New Remington 870 - another failure to extract story

Most Remington 870 customers are very loyal and they don't want to admit this is a common problem; they blame it on the shells. This is part of the problem. As long customers keep turning a blind eye and no one complains to the right people at Remington it will remain the norm.

GC

Mine has extracted thousands with no problems. Everything from Federal buck to S&B birdshot. (I once shot almost two cases of it in one day.) Boring reliability.

I haven't had any problems with my newer 870 Express either...all sorts of slugs, birdshot, and buckshot have gone through it

If it's not a common problem what would the chances be that he would get two Remington barrels that have the same problem. No one is saying that this is a problem with "all" 870 barrels, so there is no need to post that your 870 barrel hasn't had a chamber problem.

GC

Sadly, I see newer 870's having to have their stocks slammed into the ground I'd say about every other time I go to the range. At this point everybody just shrugs and says "yeah -- its a new Remington" while their President tells us all "the pointability" is more important than the action. Insane.
Al

Every time I read one of these threads, all I can think of is, I feel sorry for Marlin.

This just can't be! It has an all steel receiver for crying out loud. I know this, because I freaquently read how my Winnie 1300 is inferior for its aluminum receiver. I have nearly 8,000 rounds through it without a single malfunction, but clearly the Remmy is more robust.

Got to get me an 870 one of these days----

There kind of is.

One guy come in and says his new Express is having problems, another guy says lots of new Expresses are having problems, those of us who like them just fine should say something. You ask how difficult it is to make one that works, and apparently they do.

Makes me giggle. Someone asks about S&W Sigmas, and I tell my nightmare story, and get lectured by the fanboys that mine was just a lemon and I'm being offensive for just telling my story. The way I see it, if you come in and make an assertion, you open yourself to opinions that are different. as long as you can handle it.

Apparently they have figured out that on the cheapest guns it costs less to fix the few that come back, and they sell more by keeping the price as low as humanly possible. A whole lot of people are going to buy the absolute cheapest gun they can in the type they want. I daresay more than a few get loaded and stuck in a corner and never shot.
It is a fairly common story, but you're a shooter and you still got one too, so where's the logic in changing if you're running the company?
I don't agree with it, but I'm not running a company either by the way.

One guy come in and says his new Express is having problems, another guy says lots of new Expresses are having problems, those of us who like them just fine should say something. You ask how difficult it is to make one that works, and apparently they do.

Click to expand...

I am not the only one saying that some of the newer Express have problems with rough and or under size chambers.

You must have missed this in the OP.

I have spoken to a local gunsmith. He says bring it in and he will fix it per the warranty. He also said he sees this ALL THE TIME on new 870s.

Click to expand...

Also do a quick google search on the problem and see how many post on the subject you come with. Type in: 870 jamming, 870 FTE, 870 FTF, 870 polish the chamber, 870 stuck shells, 870 problems....ect That's only the ones from forum members. How many other cases go unreported. It's in the consumers favor to get this issue resolved.


GC

Used to be mostly short-cycling an 870 and getting something jammed with that lifter flap put your life in danger. Now it is out-of-the-box. Its ol' Wingmasters for me -- at least there the only problem I've had was a broken firing pin.
Al

The American buying public has spoken to these companies by buying lots of the cheap imported stuff based solely on the price. Remington, like any other manufacturer, is trying to remain competitive in that market arena.

If folks were willing to pay more for quality guns, they would make them.

IMO, pretty soon, there will be two grades of consumer items - the mass-produced junk for folks who only factor price, and the top-of-the-line items for those who value quality at any cost. These issues aren't limited to just guns.

We are only talking about a rough and or under size chamber. Surely Remington can get that right without breaking the bank. They also take part in importing firearms from other countries.

Other than the chamber problems with some later Express shotguns the new 870 Express is a very good shotgun.


GC

I also thought it was rough chambers and Winchester shells that were the problems but the OP also used a Brownels barrel and was using Remington, Federal and Kent ammo.

My particular 870 Express has been very reliable but does this post indicate some sort of internal issue with the newer guns (something other than rough chambers) ?

I'm on the side of the fence where mine runs like the Energizer Bunny but obviously many don't.

