Leaderboard

I have several of them, super reliable. Also you can purchase extra SureFire batteries on Amazon for a pittance. Multiple back-ups are handy. I have one on a Mossberg 20 ga. SBS and some I free carry as they throw a long light down range.

I had a similar issue with my new M4 last year, about 2-3 times in every 20-25 shells a shell would get stuck on the carrier ramp. The bolt carrier was not locking back it was simply hung up in the rear position without enough spring tension to move it forward. Basically at the time it seemed like the bolt carrier group didn’t have enough momentum to push it forward and load it. In each instance I was able to either tap the bottom of the shell carrier or the nudge the bolt handle forward and it would load the shell. Initially I thought maybe it needed shells with a little more velocity but this seemed to occur regardless of the type of shells I was using, and always towards the end of the magazine usually around shell 5, 6, or 7. I tried some Federal 3 Dram 1-1/8 ounce #8 field loads, Federal Power Shock 00 Buck, Winchester 00 Buck Military Surplus (Brown Box), Wolf Power Shot 00 Buck, and a few Federal Law Enforcement slugs, nothing low velocity and nothing low recoil and all 2.75" shells. When I say a few total shell count was around 200. I went ahead and took the entire shotgun apart, barrel, magazine tube, gas pistons, plugs, bolt, trigger group/housing, bolt carrier, and thoroughly cleaned and oiled it, sans the gas pistons which the manual states not to oil. Everything looked in good working order but still the issue persisted. Even with dummy shells and testing on the bench it would occur once or twice out of every 3-4 magazines. The aftermarket parts I swapped are listed here: Benelli OEM 7 rd mag tube installed, for 922r purposes I put in the FFT trigger kit (trigger, hammer, disconnector with springs), one of the FFT Mag Followers, an A&S Trigger Housing (since I had to take the whole trigger pack apart anyway to put in the FFT Kit I figured I might as well get rid of the polymer housing plus gain one 922R part), a FFT Wolff Magazine Spring, and FFT Handguard. I also swapped the recoil tube for a 3 position tube but that's Benelli OEM. Basically I've added parts to stay in compliance plus the mag spring but nothing superfluous. No side saddles no aftermarket Bolt Release Buttons, etc… Here was the fix (at least for mine M4 anyway) if anyone else is having this issue, Per Stranger Danger's guidance I went ahead and polished the inside of the magazine tube, used some #1 Steel Wool wrapped around a brass 12 gauge bore brush and attached that to my Drill. Went back and forth for about 20 minutes then switched to a #0000 polishing steel wool and did another 20-30 minutes. That mag tube is smooth as glass. Even went ahead and used some light polishing compound on a cotton wheel on the Dremel on the ridges of the Magazine Follower which is also smooth as butter at this point. However that didn't completely resolve the issue but what did was removing the FFT Wolff Premium Spring. For some reason my M4 was just not happy with the FFT Wolff Premium Spring. I switched over to a Carrier Comp premium spring (oddly also a Wolff Spring but made to different specs) and I am rocking shells up the feed ramp at this point. Even the original factory spring is working albeit a little less aggressively. Interestingly the OEM Spring, and the FFT Spring are close in length, with the FFT being just slightly longer maybe 2-3 inches. The Carrier Comp Spring is over a foot longer then both the factory and the FFT Spring. I talked to Todd over at FFT and to his credit he refunded me the price on the spring I bought from him since it just doesn’t seem to work in my gun. Excellent Customer Service and that was certainly appreciated! Granted I had some aftermarket parts and it sounds like yours is still stock but really in the end it came down to using shells over 1300 FPS (at least initially) and using a magazine spring with greater tension. If you don't want to swap the spring the gun should smooth out a bit with use and that may help. But if you are already so close to the margins that certain shells aren't loading then I'd head over to Carrier Comp and put in one of their springs. However nothing will overcome using light power loads that just don't produce enough gas to run the gun.