MTMilitiaman
Member
When I turned 18 I bought a Model 870 Wingmaster Magnum 12 gauge. It was the first firearm that I actually signed for and as such holds a significant amount of sentimental value to me.
I have averaged probably 1200 rounds a year through it or more in the 6 years that I have bought it. I've shot nearly 800 rounds through it in 2 days without cleaning it. About 500 of those were shot in a couple hours during an afternoon skeet shoot on my grandpa's property. It got so hot the wood grips were uncomfortably hot and the choke tube had to be retightened every tube. The gun has been practically flawless. The only time it has malfunctioned before is when a shell was crimped right and somehow some 7 1/2 shot got into the trigger group. It was fixed in less than a minute. It has been amonst my most reliable firearms. Before yesterday afternoon, I trusted this shotgun absolutely. I would have swore hell would have frozen over before it quit on me. It appears I would have spoken too soon.
Yesterday afternoon I put about 70 rounds of my dad's reloads through it. These are moderate 7 1/2 shot field loads. There is nothing hot about them. It functioned fine, until I shot one round, ejected it, then went to push the handguard forward to chamber the next and it wouldn't go forward. I looked through the open ejection port and noticed that the next round in the tube had only slid out about 1/8 an inch--it was just enough to keep the loader from flipping upwards. I reached through with my pinky and pushed it back in the tube, and the slide went forward fine. I tried to rechamber that round with the same result. Fumbling around I discovered it is possible to push that springy peice of metal on the left side of the receiver in and in doing so, when you work the slide, the flipper goes up and the entire unspent round ejects from the magazine tube through the bottom of the shotgun out the loading port. By now I am thoroughly perplexed. I cleaned it out and made sure it was assembled right and this time tried some new factory Federal field loads, but it is still broke.
I have been handling, shooting, and cleaning Model 870s since I was like 14. That's about ten years with tens of thousands of rounds through about 10 or 12 of them, and I have never seen one of them break of have problems of any sort. I didn't think it was possible. But it appears hell has frozen over and left me with the tab--a busted 870 and no idea what is going on with it. Is my shotgun possessed or what?
I have averaged probably 1200 rounds a year through it or more in the 6 years that I have bought it. I've shot nearly 800 rounds through it in 2 days without cleaning it. About 500 of those were shot in a couple hours during an afternoon skeet shoot on my grandpa's property. It got so hot the wood grips were uncomfortably hot and the choke tube had to be retightened every tube. The gun has been practically flawless. The only time it has malfunctioned before is when a shell was crimped right and somehow some 7 1/2 shot got into the trigger group. It was fixed in less than a minute. It has been amonst my most reliable firearms. Before yesterday afternoon, I trusted this shotgun absolutely. I would have swore hell would have frozen over before it quit on me. It appears I would have spoken too soon.
Yesterday afternoon I put about 70 rounds of my dad's reloads through it. These are moderate 7 1/2 shot field loads. There is nothing hot about them. It functioned fine, until I shot one round, ejected it, then went to push the handguard forward to chamber the next and it wouldn't go forward. I looked through the open ejection port and noticed that the next round in the tube had only slid out about 1/8 an inch--it was just enough to keep the loader from flipping upwards. I reached through with my pinky and pushed it back in the tube, and the slide went forward fine. I tried to rechamber that round with the same result. Fumbling around I discovered it is possible to push that springy peice of metal on the left side of the receiver in and in doing so, when you work the slide, the flipper goes up and the entire unspent round ejects from the magazine tube through the bottom of the shotgun out the loading port. By now I am thoroughly perplexed. I cleaned it out and made sure it was assembled right and this time tried some new factory Federal field loads, but it is still broke.
I have been handling, shooting, and cleaning Model 870s since I was like 14. That's about ten years with tens of thousands of rounds through about 10 or 12 of them, and I have never seen one of them break of have problems of any sort. I didn't think it was possible. But it appears hell has frozen over and left me with the tab--a busted 870 and no idea what is going on with it. Is my shotgun possessed or what?
