[Janos Dracwlya]

I have a Remington 870 I bought used aboout a year ago.

It has only one problem that I can see - the spring (or whatever) that holds the bolt in place allows it to drop back maybe a quarter of an inch (maybe not quite that much) if the gun is not cocked. This caused me some problems with reloading during a 3-Gun match - if the bolt was not all the way forward, the loading gate would not go up far enough and the shell being fed into the magazine would bind.

My question is, what do I need to do to fix this? I took the gun apart, but it was not obvious to me what part was failing to do its job.

Thanks for your assistance.

Janos

[Fred Fuller]

Janos,

There's nothing to fix, nothing is broken, it's supposed to work that way. In the words of the software dweebs, it isn't a bug, it's a feature. The bolt unlocks when the trigger is pulled so you can cycle the action (after a short forward movement of the forearm, usually provided by recoil). There's no spring holding the bolt closed, just the uncocked hammer resting against the back of the bolt.

Either become a shot counter and reload before you run completely dry, or get into the habit of always running the bolt no matter whether the gun goes bang or click.

How you handle an empty gun is up to you. At click you can open the bolt and load the first round through the ejection port, then close the bolt and stuff the magazine through the loading port. Or you can run the bolt completely and load the magazine through the loading port, running the first round into the chamber from the magazine. Your call, different shooters handle it different ways. But whatever you do it'll work better with the 870 cocked.

And remember to switch the safety to ON before manipulating the gun, no matter which reloading method you use. You don't want to accidentally bump the trigger with a live round in the chamber...

hth,

lpl/nc

[sm]

Lee is correct of course, again, as usual...:)

[Janos Dracwlya]

Lee,

Many thanks.

Janos