it, if you can't trust ammo you buy on the Internet, what can you trust? But the rounds are correctly headstamped, and are brand-new in-the-box Fiocchis all right. It did turn out to be the extractor, after all ....

[Ludwig99b0]

Not familiar with these but in picture 3 it looks like if the extractor was over the rim you'd be good. I would see why it's not snapping over the rim of the cartridge. My 2c's

A big thank-you to everyone who's advised me on this. I believe I've cleared the problem, now. Here's what I did. I pulled the bolt back a few inches, with a round chambered, waggled the tip of the extractor up and down a few times with a sharp pick, and dropped the bolt on the cartridge. Then I did it again - and-again - and again. The fourth time, the extractor snapped over the rim, and I was in battery. So I loaded the magazine, and cycled the pistol ten times .... A-OK. There may well have been a gobbet of fifty-year-old grease, or some other crud, that was making the extractor a bit lazy. Anyway, I'm now confident that it's functioning properly

Thanks again to everyone who replied.

[Bruce McAskill]

If you do decide to soak the bolt don't use WD-40. It's not a solvent nor a lubricant or a metal protector. It's a water displacer and nothing more.

[Ludwig99b0]

Hi, Bruce. I've heard various people say that sort of thing over the years - people whose opinion I respected, I mean - but here's the reason why I use it, for what it's worth. A few years ago, after I'd cleaned a rifle with Hoppe's No 9, on a whim I ran a patch soaked in WD-40 through the "clean" bore. Out came a lot more crud. You say it's not a lubricant or a solvent - but it works for me! I live in New Mexico, where if you ever see a speck of rust, you talk about it for a month, so if you're in the rain-forests of Ohio or Montana, things may be different.

[Patrick Chadwick]

You got me worried there, Patrick .... Damn it, if you can't trust ammo you buy on the Internet, what can you trust?

Sorry if it worried you, but ever since experiencing someone on the next firing point shooting 308 WIN out of a 30-06, and handling a 1903 that bubba had rebarreled with the barrel one turn too far out (thus creating a record headspace), I have decided that trust is fine, but checking is always advisable with guns and ammo.

[browningautorifle]

rebarreled with the barrel one turn too far out

Holy FUGG!

[Patrick Chadwick]

Holy FUGG!

How true those words are, especially today!

It was handed to me to try out by a serious shooter (pistol, not rifle) and collector who had acquired it in a legacy. Naïve me thought "If it comes from him, it'll be OK!"
After a few shots, I wondered that an '03 was failing to ignite most of the cartridges, and the striker marks were so feeble. Of course, one first thinks of a weak striker spring in such cases. It was only when I observed the noticeably shifted shoulder and the ominous bright rings that the penny dropped. The poor rifle had only managed to ignite anything at all because the extractor had held back the case rim juuuuust enough to make the occasional bang!

Moral: trust is good, but not always enough with firearms.

BTW: this experience rather weakens the "If your rifle has a micron too much headspace it will blow everything to hell" school of thought. Although the cases showed the bright line, none of them actually separated. Those 30-06 cases must have been tough.

Still, it's not an experiment that I would have undertaken deliberately.

[browningautorifle]

too much headspace it will blow everything to hell

And the more we see, the less it surprises us sometimes, until you pull a 30 cal empty out that looks like a 410 shotgun shell...I think we've all got stories like that one. I have one about a Bren believe it or not. Maybe another time.