Loading problem with my Remington 11

[ponyboy314]

I recently bought a Remington Model 11 auto-loading shotgun. I've always wanted one and now I have it. Life is good.

Of course, there just has to be a problem. Loading the tubular magazine is proving to be a problem. I can slide the first round up the tube with no problem, but for one reason or another, I can't load a second round. It just won't go. It pushes the first round a little but further into the tube, but that second round just won't go in. I certainly don't want a semi-auto shotgun that fires two rounds, as long as the first goes in the chamber right away.

By the way, this has proven to be a problem with any type of shell. I have loaded birdshot, 00 buck 9 pellet, and 00 buck 12 pellet. All are 2 3/4", so I seriously doubt that it's the ammunition.

Does this problem sound familiar to anyone? I've taken it apart and I can't for the life of me find anything wrong with it.

Any help is welcome.

 

[Fred Fuller]

You say you've taken it apart- did you get into the inside of the magazine tube itself?

Sounds to me as if the previous owner left a plug in the magazine. Pull the magazine spring and follower out to see if there's anything in there limiting capacity...

lpl/nc

 

[ponyboy314]

Funny you should mention it.

After I started this thread, I disassembled it again, and I noticed something that I had already noticed before, but apparently was too dumb to take into consideration...

Inside the magazine spring was (take a wild guess...) a wooden dowel rod. I can't believe that I knew it was in there and still continued looking for the problem. Needless to say, the rod was just long enough to permit one round to be loaded in the magazine. After removing it and putting the thing back together, all shells went perfectly into the magazine. I must have had stupid for breakfast yesterday.

A buddy of mine (another proud owner of a Remington 11...but that's not why I got it...yeah right...) told me that a previous owner put the thing in there to intentionally limit shot capacity to make it legal for hunting. Well, I'm not much of a hunter, so the dowel rod is gone, and now, it's good to go.

Thanx. I can't believe that I kept looking for a zebra when the horse was right in front of me.

Ponyboy

 

[Fred Fuller]

The obvious is often the easiest thing to overlook- glad you got it sorted out, it's a great shotgun. Hope you enjoy it for a long long time.

Stay Safe,

lpl/nc

 

[rcmodel]

Did the plug limit the magazine capacity to exactly one round, or could you almost get a second round in it?

It seems very strange that it would be plugged to limit it to only one round, when the three-shot waterfowl limit has been in place since 1934.
That made plugging the magazine to hold only two shells, plus 1 in chamber, mandatory.

If you can almost get two shells in the magazine, I would suspect your old model 11, made from 1911 - 1948, may have a shorter 2 9/16" chamber. If that was the case, two of the shorter shells would have fit with the plug in place.

Might be worth having a gunsmith check the chamber length just to be safe.


rcmodel

 

[35Rem]

Don't think Model 11's were made with the short chamber. Brownings were, but only in 16 gauge.
It may have been done for shooting skeet (2 shots only).

 

[ATAShooter]

Ah, don't feel bad. One time, I had taken my Model 12 down for a full out cleaning. Saturday morning was a registered trapshoot. So, friday night in a rush, I slapped the ole boy together. Went to the shoot, called for the target, "click". Tried it again, "Click". Ejected the shell to see what was up. HMMM, no dent, they work better if you don't forget the firing pin...:banghead: