Need help diagnosing my browning gold 10 gauge issue

I bought this gun brand new back in 95’ or so? Never had issues up until 2 years ago. At the range sighting in a new red dot and I had white pieces of plastic shatter all over the bench and lost my bolt handle in the process. It flew out with the shot. Never did find the bolt handle. I took it apart and found that the plastic follower on the end of the recoil spring shattered. I ordered a replacement one for five bucks and installed it. Took the gun completely apart and cleaned it. Shot it re-zeroed it and the bolt handle kept flying out. Had a see-through saddle mount on it that somehow must’ve shifted so I filed out the long hole that goes up and down where the bolt slides through so I widened it till the bolt handle didn’t rub on it. I figured all my issues were solved. Re-zeroed it in and took it out turkey hunting last year. I ended up shooting at a bird and had a case, stuck sideways in the action. I put the gun up and haven’t shot it since. Over to my 12 gauge and use that for the rest of the season. I forgot it didn’t kick out a shell last year and clean the barrel and the action and took it hunting yesterday. I noticed when I went to close the action by hand instead of letting it snapshot the follower stayed open about 3/4 of an inch while the bolt was completely shut. It’s basically a two piece bolt. So I sprayed a little oil between the bolt and the follower and worked it back-and-forth because it would shut if I pushed it forward. I just left the gun in the truck, unloaded and grabbed my 12 gauge instead. When I got home, I found a bunch of buffer in the chamber. I figured it had to come from the magazine tube because the ammo I was using I didn’t have any buffer coming out of it. Also, the action would close all by itself without ammo in it. So I figured maybe it was the old ammo I was using which was probably 25 years old. Maybe it got swollen or who knows. I buffed the inside of the chamber with a little mother’s polish and cleaned out the magazine tube and put it all back together. It was closing completely 99% of the time. That’s with me just pulling the action back with a live round in it outside facing the ground safely to see if it would smoothly shut which it wasn’t all the time. Call Browning and they told me that you have to just let it slam shut so I would assume that it is good and fine now. If I pull the bolt a 3rd of the way back with some force it will slam shut every time. I also noticed a couple little small pieces of red plastic that fell out of the action when I cleaned it when I got home last night so I would assume red plastic buffer is starting to shatter. Ordered a new one today and will have to rip the gun completely apart to replace it…again. Didn’t wanna spend 50 bucks on the buffer since the plastic spring follower was only five bucks at the time. Here is a picture of the action. There is a gouge in my receiver. I’m wondering if this happened when the follower shattered? I drew a red point to it. I figured I would take a little file or stone and try and smooth it out and put some Oxpho blue over it to see if there’s any rubbing in the future. Also, you can see how the brass got marked up on the live round that I used to push forward and backwards to work the follower to try and see if there was burr I could smooth out. Guess I’ll have to wait and see if it’s smoother when I get the new buffer put in any suggestions of what’s going on other than maybe the buffer loose? Curious why the brass is getting chewed up and why that chunk of metal is missing inside my receiver or I should say just gouged any help would be grateful.

https://i.imgur.com/2zTm6zb.jpg


Tons of little lines all over my brass hole when I was working, it back-and-forth trying to figure out if there was a burr that maybe I could smooth out. It sure beat up my brass casing doing so.

https://i.imgur.com/DPwNWUh.jpg


Apparently, they don’t sell just the red buffer by itself anymore. I had to order the complete assembly unfortunately which is 10 times the price of a buffer. The only place I can find it was Midwest gun Works. Maybe becuase it’s starting to chip apart it’s causing the issues?

Here’s what the bolt looks like with the carrier not completely shut. The front of the bolt seals the breach, but the carrier doesn’t go all the way up. Browning told me that you just need to let it cycle by itself from one in the tube. That thing would break fingers and crush nuts doing it that way, which is fine and I know it’ll shut but figured it probably should be a little smoother even by putting ammo in it and slowly releasing the bolt with your hand. Maybe it just has tight tolerances?

https://i.imgur.com/9ahVXRy.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/dqQFrDK.jpg

I owned one of the big Brownings bought in the mid 90's. It had no gouges but was not smooth on the inside looking into the action. With my various auto shotguns I always let the bolts slam forward. From memory, I think that Briley in Houston will not work on certain Browning gas operated shotguns made in the last 35 years, but the 10 ga is not one of them.

