[Dimis]

are there any tricks to making a pump action "slicker"?

i have a mossberg 590 and the initial motion is stiff then it breaks free and is like silk but it almost feels like there is a hump (think resistance) before it moves
i guess its probably a safety feature so the gun wont action itself upon recoil but wanted to ask anyway

ive seen (manipulated the slide but never fired) pump guns that are so smooth and slick that you dont even really need to grip the pump just use your hand open flat to slide it back and forth

[rcmodel]

The initial slide movement must start extracting the empty case & cocking the hammer again, all at the same time.

Once the shell is coming out & the hammer fully cocked, it gets easier.

A good chamber polish, and some grease on the bolt / firing pin / hammer contact points should help a lot.

rc

[EMC45]

Shoot it...........................................A Lot!

[Fred Fuller]

Best way to smooth out any pumpgun is to put a few thousand rounds through it.

Amazingly enough, that almost always 'smooths out' the shooter a good bit, too...

lpl

[Milkmaster]

Best way to smooth out any pumpgun is to put a few thousand rounds through it.


Lee is correct! I got an 870 that will almost fall open when stood up on the buttstock. It isn't worn out. Just middle aged :)

[Badger Arms]

Best way to smooth out any pumpgun is to put a few thousand rounds through it.

Best, no doubt. Cheapest? Not really.

Now I'll preempt everybody else on this one...

BUY A REMINGTON 870. Mossberg sucks!

BUY AN ITHACA 37. Mossberg and Remington SUCK!

BUY A BENELLI. Mossberg and Remington SUCK!

Dude, you need an AR-15. Shotguns suck!

Glocks are better cus you can turn them sideways and aim down the square slide!

[highorder]

Want a smooth pumpgun?...

Find a Model 12. ;)

[Ratshooter]

Or better yet a 1200. When I fire mine it halfway pumps its self.

[RandKL]

The initial hesitation is due to the fact that you're converting straight on force, the slide back and forth, to sideways motion of the bolt locking lug. The bolt locking lug moves perfectly perpendicular to the motion of the slide so it's reliant on the use of a ramp to change the direction.

Think the effect of dropping an egg onto a kitchen floor. When it's straight up and down, the egg shatters as it hits. But if you place a curved ramp on the floor to catch the egg, when dropped, its up and down motion becomes side to side and it instead goes flying *across* the floor. That initial hesitation to the slide that you noticed is the second the egg hits the ramp and the force is redirected sideways.

You can smooth that action in a lot of ways. Those range from difficult to not so hard to easy. I seriously doubt you really want to get into it (lol). There's a reason why experts get paid cash to do the work for non-experts. Most of it's doable with common tools, but it's just a pain in the rear.

My best suggestion to smoothing any shotgun action is the same. Pour some heavy weight motor oil into the action and then find a good movie on HBO. Sit there and work the action about ten thousand times as you watch tv. Add more oil every time you switch hands. Clean the gun and lube properly after.

rich

[Deltaboy]

I used a few drops of Slick 50 on mine and it worked great. The red synthic Mobil 1 grease is good also. But you have to understand my 870 is 28 years old and has untold thousands of rounds blown through it.

[Dimis]

Badger you rock you had me rolling with the everything sucks comment lol

thanks for all the info guys i guess ill just keep pumping rounds till its smooth its got a good 1000 rounds so far guess i just need to get more ammo

[Hollywood Marine]

My model 12 will drop open if stood verticaly with the action closed when the slide release is pressed. Of course it is approaching 200,000 shells fired. An earlier poster had it right: Shoot it! A lot !!

[Steve C]

I agree with the others about the model 12 Winchester. IMO its the smoothest slickest pump action ever made.

[unstableryan]

I'm new here and I just had to speak up here. I like shotguns.

My shotguns are a Winchester M120 12 gauge with a 30" full choke, an Ithaca 37 with an open 18" and a ridiculous ~30" bolt action H&R M348.

I inherited the M120 from a good uncle that just gave it to me one day and said you will like it more than I do. It's got about a thousand through it. It had 3 or 4 boxes through it when I got it. It's always kept clean and oiled and it's a slick gun. Firing it without my hand on the pump pushes the slide back and the shell is very ejected. I'm pretty good with this one as when I was in high school, I shot birds at a winery for two seasons with the same model gun. That was 75-150 rounds a day, 5-6 days a week for 2-3 months each season.

The Ithaca won't totally open with a one handed firing but it's slick like butter too. It's a 1972 model and has had more than a few shells though it. If you hold the trigger down and pump it it will fire as soon as it locks. That's why I bought that one.

If you use them a lot, take them apart, clean them properly and oil them, they should be quit slick. My guns are not swat kinda shotguns, buy they are very smooth.

Ryan

[Fred Fuller]

If you want to go shopping for slickness, look for a High Standard Flite King or its store brand clone, a Sears/JC Higgins Model 20. It has a tilting bolt lockup like a Model 12 and is the slickest pumpgun I've ever seen, bar none. 12 gauge only though... some of the smaller gauges use a different design.

lpl

[Pete409]

Dimis,

The solution to your problem lies in first identifying what is causing the problem. If it is only hard (initially) to open after firing a live shell in the chamber, then the cause is likely associated with the extracting of that shell. A rough chamber would be the most likely suspect in this case.

BUT, if the problem occurs when dryfiring the gun, then obviously extracting a spent shell is not the cause of the problem. In this case, I would agree with RandKL that the cause is probably associated with the locking lug sticking in the locking recess. You don't have to be a gunsmith to fix this problem, but, OTOH, if you don't know what you are doing, you may very well make the gun unsafe to shoot.

To help you troubleshoot the source of the problem, answer these questions.

1. Does it do this only when shooting live ammo?

2. Does it do it when dryfiring?

3. Does it do it when the hammer is cocked and the bolt is locked closed on an empty chamber and you push the Action Bar Lock button to release it?

[Dimis]

Pete its not truthfully a problem the gun functions absolutly fine the initial hurdle to jump is more than likely the extraction mechanism as described above moving the action is by no means a chore just not slick enough to move with almost no effort it was more of a curiousity question than an actual delema
to answer your questions tho it doesnt seem that its stiff to move dry there is still a slight bit of force needed to start the action
it definatly is stiffer with a round to be extracted
and dry with the hammer cocked and using the slide release is still easier than extracting a shell but there is always a little bit of force needed to start the action
all in all i just didnt know if it was an issue of just breaking in the firearm extencivly or if there were some tricks to slicking an action but reading the posts i believe its a combination of using the shotgun and its design doesnt lean toward silky smooth action as say a model 12 winchester

[Pete409]

Pump it a few thousand times while it is well oiled and it should slick up. It costs nothing to sit at home and pump it.

[KenWP]

Find a old Model 97 and then you will see a slick action. They last 3 lifetimes so far also.

[DAVIDSDIVAD]

I don't think it's anything to do with extraction, guys.

I'm pretty sure that initial resistance he's feeling is the bolt lock being pushed down by the receiver as the bolt assembly moves backwards.

That should never go away.