Winchester 1885 Low Wall 17HMR Issue

[GTW]

Time for some gun talk instead of politics and Lieberals.

Need some advice on the following:

I have a relatively new 5 yr old Winchester (Miroku) 1885 Low Wall rimfire in 17HMR.
It shoots like a dream, uncannily accurate. A nice tack driver.

However, it has an annoying ejection issue right from the time I took it out of the box. It loads and fires flawlessly.
Upon firing, almost all spent casings have to be manually extracted - the casings seem to stick to the chamber 95% of the time, regardless of the make of ammo - CCI or Hornady.

All unfired rounds regardless of manufacturer will kick out nicely without any problems. I've lightly polished the chamber even though it appeared perfectly smooth, with no success - spent rounds keep sticking. On occasion, the extractor works as designed and the empty casing kicks out like it should. I tried operating the lever quickly vs slowly, to no avail.

So, any thoughts, ideas? Too tight a chamber?
Too much expansion in thin walled 17HMR cases causing "sticking"?

Note: My Browning 1885 in 45-70 works flawlessly, no issues ejecting spent rounds at all.

[kennymo]

Is the chamber dry? My uncle had an issue with his Handi Rifle failing to eject. We eventually figured out that he was overdoing it with the lubrication and the brass was hydro locking itself into the chamber, just a little too much force for the ejector spring. After he started swabbing it dry when it came out of the safe, the problem vanished.

[blacksmithden]

Clean and lube the chamber, and then try a few rounds. Do the first one or two eject fine, and then it starts to stick again ? Once it starts sticking, let it sit for 30 seconds or so, then then try ejecting the round. Does it then eject easily, or maybe with a little effort, but it does eject ? If so, you've probably got a small ridge in the chamber that you can't see that the brass is expanding into.

[GTW]

Thanks guys, I will try the suggestions.

[lone-wolf]

Unfamiliar with the design... but I'm thinking stronger spring, or reshaped extractor?
I assume the extractor will skip over the shell rim when it fails.

[M1917 Enfield]

Winchester and Browning 1885's & B78's Highwalls have a provision to completely eject a spent case. There is a stop that keeps the spent case from going straight out the back of the action when the lever is swung down. That stop is a machined piece that has a slot for a coin/screwdriver and can be turned to the left or right. When turned, that stop deflects the brass to the left or right & effectively ejects it rather than stopping it. So the High Wall includes an ejector (which can be set to eject to the right, left, or extract only), while the Low Wall extracts only but does not eject the fired case.

The rimfire Low walls only had extractors and no ejectors by design.