Ejection problems with a NIB Remmy 870

[Minnesota Shooter]

Hey guys, So I just got back from OIF and decided to give myself a New 870 for christmas.

I took it to the range, and within the first 3 shots I had a failure to eject. The round fed perfectly, but the forend wouldnt move at all after words.

I had to jiggle the crap out of it for about 10 seconds, and every time I could not move the forend down to eject the round.

It didnt do it every time either, usually 2 or 3 shots into it. After going through 2 boxes of 2 3/4 shots I took it upstairs to the store and started asking questions.

I've dry fired it plenty or times and even cycled rounds through it without firing, and it works great.

One of the guys there said it could just be the ammo and that I should just try going with a different brand.

Im at a loss here, Im just curious has this happened to anyone else?

 

[41magsnub]

See http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-303918.html

 

[Robert Hairless]

Inexpensive Winchester birdshot does it in our 870s often. Also in Ithacas and some others. We've learned to avoid it.

 

[Avenger29]

Yeah, the winchester birdshot gives problems...it's apparently out of spec.

My Walmart carries 250rd cases of Remington birdshot that works just fine out of my 870. This Rem. ammo is also the cheapest of all the selections. Which works out well for me.

 

[md7]

minnesota, what kind of ammo did you run through it? just curious because i just got a new 870 too. it fed remington ammo #6's, #8's, and 00 Buck pretty well.

 

[jmr40]

Had a similar problem with one I bought new a few years ago. There is a Remington service center less than an hour from here so I took it to the shop one saturday rather than ship it. They just polished the chamber a bit on mine and fixed it up in less than 5 min. Felt a little silly because I could have done that myself if I had thought of it. Try cleaning the chamber and polish it a little with some steel wool.

 

[MAX100]

It is not the ammo. I have pump shotguns that cost less than the Express and they will feed any ammo. Some of the Remington 870 Express have rough chambers with tool marks. It is not bad but enough to cause FTE problems. You won't find that on a Wingmaster. Anyone who buys a new express should check it over for a consistent finish through out and check the chamber to make sure it is smooth. You would think that for what Remington charges for their Express models they could offer consistent quality from gun to gun. Their prices just keep going up.


GC

 

[Milkmaster]

Many have found that not getting the all of the sticky preservative out of ther chamber before using the gun causes sticky ejection problems after firing a few rounds just exactly as what you describe. Make sure you clean the weapon out of the box as the instructions say paying special attention to the chamber area. I'll bet that fixes your problem. I have no trouble shooting the cheap ammo from WalMart in any of my shotguns by Winchester, Remington, Savage, or the Russians. All of it works and ejects fine for me.

 

[mossberg]

I'll bet it's the ammo. It happened to me before. I was shooting the cheap stuff and the extractor was just ripping it. No lack of power.

 

[Robert Hairless]

I have pump shotguns that cost less than the Express and they will feed any ammo. Some of the Remington 870 Express have rough chambers with tool marks. It is not bad but enough to cause FTE problems. You won't find that on a Wingmaster.

I wasn't talking about an Express. My 870 is a well used police Magnum that was honed and polished. No tool marks in that chamber. It's the cheap Winchester birdshot. It also has caused the same problems in other shotguns, including those older Ithacas I mentioned.

 

[The Deer Hunter]

Yeah, the winchester birdshot gives problems...it's apparently out of spec.

I got a 25 count box of the reduced recoil 00 buckshot that was out of spec apparently. It cycled fine and everything except when I tried inserting an unfired round in the chamber there was a lot of resistance unlike every other shot shell I have put in it.

 

[MAX100]

Thanks Robert for clearing that up but I was not responding to your post. I was responding to the one who posted the thread. What I said about the Remington Express is true. I see Express with the problems I described from time to time. If you polish the chamber the problem 99% of the time it will go away. Read jmr40 post. He carried his into a Remington service center and what did they do, they polished the chamber. They knew what the problem was because I am sure they have seen it many times before. I am not saying for sure if that is the problem with Minnesota Shooter's gun but it could be. Polishing the chamber would not hurt, only help. Anyone who buys a new Remington Express should check it over good before you buy it because the problems I described do exist.


GC

 

[mnw42]

I've seen it with the cheap-o Winchester ammo too. I've never seen a problem with AA's, but the silver based stuff sticks in my 50 year old Wingmaster.

 

[HOLY DIVER]

it seems you are going to have to polish the chamber
funny though,got my pardner pump new (a 870express copy) it would shot ANYTHING right outa the box i wondered if the sticky stuff inside the barrel would cause a problem when i got it new but i said the heck i'm gonna shot it first then clean it so i don't have to clean 2 times in one day(very slack and lazy on my part)but it shot fine!LOL but it did seem to pattern better after the first clean

 

[ArmedBear]

Some shotguns have oversized chambers. I can't fault a manufacturer for making the chamber to spec, though, instead of bigger.

The Winchester Universals often do that to my 870, as do unsized reloads. And it IS the ammo. I have a sizer and a size gauge, and I've never had a FTE with ammo that's sized to SAAMI specs for 12 Gauge shotshells.