Well, Remington builds this gun to sell at a specific price point. Their selling price to the jobber, who sells to distributors, who sells to retailers, who sell to you might be half of the retail price. In order to get the cost as low as practical means taking the human labor cost out of the picture as much as possible. They need to make a profit, they need to pay their employees a decent wage, and pay those taxes associated with labor. There is 11% VAT on all sporting good in this country adding more to the price. Utilities, raw materials, and on and on. Every time they can take a human out of the equation they can lower their total cost a little. Every nice finishing step that they think is mostly cosmetic, gets cut back as well.

We want American-made high quality for the same price as low-quality imported stuff - isn't going to happen until China's middle class starts making more than we do.

My older Express has treated me just fine.

I have heard of this problem for the relatively recently made Expresses. I hope they get their problem fixed. I don't think its criminal negligence though - that is a bit too far, IMO.

soo uhhh...

at the risk of being constructive what is generally the cause of these problems? Is it a bur in the chamber? Undersized or poorly reamed chambers? Or is it something in the reciever? And what is the common cure?...polishing the chamber?...taking iout the bur with a jewlers file then polishing?

I've owned 6-8 remingtons from old wingmasters to new expresses and never had a problem. I've fixed MANY mossbergs and do every year....they are modular and easy enough to fix...most common is lost or broken safety buttons lost or worn ejectors...both easily fixed with replacement parts and a screwdriver and dab oc loctite...also hab to raise a bur and lightly peen a bolt pin on a 500 PG of a buds that had a slightly oversized hole and had dropped the original (and lost it of course) Winchester pumps it's usually a lost or goobered ejector...usually from being improperly reassembled by the owner.

870's usually just need "de-rustification" and cleaning up and they work fine....now 1100's aI've spent HOURS fixing...just curious what the actual problem is that they are having? I will say the VR on the newer expresses peope have been bringing in is HORRIBLE looking and feeling! You could actually about cut yourself on how roughly the rib is textured...the laminated stock to me looks OK...but they have obviously cheapened the base product...so if one wants to trust ones life to an 870 maybe you need to bite the bullet and but the tactical or police versions now? They used to just be a way to waste money....but the more changes remington makes to the express base-gun the more they look like a better product for a home deffense buyer.

My newest one is a "tactical magnum" with the knoxx stock...it has to be better than anything else is says "tactical" on the reciever...that makes it twice as cool as the one that says "Police Magnum" on the side doesn't it?-LOL!

The one thing I've had to adjust is the biggest "arm" sticking up from the trigger group needing to be slightkly bent to the outside more to properly engage the shellstop/release mechanism on a "franken-870" that was a magnum express reciever with a wingmaster trigger-group and trimmed 2 3/4" barrel (which for a while was my favorite gun and completely reliable once that was done) But it did have some issues until I did that...but it was a mish-mash of parts with about a 30 year difference in production...so it didn't occure to me to be bothered by that. And sometimes finding the right follower for extended mag equiped models...the choate orange works well...sometimes drop in sometimes it needs sanding to fit right...sometimes it hates that one and preffers a factory follower...I have noted different guns can be finnicky...many don't like the scattergun tech follower...which also gets gummy when exposed to certain solvents and is not a great choice for that reason. YMMV

Buy a new Ithaca 37 or a BPS and forget about the Express. That gun is the worst example of cutting cost I have seen.

First of all, price point should not mean not functioning out of the box properly.
I had an older Express that functioned fine but just bled rust.
It's history.
I have a gun, I'll not mention the manufacturer, that is heads and tails better than the Express and it's a "price point gun".
Soo.... Why can't Remington get it's act together and up their QC and make a decent price point gun?
They did with their Sportsman series and I wish they would bring that back.
Big Green is not the Big Green I used to know.

I am in the market for my first SG (to be purchased in a few months when my LTC comes through). Until reading this post I had been looking very seriously at the 870P. Have the same issues with the Express noted in this thread been cropping up in the 870P's as well? It's refreshing to read some honest reviews ... as was mentioned earlier, I'm not interested in the fanboy opinions. I want to make sure the SG I get is reliable, considering they're almost $1k here in MA.

The 870p is just an express that they actually finished. You want an 870 for $300? They make one. You want an 870 that extracts? $780.