870 express problems

[Richard Erichsen]

I'm another one who has experienced problems extracting fired shells from my Remington 870 express. The inside of the chamber feels smooth and I haven't seen any reason why this should be happening across a wide range of ammo brands. Now I am starting to notice damage to the chamber edge... WTF? I'm not an expert so I don't know if what I am seeing is normal... Please advise.

You have the classical "rough chamber finish" that some of the Maverick 88 and 870 Express guns have made infamous. It manifests most with low cost "Walmart special" low-brass rounds that tend to expand more and stick i the chamber. This is the root cause of what is causing cases to stick on that rough looking chamber of yours. Higher quality shells will probably not suffer from this, or will do so rarely. Get some Federal, Fiocchi or Winchester bird or buckshot and try that - there is a good chance you'll have no problems.

Shooting it will not smooth these ridges out because the plastic and brass of the shell are just too soft to wear the ridges of the chamber smooth by themselves and in fact want to form into the ridges.

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=8527

Join Shotgun World, plenty of shotgun knowledge to be had there.

Spending money on a gunsmith polishing your chamber is probably not what you had in mind when you bought your shotgun, but Remington will only really be able to send you another barrel and there is a good chance it will be about as rough as the one you already have. Do it yourself with a medium cut or fine cut polishing compound so that you can work slowly and avoid damage from trying to work too fast.

Good luck.

R

[aippi]

The OP got all the information he needed on the subject right here on this Calguns and did not need to go shotgunworld for any, nor does anyone. Some of the worst mess I have even seen comes from the tactical forum of shotgunworld.

I would bet most of the correct responses you see over there come from guys that come here to calguns and other sites, get the correct answer then go over there and post it like they are the one that knows what they are talking about :-).

Shotgun world is the last place I would go for correct information on a shotgun topic.

[TheExpertish]

I don't know about anyone else but I hate joining new forums. Just another user name and password to forget. I get all the information I need here and that's good enough for me.

[negolien]

jack it right....

I have no issues with my hawk 982 which is pretty much the same thing just made better I don't rack it like a sissy though if your gonna pump a SG put some intention behind it imho.

[51mgb]

Take a 12 gauge cleaning brush and with a thin peel of steel wool, wrap it around the brush. Put on enough layers to make the brush quite a lot bigger than the chamber. Place the brush in a variable speed drill and oil the chamber well. You may want to put the brush on a cleaning rod so you will be able to work in forward and backward until the chamber is absolutely smooth. You will be able to tell when you have this brush/steel wool combination the right size. Always keep the steel wool well lubricated while doing this smoothing process. After you have done this, place a shell in the chamber of the barrel and look at the extractor groove. You should see the complete edge of the shell rim and also a small space (about the rim's thickness) ahead of the rim. If you don't see that small space, take a fine file and carefully cut the extractor groove deeper where it meets the chamber. It will only take a few careful, light strokes. Your troubles should be over.

[dandechino]

UPDATE: I applied Aippi's method of the drill and steel wool pulled over a 7/16th wood dowel. I went to the local trap range for two games. I used Rio target loads exactly like these: http://www.ableammo.com/catalog/comp...x-p-70514.html. This time I never had a "lock up" where I had to wrestle the pump action to force it open. However I had 2 out of 50 where the extractor slid over the rim of the shell and fail to extract that way. One time the shell seemed to sit flush with the chamber and the second time the shell came out partially before the extractor slid off and failed to pull it the rest of the way. At that point I slammed the action forward, the extractor gripped the shell, and I was able to effortlessly do it right the second time. Now I am concerned because I have never seen this happen before!

[negolien]

that's what happens when you start screwing with your weapons and drills/dremmels lol.

[aippi]

Cleaning his chamber has not damaged his weapon in any way so that is not what happend when you clean a weapon.

Rack the weapon with authority and get these issue will not happen.

[12GuageMcgee]

I hate to sound like a broken record but I remember how frustrated I was when I had these problems with my 870. I lightly dingle ball honed the chamber to smooth out the machining ridges and whatnot and haven't had a stuck hull in over 250 rounds (a lot of Winchester super x 7-1/2 [which for some reason stuck a lot previously], Wolf 00 buck and rifled slug and a bit of Estate 00 buck). I also don't have to do anything special when cleaning it and don't have to rack it hard. The whole process of honing didn't take more than 10-15 minutes start to finish with me taking my time. I just cleaned the barrel and bore, ran a lubed patch through then a clean patch, lubed the chamber with honing oil, lubed the dingle ball hone and ran it through a few passes. I'ld stop every so often to check the bore with a hull I kept that I knew stuck and the second it would eject without any problems I'ld stop honing.

[dandechino]

Going to try the flex hone now. I'm tired of this problem. Will something like this do the trick? Flex Hone Anything I need to be careful of or keep in mind?

[aippi]

Yes that ball hone is what I use. Just give it a light spin. However, you ended the issue with my cleaning/polishing rod and the problem you had with the extractor had nothing to do with the chamber. So I don't see where you need to hone the chamber. If you want to do just don't over do it as that ball hone removes a lot of material.

I am guessing you are not racking the weapon with authority and maybe that ammo mess you are using.

[dandechino]

Still having problems aippi. Sorry didnt do it for me.

[omgwtfbbq]

Polishing the bore with fine steel wool wrapped around a dowel and fitted into a power drill, lube liberally with gun oil. I had the same issue but after polishing the bore every 100 or so rounds and switching to brass base shells only seemed to do the trick. Yes the ammo more expensive but it's a classy gun, it deserves porterhouse, no corn-beef hash.

If that doesn't do it, I'd look on Remington's website for the nearest licensed service agent and take it there. I hear if it's a known problem they are pretty good about making it right.

[aippi]

Check the ejector and make sure it is not broken as the end of it holds the barrel in place and if the barrel is not in the correct position your ejector is not lined up properly. If that is not it then I can't guess as I can't see the weapon. You should pull the extractor out and clean the housing and check the spring. Nothing else to tell you. Honeing the chamber is not your issue and if done incorrectly will FUBAR the barrel. But hey, do it what you will.

[Mighty J ho]

Guess i got lucky,i never had this problem but i know a lot of people who has/had this problem.I shot over 500 rounds in my 870 and i got this gun about 4 years ago.
I would suggest just to give Remington a call.