Silver Bear 2 3/4" Slugs

[lenf 5]

Finally got to try the case of Silver Bear 2 3/4" Slugs I got from Sportsmens Guide. First, about Sportsmens. They offered a good price for these rounds. As someone on another topic noted, they are less than $.60 delivered. However. I had to buy a case (270 rounds) and this looks like the case quantity from Russia (clearly a Russian box). They list smaller quantities but show them as "out of stock". They SHIP within 7 to 10 business days, so it's 10 to 14 business days before you get them. They also offer lots of coupons and discounts on other stuff, some with fairly short timeframes (buy now or else). Mostly stuff I don't want.

 

So, the shells. They measure 2 3/4" long and .462" in diameter, the base measures .522". Compared to Winchester shells at .462" brass, .451" plastic and .525" base. The shoulder thickness is .035" as compared to Winchester at .048". I had problems with 10 round magazines (haven't tried the four yet) with the first round jamming. It was difficult to insert the magazine and extremely difficult to draw the bolt back on the first round. Some jamming even for this manual operation. Some jamming for the first two or three rounds. I went through 70 rounds and have concluded that; When the magazine is fully loaded, the first round is pressed hard against the bottom of the bolt when the magazine is installed. This deforms the case a bit.. When the bolt is drawn back, the small dent caused by installation is dragged into a little crease. When the bolt is pushed closed, the leading edge of the shell is deformed against the guide at the top of the chamber, sometimes enough to make extraction difficult. One round jammed hard enough that it required a cleaning rod to extract it. I think the smaller diameter and thinner base dimensions may have contributed to this. These problems do not occur when only 9 rounds are loaded into the magazine. I think the slightly larger body diameter (.462" as compared with .451", .011" greater) causes the magazine installation problems, the initial denting and the subsequent drag and leading edge damage. Ten rounds times .011" equals a .110" increase in shell stack up height. I guess just running 9 rounds is a fix, though I'm tempted to grind just a tiny bit off of the bottom of the bolt. I'l take some pictures later this evening.

 

I also had two duds, and that has never happened before. I rechambered them and they did fire, but it's not acceptable.

 

The thing that puzzles me is that the first ammo I put through this gun was Barnaul 3" steel shells and while there was some deformation of the spent shells, there was no jamming. I've put over a thousand rounds through the gun, Winchester, Remington, Sellier&Bellot, Rottweil, Fiocchi, Federal and Barnaul and have had no feed problems other than some obviously underloaded Rottweil slugs. I'll post pictures later and keep tinkering with it. If I don't find a definite answer, I guess I'll just stay away from the Silver Bears.

[russianblood 0]

Did you do any shooting with the factory 4 round magazines? I've read numerous accounts of steel hulled shells not working well in the Surefire 10 round magazines. I've fired 40 rounds of the Silver Bear / Barnaul slugs through mine using factory mags with no problems. I've only fired plastic hulls in my Surefire magazine.

[rd99fxdl 17]

Did you do any shooting with the factory 4 round magazines? I've read numerous accounts of steel hulled shells not working well in the Surefire 10 round magazines. I've fired 40 rounds of the Silver Bear / Barnaul slugs through mine using factory mags with no problems. I've only fired plastic hulls in my Surefire magazine.

 

I've read that the new 15 rounders have it fixed where the 2 3/4" steel works now.Hopefully have some here soon.

[lenf 5]

I haven't tried the 4 round magazine yet, but will tomorrow. I don't expect that I will have any trouble as the ten round magazines worked well if I only loaded 9 rounds. The attached photos and comments tell the story. I ran 70 rounds through the gun. The first photo shows the worst damage. I have six of these. The next shows the dent found in about half the shells, some are barely visible, note also the end damage. All this damage is to the top edge of the shell as it is loaded into the receiver. The next photo shows the most extreme end damage. These are the only examples of this. I'm at my upload limit, and so will do another post.

extreme_bolt_damage.pdf

bolt_dents.pdf

extreme_end_damage.pdf

[lenf 5]

The first photo shows typical end damage, this condition is found on about 2/3 of all the shells fired. The next photo is the bottom view of the bolt in the closed position. The arrow indicates the point that is putting the small dent in most of the shells. I'm thinking that I'll grind this down a bit.

typ._end_damage.pdf

bolt.pdf

[lenf 5]

Just tried the factory 4 round magazine with the 2 3/4" Silver Bear slugs and they work fine. No drag, no jamming. There's still a little deformation at the end of the shel, but this was something I've seen on all steel hulls and it's easy to draw out. One other thing I've noticed is that the extractor leaves a tiny little nick with a sharp burr in the rim, no matter what I'm shooting. I don't see it as a problem, but I've accumulated enough empties to think about reloading and I'm wondering if this matters and if anyone else has seen this.

[russianblood 0]

I'm glad the 4 rounders worked. You have to remember that the steel hulls were never meant to be reloaded so a little damage upon extraction is no big deal. I think a little nick in the rim shouldn't affect their reuse if you are going to drill out the primers and reload them. You can always use a jeweler's file to touch it up if it really needs it.

 

When I bought my 10 rounder, the ad said it was for plastic 3" shells only. Now the new 15 round magazines are suppose to be improved and will feed the steel hulls as well as the plastic.

[lenf 5]

Good news! This is a magazine problem and easily fixed. I did a little grinding on the bolt assembly with only a slight improvement. If I had been paying closer attention I would have realized that if it fed without jamming with only 9 rounds in the magazine that by relieving some of the spring compression in the magazine would allow a full magazine to load. I also noted that the magazines were very difficult to insert when fully loaded. I started by removing the spring retainer from the base of the magazine and just sliding in the bottom plate. I loaded 10 rounds and the magazine inserted easily and the first round fed without any damage. Since the retainer also acts to lock the bottom plate in place, I wanted to keep it in place. So I shortened the legs of the follower by the thickness of the retainer, re-assembled the whole thing, loaded 10 rounds and it works slick. It's getting late, but I'll do the rest of the magazines tomorrow and test them and post the results.

[russianblood 0]

Good deal!

[Nico Cujo 1]

Good news! This is a magazine problem and easily fixed. I did a little grinding on the bolt assembly with only a slight improvement. If I had been paying closer attention I would have realized that if it fed without jamming with only 9 rounds in the magazine that by relieving some of the spring compression in the magazine would allow a full magazine to load. I also noted that the magazines were very difficult to insert when fully loaded. I started by removing the spring retainer from the base of the magazine and just sliding in the bottom plate. I loaded 10 rounds and the magazine inserted easily and the first round fed without any damage. Since the retainer also acts to lock the bottom plate in place, I wanted to keep it in place. So I shortened the legs of the follower by the thickness of the retainer, re-assembled the whole thing, loaded 10 rounds and it works slick. It's getting late, but I'll do the rest of the magazines tomorrow and test them and post the results.

 

 

That is good news. Can you show how much you shortened the legs?

[lenf 5]

Here's a picture of a follower and spring retainer in their original condition. I took 1/16" off the rear leg and 1/8" off the front leg so that in the fully loaded position, follower sat at the same position as it would if the retainer were removed. A hacksaw or an x-acto saw and then a little filing are all that's required. The 1/8" gained is about the same as the additional calculated .110" of the stack up of the silver bear cases over the plastic cases. Why I didn't see this with the Barnaul shells, I don't know.