Remington 870 feeding problems....again

[Big D]

Hey yall. I posted a few months back in ref. to my 870 not feeding shells correctly. Basically, when I begin to forward stroke to close the action and chamber a new shell, the carrier does not lift the shell high enough, and the edge of the shell comes in contact with the edge of the chamber. If I pull back slightly and try again it usually goes in. Well, I replaced the carrier spring, to no avail. I took it to my local gunsmith, who thought the carrier was contacting the receiver on the way up, so he polished that and bent two small pieces of wire around the slots in the carrier retaining pin (don't know where they went)to secure it. Well between working and the holidays, I hadn't had a chance to fire it until today. SO I get a Wal-Mart Fed Value pack of 100rnds of #8 shot and proceed to try and repeat the earlier mishaps. Low and behold, they are still present, and there seemed to be no improvement at all whatsoever. I am wondering what the hell happened to my once reliable 870....

 

[ReloaderFred]

I would contact Remington directly. I've had good luck with their customer service.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[Pete409]

You may not be working the slide hard enough, particularly when opening the action. If you don't work the slide HARD all the way to the rear, the carrier may not lift the shell high enough to feed into the chamber. Try working the slide real hard both ways and see what happens.

 

[Big D]

Well I've been dealing with this problem for the better part of a year, so I don't believe I'm short-stroking. My Mossberg 500 performs fine, never had a malfunction with it. Also, it does not do it unless I am actually firing the gun....I can cycle rounds all day without a problem, until I fire it.

 

[Pete409]

If it feeds live shells fine while you are dry firing, but doesn't feed while you are live firing, then that suggests one of three things to me.

1. The magazine spring may be too weak or bent or somehow unable to hold the shells in the magazine properly under the forces of recoil, or

2. You are not stroking the forend properly when live firing the gun, or

3. The shells are sticking in the chamber after firing, thus messing up the timing sequence of the eject, feed, chamber cycle. The cure for this is to either polish the chamber walls with steel wool, or buy some better grade ammo to use. Try a box of Remington STS or Winchester AA or Federal Gold Medal target shells with brass heads. If these shells work OK, then the problem is #3.

 

[mnrivrat]

Your problem is rather common and simple to fix - you have managed to bend the shell carrier.

You can fix your problem by either replacing the carrier, or by taking the present one and straightening it. To straighten it requires removal of the carrier from the trigger group, then bending it back to a position that gives the front end a higher lift when re-insatalled. I generaly do this by just setting the carrier between two bocks (curved side up) and giving it a wack with a hammer at the top of the curve. (don't get carried away with the hammer).

 

[uvaldi]

Rem 870 Forward stroke hiccup

Hello, I have this same problem with my 870. It cycles the ammo fine if I just use the action release lever, but as soon as I shoot the gun live it jams the ammo on the forward stroke of the forearm. How can this be the shell carrier? The carrier is performing the same action when I cycle the ammo with the release lever, right?? Thanks, Uvaldi.

 

[Mr Bernoulli]

Mine will do the same when I shortstroke it and only then. You mst be shortstroking on the back slide.

 

[JoGusto]

It cycles the ammo fine if I just use the action release lever, but as soon as I shoot the gun live it jams the ammo on the forward stroke of the forearm. How can this be the shell carrier? The carrier is performing the same action when I cycle the ammo with the release lever, right??

Hi, just speculating, as I am not familiar with Remington pumps, but one thing you might consider is the state of the hammer and other internal spring loaded components of your trigger group.

If you haven't released the hammer, then there are slightly different forces in play when you rack the slide after a live fire, and after releasing the action without firing.

If you use dummy rounds and pull the trigger to release the hammer spring before racking the slide, does the same problem occur?

 

[williamd]

Pay attention to Pete -

3. The shells are sticking in the chamber after firing, thus messing up the timing sequence of the eject, feed, chamber cycle. The cure for this is to either polish the chamber walls with steel wool, or buy some better grade ammo to use. Try a box of Remington STS or Winchester AA or Federal Gold Medal target shells with brass heads.

Several of the guys I shoot with have trouble with WallyWorld (and other cheap) steel based hulls. I do not because I never shoot them! I have seen ejectors snap over the stell base and the hull had to be rodded out. All bargians ... are not!

 

[Badger Arms]

Your problem is rather common and simple to fix - you have managed to bend the shell carrier.

+1 on this. Carriers are cheap. If you've bent it, this is the cheapest and best way to go.