I’m guessing once I get the new buffer in my issues will be solved. This is the “light version” receiver so it should be made out of aluminum. Oxpho blue should not stick to it. Guess I’ll find out when I try.

Finally tore it down today since my first season turkey hunting is over. I have a couple weeks till I go back out again for fourth season. The buffer definitely grenaded! Also I found one of the pins that hold the side plate on the trigger housing sheared off for sone goofy reason. When I slid the trigger group out the side plate on the right hand side fell off on the floor. I even found the “male nub” on the floor by it. Curious why that broke? Called Browning to see if they had a trigger guard group. They said they wouldn’t sell me one for liability reasons and I needed to take it to a gunsmith. I’m sure I can take that thing apart and reassemble it in my sleep and my buddy is a gunsmith if I can’t. So since they told me, they wouldn’t sell me one I went and got some JB weld and cleaned up the area and glued that pin back in place since it literally would sit tight in the area where it snapped off. While it was drying I went on numeric gun parts and saw the trigger housing for 66 bucks. So I called Browning back and told them I could buy one directly from numerics if they didn’t want to sell me one. I got a different guy on the phone this time from browning who was actually nice and never even bad in an eye and sold me the housing which was $56. I also bought another recoil spring follower for $5 to keep on hand. I tell you it all depends on who you get at browning. I’ve had that on and off when I was calling two years ago for parts. One guy that works there must just hate his job. I called back and got a girl that day and she actually helped me out and gave me the parts! It was the same rotten guy. I got last time that I got this morning. The second guy I talked to when I called back was super nice. Apparently Browning firearms have a five year warranty. Never really knew because I’ve never had to use a warranty with them and just bought wear and tear parts last couple times which where the buffer for a pistol and the follower for my 10 gauge. At least I have a new housing coming.


Broken pin


https://i.imgur.com/sbOamNp.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/hvijbeE.jpeg

After JB welded it. I’ll keep the housing for a back up i guess…

https://i.imgur.com/Gb9Px6o.jpg


Buffer…what’s left of it…lol…in my action and trigger group…

https://i.imgur.com/o1jmdUi.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/hwbaMq6.jpeg

New trigger housing showed today. Took many pictures before and durring disassembly so I had a reference photos if I forgot how to put it back together. All was going good and left the trigger hammer pin and the roll pin that hold the spring and detent for the trigger tension. Both were a PITA ...but I finally got them out. The roll pin I used a nail since I didn't have my punch set where I did it. The hammer pin I drove out thr opposite way!!!! Luckily I didn't brake, bend, Mar, or scratch up....lesson learned. If the pin on one side has some wear marks from driving it in tap it out the opposite way. I didn't care if wrecked the old housing driving it out. Amazingly it looks in the same shape before I started other than the knurled end marks that got driven through both sizes. I'll throw the old housing in my parts bin. The JB weld held up with all the hammer and pounding the pin out. I was impressed. So I'm sure if I left it in it would have held up.

So it’s all back together now. Replaced the recoil follower with the new one just because it was kind of about around… looks like it kind of took a beating with everything else going on in there, even though it was only two years old, so I’ll save it for a spare along with the old repaired trigger guard. New buffer in place as well. I even cleaned inside the two gas ports in the barrel which I’ve never done before since I’ve owned it. The right side had a little buildup, but the left side was good to go. Put it all back together and grabbed one of the federal shells that was keeping the bolt open about 3/4 of an inch. I grabbed another one out of the box and assisted it in to the chamber and it stayed open worse than before! So I grabbed one of my reloads that I sized the brass and it slid right in! The old federal grand slam shells were/are the issue with the bolt carrier not shutting. If I load one from the magazine and let the bolt go when it’s all the way back it will slam shut and resize the brass hull. So it was the ammo causing the bolt carrier to stay open and not the buffer or broken trigger guard pin. I’ll resize the old grand slams in my sizing ring and shoot them. Think I only have around 7 left or so.

Here is the one I tried to load today, testing it after it was all back together. You can see the brass getting resized in the process and the indentations on the face of the hull getting indented from the force of doing so.

https://i.imgur.com/FFcL0Aj.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/F4Z27G0.jpeg


The old follower is on the right. I just don’t like the way it looked out around even though it’s only had about a dozen or two dozen shots through it so I put a new one in just to be on the safe side.

https://i.imgur.com/sdVPcyd.jpeg