My 870 is sick.

[Echo23TC]

For some reason, it's refusing to eat.

After firing the first shot this morning, it ejected the empty and the next round stayed in the magazine tube. I ran the bolt forward, unlocked it and brought it back and viola! Out comes the next round into the receiver. It was kind of disconcerting, seeing as how I was shooting at a whitetail buck. Fortunately, I got him with the first one.

After all was said and done, I cycled the rest of the rounds through the action; they all went through just fine. But then, they weren't fired. I guess I'll have to do some experimenting to find out if it's only happening when I fire.

Anybody familiar with 870's experience this before?

 

[Lawyerman]

Could be a couple of different things. Spring might be weak or your follower might be hanging up. Another possibility is that the shell stops aren't being activated releasing the shell for pickup.

Then of course there is the possibility of operator error. Possible you short stroked it?

 

[dfariswheel]

Could be your gun needs a good cleaning. The area around the releases is an easy one to neglect to service, and a bit of grit or dirt could have caused the mis-feed.

 

[dance varmint]

Funny story. The other day I had the idea to try to smooth the action
of my 870 Exp. because of the definite hitch when the slide is almost
all the way back. It was much stiffer than other 870's I've tried.
So I degreased it and operated it hundreds of times until there was
some metal dust, then disassembled it and examined it. There was wear
on the left action bar, on the lower outside edge, a couple inches
from the foreend tube it attaches to. So, and this is the funny part,
I dremeled that location on the slide and alternately tried the fit,
rounding the edge little by little until the action was smoother.
After full reassembly and lube, I found that it fails to release a
round from the magazine. Turns out that it won't quite push the left
shell latch out far enough to release a shell now because of the metal
removal. So, I guess I'll be ordering a new slide. So maybe the
cause of your problem is related to wear on that location of the slide
or that shell latch.

 

[mnrivrat]

All great advise so I realy have nothing new - the shell stop that releases the shell from the magazine tube is controlled by the action bar , moving its contact tip outward at the proper part of the cycle so as to release the shell. If the follower hangs up in the mag tube there of course will be no tention on the shell to drive it out of the magazine. If there is enough wear or damage on either the shell stop or the action bar the stop may not be fully releasing. The first thing to do is to clean , if that doesn't take care of it then look at the shell stop & action bar . If you turn the empty gun upside down and observe the movement of the stop as the action bar approached the rear portion of its cycle you should be able view any problems (if you have some dummy rounds that would be even better).
Also make sure the mag follower is smooth all the way through the tube during the cleaning your gonna do - it should not have any tight spots.

 

[Echo23TC]

Thanks for all the replies, gentlemen. I'll try a good cleaning and see if I can spot the problem.