Marine mag barrel band???? [Archive]

Lee Lapin

January 26, 2006, 08:05 PM

Coop,

Most likely it won't affect the barrel much if at all. The barrel isn't why it's there.

Take off your magazine extension and the cap it screws into. See how thick the metal at the threaded end of the magazine tube is (especially compared to the barrel wall)? Now look at the length of the magazine extension, and figure the leverage it could exert on the relatively thin metal of magazine tube if, say, you dropped the gun at some point and it landed on the unsupported magazine extension.

New magazine tubes on an 870 will most likely require a trip to the factory or a factory authorized service center to get a bent one replaced. AND the receiver has to be refinished in the deal along with the new magazine tube. None of this is cheap or quick or easy.

Remington put the clamp on there for a reason. You still want to take it off, go ahead. Me, I never leave a barrel without a choke tube installed (there's thin metal there too), and I never put on a 2-shot or longer magazine extension without using a clamp. YMMV of course, it's your gun.

lpl/nc

dfariswheel

January 26, 2006, 10:12 PM

In the case of the Magnum Marine, or any other gun fitted with a Remington factory extension, you MUST use a clamp, since the extension tube will unscrew from the coupling collar if you don't.

As to whether a blow could knock an extension off the gun is something that "could" happen or is it just an unlikely possibility, I can detail the cases I personally know about.

One in which a police chief answering a silent alarm at a bank, bumped his Wilson extension on a car door frame as he was getting out of the car.
The extension was knocked off and the extension shot off with such force, his patrol car's window was broken.
I'll never forget his telling me how horrible it felt to be possibly facing armed bank robbers ALONE, with nothing but a 6 shot revolver.
Turned out to be a false alarm.

Result, gun's magazine tube was bent and stripped, and it took an expensive trip back to Remington for a replacement.

Case Two was a local doctor who kept a Winchester 1300 with a Choate extension.
As he was closing a bedroom closet door, the gun slide sideways from where it was leaning and landed on a small stool.

The extension was bent out of line, and was "hanging by a thread" on the damaged magazine threads.
The doc sent it in to Winchester for a repair.

Case Three I personally witnessed.
There was a shotgun training class at a local gun range for police.
In one stage, the shooter simulated shooting from behind a patrol car, then transitioned to standing behind a building.
The "patrol car" was simulated by a table, and the "building" was a wooden barricade.

One officer I was actually watching finished the shots from over the table top, then stood and stepped to the barricade.
As he did so, he bumped the Wilson extension on the barricade, and it was by no means a really hard bump.
The extension was violently blown off the gun, shells were sprayed all over the firing line, and the spring and extension were propelled down-range with such force, that the extension sailed over the 50 foot backstop.

I examined the gun.
The gun's magazine tube was bent and the threads were damaged.
The gun required a trip back to the factory for a replacement.

In ALL of these cases the extension was pretty much undamaged, only the GUN'S magazine tube being damaged.

Bottom line: The extension could be a solid steel bar, and the extension's strength is NOT an issue.
The weak link is the gun's thin magazine tube, which is further weakened by the deep, square threads in the end.

USE A CLAMP. If your extension doesn't come with one, BUY ONE.
I personally recommend the Uncle Mike's copy of the Remington factory clamp:
http://www.unclemikes.com/adtemplate.asp?invky=9004490&catky=1465723&subcatky1=4548843&subcatky2=2000180

This type of clamp offers better support and less chance of the clamp creeping toward the muzzle under recoil.