Action lock problem on my 870

[Jamez]

Took the 870 18in shooting yesterday. Standard wal mart bought Remington 100 pack of bird shot.

After about the 5th shot, the action would get stuck forward. Took some messing with but I got it to work again. But it's done it several time. Thought maybe it was the ammo since it was all out of the same 25 pack so I switched boxes and hadn't had the problem again.

Thoughts?

[NDFMF]

If it's the Express model, those actions are pretty rough from the factory. Some types of ammo will work better than others. Find the one that works, and put about 500 rounds through it and you'll notice the action smooth out nicely.

[tziggs]

Yes. This issue has been discussed at length on this forum before. Just search around and you will find it. The theory is that there are two primary culprits to this issue on the 870 Express.

1. The Ammunition: Generally, people find that certain ammo highlights the issue more than other ammo. Typically the cheap stuff is found to be the worst, but your mileage may vary.

2. The chamber: The theory here is that the tooling on the machinery that creates the chamber wears over time. People surmise that Remington is cutting (reducing) costs by not changing the tooling frequently enough. Therefore, some Express owners don't have any problems at all, and others have an unusually high number of issues.

Lots of people have come up with their homebrew repairs...polish the chamber with anything from steel wool to dremel. Others send if back to Remington for repairs. Yet others just say that the issue will work itself out in the next 500 rounds.

I'd recommended that you do a little more research and decide what solution works best for you...but in the meantime, don't use the firearm for home defense until it's reliability is confirmed.

[aippi]

All Remington barrels are made on the same equipment.

Your issue was the ammo. I am guessing it was the Winchester Universal.

[JJ1911]

I'm going to say ammo as well. The Winchester Universal stuff caused my action to lock up , it happened in my friend's shotguns as well. My action smoothed out after about 200 shells.

[1911inmarin]

I agree on ammo for the first few hundred shotshells. However, the 870 is often thought to be so foolproof that a lot of people don't strip the factory grease and re-lube with something good to the key moving parts. Food for thought . . .

[SPaikmos]

I shot a crapload of shot this weekend, and yeah, the Winchester Universal birdshot from WalMart sucks. I couldn't get rid of it fast enough!

I noticed the problem on my 590, my friend's 590, and my 870. As soon as I put Federal in there, it worked fine for all 3 SGs.

The problem for me is that after I pull the trigger and fire the round, I can't pull the pump back easily; it takes a fair amount of force to eject the plastic shell. Almost feels like it is jammed, and you really need to give it a good pull to eject the spent cartridge. I guess it's good to build up your shoulder muscles and learn to rack the gun with authority, but it makes me uneasy that it requires this much force. Or maybe I'm a wimp and I'm not racking the gun strongly enough. Honestly, you could take either point of view on this. Of course, for HD, I want the easiest cycling ammo, so I'm going to stay away from the Winchester. (btw- I'm NOT using birdshot for HD ammo, so please don't jump on me saying that I am... I'm just saying, I wouldn't use the Winchester ammo, PERIOD. Never gonna buy that again unless it's like 1/4 price and I just need to cycle ammo in my SG to build up my shoulders).

I looked at the shells to see if I could find a difference, and noticed that the expended winchester shells were noticeably longer than the Federal or Remington shells. I don't know if that's what causes the action to stick (not familiar enough with the anatomy of my SG to fully understand the mechanism of failure) but it's my observation.

[wilafur]

i used to have the "sticky" shell/action syndrome and honed the chamber. post hone = the action is smooth as buttah!

[cntrolsguy]

This happened to both of my 870's never had an issue after putting about 100 rounds down range on each one.

[cindynles]

I had the exact same issue. My results were that it is a combination effect of the steel cased ammo (Winchester bulk) and a rough chamber. Rough chamber with brass cased ammo is OK; smooth chamber with steel cased ammo is OK; Rough chamber + steel cased ammo = shell sticking in the chamber.

My solution was to hone the chamber (I bought a Flex-Hone and used honing oil, but steel wool will also work) and stay away from the steel cased bulk ammo.