Oddly, the Winchesters at my Wally World are the most expensive bulk ammo. They're really junk. The Federals for a lot less are good shells, and the Remingtons in between them in price can be near match quality. I also reload the Remington Sport Load hulls to target load specs and they work great for trapshooting.

All of that said, the Express, like most guns, should be cleaned and oiled when you get it. I don't always do that, either, but I probably should.

 

[Robert Hairless]

Oddly, the Winchesters at my Wally World are the most expensive bulk ammo. They're really junk. The Federals for a lot less are good shells, and the Remingtons in between them in price can be near match quality.

Our experience exactly. That Winchester ammo has caused real grief whenever we encountered it, except in the Benellis. It's odd that the shotguns with the reputation for being finicky about ammunition (the Benellis) don't get thrown by the ammunition that throws shotguns supposed to be more robust in that respect. Each shotgun really does have its own personality and attributes, much like each Model 1911 pistol. Maybe it's why we tend to like them.

As for the 870 Express, my experience is limited to one we own and a few others we've used, but we don't have any complaints. I'm certainly not an expert though.

 

[peetee32]

failure to eject with one barrel, not the other

i just wanted to report i had the failure to eject problem with my remington 870.

i bought it used with two barrels, a 26" vented barrel with a choke and a 20" rifled deer barrel. i had no use for the rifled barrel, so i traded online for someone for a used 20" smooth barrel.

i loaded up my 870 with some remington birdshot, first shot, failed to eject. finally got it to eject, fired two more, another failure to eject. happend every 2nd or 3rd shell with remington 00buck, remington slugs and remington birdshot.

i swapped to my 20" used barrel, no problems at all with the same ammo. i didn't get a chance to run any other ammo through the 26" barrel, as i packed it away and we moved on to the pistols.

i seached through a bunch of threads, and it seems to me i might need to hone or polish my 26" barrel. if i ever get it resolved i'll update.

 

[dlzigjr]

Have similar problem with mine, don't think it s the ammo

First a little history on my 870. Got it more or less new (slightly used) in box from Walmart for substantial discount (12 ga express synthetic stocks). The box had written on outside "To Johnny from Santa" and inside the box I found where it had been returned by customer for not cycling and sent to a gunsmith (by Walmart) and pronounced with a clean bill of health and sent back to Walmart for resale. Well obviously, "Johnny" wasn't satisfied as he returned the gun. Now in shooting it I've found a peculiar issue. If you have any tension on the forearm at all (by tension I mean ready to pump the action tension) when you fire the gun will jam with spent shell in chamber. If you fire the gun with your hand off the forearm, then place hand on forearm to work action after the shot is fired....no problems. It takes practice to learn the muscle memory NOT to have tension on forearm when shot is fired. By practicing I learned to pretty much avoid this problem, but it still sometimes happens when I fire a high overhead shot with heavy clothing on because its very hard to avoid a little tension on the slide under this circumstance (gravity and the extra clothing, frequently encounter this waterfowling). I don't know why this happens on this model (don't think it was an issue for the wingmaster) and I'm not excusing the problem, but I do love the 870 and I've just learned how to avoid the jams this way by practice. I tried the chamber polishing too....which helped but did not totally fix the problem. I think its just a weird fairly common problem with the express due to mass-production issues. Try this experiment out with your gun and see what happens. If the jam happens when you have tension on the slide you know its not an ammo issue for sure.

Regards,

Dave

 

[Snarlingiron]

Our experience exactly. That Winchester ammo has caused real grief whenever we encountered it, except in the Benellis. It's odd that the shotguns with the reputation for being finicky about ammunition (the Benellis) don't get thrown by the ammunition that throws shotguns supposed to be more robust in that respect. Each shotgun really does have its own personality and attributes, much like each Model 1911 pistol. Maybe it's why we tend to like them.

I have seen the Winchester / 870 problem several times. I was skeptical until I personally experienced it. The winchester stuff would hang up every time. I switched over to Remington and no problems at all. Maybe the 870 chamber is out of spec, maybe the ammo is out of spec, maybe both are slightly out of spec. Who knows. However, it has been reported so often I kind of tend to believe that it could at least be a possibility.

On the other hand I have 14 flats of the cheapy Winchester stuff in my garage because I use it for sporting clays. My Beretta 390's have never failed to cycle it every time.

 

[sbarkowski]

Its both a combination of cheap Winchester ammo and the 870's chamber. I have an 870 that jams on about every 4th or 5th round with the Winchesters. There's a very light burr in the chamber that gets stamped into the cheap tin of the base of the shell when it is fired. It does not go back to shape as well as brass so it gets hung up and will not extract. So like I said its not completely the ammo's fault because also have a benelli supernova that has never failed to extract the cheap stuff.

 

[foghornl]

I have found that the Federal "Bulk Promo Pack" ammo works a lot better in both my Mossy 500 and Mav 88 than the Winchester Bulk fodder.

haven't had any failures to extract, but the Winny stuff does feel sort of 'sticky'.