870 Finish Problem

[nomad05]

Just got my 870P in this week, read the manual and then broke it down just like I remembered from my good old Boy Scout days, soaked everything in remoil, waited 30 minutes, and cleaned everything well with a generic kit I bought at Wally World.

After reassembling, I cycled the action twice with snapcaps.

I immediately noticed a deep gash on the underside of the magazine tube. That gash goes down to the bare steel, it's deep. There's no parkerizing finish left in the affected area. Right by the big scratch, there's a bunch of streaks where the parkerizing finish has been scraped off.

On the action bars, the finish toward the main receiver is also compromised.

All this presumably caused by my forend. And no, I haven't fired this weapon yet.

I expect dings and scratches over time, but this seems extreme for cycling the weapon twice.

I'm also worried that the weapon will be more prone to rusting now with the finish compromised.

So is this normal for this particular model? I'm using my amateur powers of gun deduction to guess that my action bars are misaligned.

(Pic attached, shows mostly the streaks. Main scratch isn't really visible.)

[FatalKitty]

that doesn't look down to the metal at all.
looks shiny because it's smooth, worn in.

wear on action bars are like stripes on a uniform - be proud of them

[nomad05]

Thanks for the reply, I'm hoping I'm just being overly nitpicky.

Here's a side shot of the main gash with a slightly better camera.

[Recession]

Let me guess, 870 Express? The newer 870 Express has what is called a "matte black finish" which is basically a bead blasted parkerization, not to be confused with true Parkerization or Blueing that is on higher model 870s such as the Wingmaster. It's Remingtons way of being cheap and saving money. Everytime you pump it, it's going to get worse. It's normal wear. You're going to REALLY hate what it looks like after a few thousand rounds.

[nomad05]

No, this is an 870 Police Magnum. Brand new. Never been fired.

[Recession]

No, this is an 870 Police Magnum. Brand new. Never been fired.

Did you rack/pump it? That's where the scratches come from. Like I said above, the more you pump it, the worse it'll get.

Police Magnum = 870 Express with bells and whistles.

Normal wear due to the same cheap finish.

Still hard to believe? Try this... get your finger nail and scribble all over the barrel... it won't come off.

You should see my 870, it was black when I first got it, then it turned silver from all the wear, now it's brown from all the rust.

Just do a simple Google search on 870 finishes and you'll get 1000000000000 threads of people complaining of the same thing.

[johnmoney]

Actually, when you google "870 finishes" there's only 312,000 threads and the third one that pops up is this thread.

All kidding aside, the parkerized finish is way more durable than the matte finish on the express. Don't all pump action shotguns see wear on the magazine tube?

[im3wheeln]

I just purchased a brand new 870P with a blued finish and it's just as bad. The bluing on the receiver is so thin/light, once you clean off all the oil and grease you just about see the bare metal underneath. The barrel is great, deep and dark, almost black in color. The receiver, not so much. Side by side with my 870 Express, the blued 870P shows more wear on the tube, and I've yet to fire it! Time will tell, but to be honest, think the Express finish is going to hold up better than blue washing of my 870P.

[FatalKitty]

if I'm not mistaken, the blueing is a metal treatment, sort of like an anodize that soaks into the metal, rather than coating/sitting on top of the metal like the express matte finish. This is why it appears to be "thin"

[reidnez]

I've never seen a pump gun that didn't have some streaks on the magazine--it's pretty natural. 870's are working guns anyway, not showpieces. Don't sweat it

Bare metal doesn't instantly rust through. Keep it in a dry place (a safe with silica is great) and keep a light coating of oil on it. Apply oil after each range trip, or monthly when in storage and you will be fine.

[aippi]

Normal on every pump shotgun. On the Remington 870 you are going to have striation marks on your mag tube at 12, 3, 6 and 9 O'clock. The reason is that inside the forend tube assembly there are detents located at those positions. These detents ride on the mag tube. If you remove the forend tube assembly and take the forend off you can see these eight detents, four on each end of the tube. On the "Breaking in the 870" link on my web site www.aiptactical.com I explain these wear marks and tell you how to cover them.

As you shoot this weapon you are going to get rub marks on the mag tube from torquing of the forend. In a perfect world we would rack the forend straight back and not have these, however, we all do it. I can tell by the wear marks wether a guy torques clockwise or counter clockwise. You will get rub marks on the action bars also and you can touch them up as I describe on my web site.

As for any marks on the Receiver being caused by the forend, I don't think that is the case as you have the SF LE forend and it stops short at the receiver. Must be another issue.

[nomad05]

As for any marks on the Receiver being caused by the forend, I don't think that is the case as you have the SF LE forend and it stops short at the receiver. Must be another issue.

Some of the finish on the action bars rubbed off after I sprayed remoil on it and let wiped it down after the initial cleaning. In your professional opinion, is this something to worry about?

Or is it purely aesthetics?

The big gash was the main cause for worry, thanks for the link. I'll definitely check it out and follow it.

[aippi]

New weapons come with a protective coating as nobody knows how long they can sit at a Distributors and a gun shop. The only thing I can think of is that this made the action bars appear darker and you wiped that off and applied Rem Oil and now they look lighter. Remington only makes one forend tube assembly and every one of them has the same finish. I build hundreds of them a year and have never had the finish rub off. The forend tube assembly is not parkerized, it is a finish like the matte on the Express but on a smoother surface. Oil will not cause it to rub off and you would have to rub hard with steel wool to get it off of there.

[j.primo]

I got mine on my shotgun the first time I racked it. My friend has a remington, same deal. We both have parkerized sg's. I tried blueing the lines one time, it just came back. All working shotguns will have those lines.

[nomad05]

Thanks for the information, guys. Really helpful and good to know stuff about the 870. Now I need to go check my extractor per the other thread on this board...