Remington 870 Upgrade Problem? (follower, spring)

[NastyFoot]

Recently purchased a Remington 870 Express. Wanted a used police issue one but couldn't find one locally so caved in and bought it on sale. I'm aware it's the cheapest model but wanted to upgrade small parts to make it somewhat better.

Started off with Wilson Combat follower, spring, and a jumbo head safety. Problem is after I removed the factory follower and spring, I could not get the Wilson Combat one into the magazine tube due to 2 dents at the 12 and 6 o'clock position of the magazine tube. The cheap orange plastic one from Remington has two spaces carved into it so it fits. Did I mess up purchasing the follower, I was led to believe it was universal and would fit into any 870.

Any help or info is greatly appreciated, I'm new to shotguns and completely mechanically retarded but am interested in trying to learn how to upgrade my setup. Thanks in advance. . .

[aippi]

You have to remove those two detents as the extension will not work with them there. This video shows the correct way to do it and explains why not to pound them out as some unknowledgeable recommend. Even Choate who makes extensions for the 870 recommends drilling them out just like in this video. Your extension will then work fine and it is the best one out there and one I feature on my custom builds.

https://youtu.be/IG5yt-5KlJE

[super_chief]

if the WC is a plastic follower couldnt you just notch them like the stock part. hacksaw and some dremel action would make short work of the needed detent reliefs.

[-hanko]

if the WC is a plastic follower couldnt you just notch them like the stock part. hacksaw and some dremel action would make short work of the needed detent reliefs.

You're assuming that the follower will never rotate within the mag tube...not sure how you came to that assumption, but re-read what aippi wrote in this thread.


The detents need to be removed. Simple.

[super_chief]

interesting.

replaced my stock follower with an aftermarket unit years ago. it had the notches built into it as there was no drilling involved and haven't had any issue with it rotating within the tube.
i'm guessing there must be some sort of spacing incorporated to prevent it from locating with the detents.