I shoot sporting clays once a week. One round consist of 50 clay birds, at 12 stations. I own about 40 or so Auto5s, and have several I usually grab to shoot this. One of those has a Poly-Choke, which is pretty nifty. I always shoot Federal 2 3/4". #7 1/2 shot, advertised at 1180 FPS. Never had a problem with the ammo ( or gun!). Our local farm supply-outdoor store had a pallet of "Nobel" shells for the same price as the Federals. One of the other guys I shoot with grabbed a handful of boxes of these Nobel (marked as being made in Italy) and has been trying them out for a month in his Citori. Not so much as a hiccup. So three weeks ago I decided to buy a case when they came on sale. Here is where it gets interesting...... I grabbed the Auto5 with the Poly-Choke, and off we went. I ended up having eight occasions where I had a malfunction-the spent casing stuck in the ejection port with the second round underneath. My first thoughts were that ammo, since that particular gun has never given me any heartburn in the past. When I got home, I did a complete detailed disassembly (and I mean COMPLETE!) measuring and inspecting every single piece. Every spring was checked, extractors were checked with a magnifying glass, the whole kit and kaboodle. I found absolutely nothing amiss. That rules out a gun problem, I would imagine. So, when we went out last week, I took two boxes of Federals, and did not have any problems at all. (I shot a 44 out of 50!) That pretty well tells me something about Nobel Italian stuff does not play well with my Auto5. I went yesterday, and loaded the first round with a Federal, and a Nobel as a second shot. Two fail to eject malfunctions, with the empty case laying on the shell lifter. But, at least I got both rounds off, and hit the clay birds. I didn't really care if it hiccups after the second shot anyways. I won't be buying any more of that stuff.
That’s very interesting, Bill. I’m partial to Federal ammunition myself, but recently bought several cases of the Nobel Sport. The price was right (and I liked the artwork on the box!). I tried it out in my Winchester Model 12 and it worked just fine. The other day I used it in my 1924 Auto-5 and it cycled the gun flawlessly, with empties landing 8 feet away. That’s 75 rounds of ammo going through a 102 year old shotgun. That’s in addition to the 50 that cycled through the M12 the week before. If there was a problem, I think I’d have found it. My guess is that that particular Auto-5 of yours doesn’t like those shells. I’d try another. Also, I’m also guessing the bend in your Carrier Latch might need a little tweaking. Oh, and congratulations on the Sporting score!
Its all in the ammo in my opinion. I've been down this road. Heck its named after me. The rim thickness on the nobel is just a little different thickness and it doesn't like the old extractor/ejector. I had issues with RST shells and those are some fine shells. I put a new extractor and ejector and it ate them just fine.
Ok we get all that Eurotrash served up here all the time. The single base powders from Spain /Italy can be fiddly weirdly effected by heat & humidity different regions of world to where you won't get the right amount of pressure generated to work the gun. Even with 1200 stomped on the side you can be lucky to make 1100 certain conditions Seen it all before. You can get same ammo out your Jacket 2 hrs later and change in weather bit Walmer works perfectly.
