870 Freezes! What's wrong!!

[MP-5]

Dry firing my Remington 870 I discovered that when the action is cocked and I have reward pressure on the pump handle the gun Jams or freezes when the trigger is pulled. When I squeeze the trigger the hammer drops but the slide is "locked" until I release some rearward pressure on it then the "slide block" drops and the slide the can chamber another dummy round and is operational. I dont recall this on any of my duty 870's. (Although they have plenty of rounds through them and are well worn) At the range with a duty 870 at work I can "pump" as fast as I can and have rearward pressure on the slide and then when the trigger is pulled, "slap" the action slams to the rear almost automatically because I maintain some rearward pressure on it! Does my 870 need to be broken in? Or some "stoning?"

 

[Dave McCracken]

Run a case or two through it and see what happens. I've never run across this myself, but there's been reports in Cyberland. Use seems to cure it.

 

[HSMITH]

You are camming the bolt lug up with rearward pressure, take it apart and look at it and you will see that the more rearward pressure there is the tighter it locks. Mine has 30K or so through it and it STILL locks up when you pull hard back.

There is no reason to pull back with the front hand anyway, if you do pull back with the front hand chances are you are not much of a shooter. Pulling back with the front hand will prevent you from swinging smoothly and easily. Shoot with good form and the "problem" of it locking will never be an issue.

 

[Nippy]

So how many rounds have you put through it?

 

[Al in Md]

I have found this "rearward pressure on the forearm lock-up" on three NIB 870P shotguns. Two of them are mine and one belongs to my son. However the key phrase here is Dry Firing. At the range when firing full house "00" or reduced recoil "00" and of course slugs the recoil overcomes moderate rear pressure on the forearm and this lock situation does not happen. If you shoot the cheap Wally World birdshot the recoil may not be strong enough to overcome the rearward pressure on the forearm. That has been my results with the 870P models I have shot. I also have a FN shotgun and due to the rotary bolt action (just like Winchester) this lock condition will not occur. Al

 

[Fastlane]

My new 870P, dose the same thing with rear preasure applied to the pump. Never thought it was a problem, seems to shoot and eject everything I feed it. As Dave says, buy lots of ammo, shoot often, repeat.

 

[MP-5]

Thanks guys.
The 870 I have is about 5 yars old but maybe has 50-100 rounds through it. I used it mostly as a hunting shotgun but have graduated to a Benelli for that role. Thanks for the info and experience!

 

[Battler]

My friend's stainless 870 Marine did it.

We noticed as we'd fired my Win 1300 a bunch, pulling back on the slide to rack the INSTANT the shot fired.

Can't say if it's good technique or not; but that your 870 isn't the first to do it.


Battler.