870 jamming

I have boycotted Winchester's bulk .12ga universal loads. I've seen them jam in a very broken in, and clean 1187. I stick to Federal now and don't have problems. My 870 is an express so I thought I'd have more problems. Maybe just cycle lots of spent shells through your gun, or shoot it a lot to work in the chamber. I'm sure the polishing will help too, just a suggestion.

~Zen~
 
Question about the failure: would the spent shell stick with the bolt fully closed or would it extract partially, then stick?
 
What is it with people thinking shotguns don't need any cleaning or maintenance?

The absolute dirtiest guns I've ever seen were shotguns, some of them expensive guns.
I've seen 1890's rifles that had been through ever war from then to today, used by child soldiers, and never cleaned that were in better shape then some shotguns.
 
Two things fellas, it hasn't been cleaned in 14 years, so unless he's also got a delorian with a flux capacitor I severely doubt he's running into NEW 870 problems. Also, IT HASN'T BEEN CLEANED IN 14 YEARS!! Can you explain what running some steel wool on a stick is going to do that hasn't been accomplished in over 14 years of shooting?

Also, I haven't found any pardners choking on anything. Even when I google it it just pops of where people are complaining about 870's jamming on threads about the pardners....weird. The only failures I've seen are pardners getting rounds stuck in the feed tube if racked slowly...
 
Question about the failure: would the spent shell stick with the bolt fully closed or would it extract partially, then stick?
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It wouldn't open at all. I'd fire and try to cycle the gun, but the handle wouldn't budge at all.

On anther note, I'm very amused at the horror and awe of my 870 not being detail cleaned in years. Folks, it's a field gun, that I got in High School 20 years ago, explicitly to bang around in the field and generally treat like crap. A gun that I can literally drop in salt water and not worry too much about.

Sure I probably "should" clean it more often, but until now I've never had a problem.

Certainly my Drill Sergeant from Sand Hill many, many moons ago would lose his mind if he were to see the weapon like that, while unleashing his PhD in creatively combining 4-letter words and I'd be doing "Little Man in the Woods" all night long, but fortunately that's no longer the case.

Some guns were meant to be babied and I certainly do baby them, cleaning them, talking to them and caressing them (my Skeet O/U, my S&W Model 17 and other high-end guns), but this isn't one of those.
 
Hey man, it's your gun. If you want to treat it like crap, more power to you. Try cleaning the hell out of it and it might fix your problem.
 
Easy to find out whats wrong though. Disassemble. Check your breech when you pull the barrel, check your slides and rails when you pull the forearm and bolt. It could be a number of things. Could be your breech is nasty and those rounds just got stuck. I'd imagine you'd of seen some trace of that on the shells though.

On a side note I was talking to a buddy today and his rem 11 has one of those cheap rounds jammed in it and the action wont open...while that gun is old, it was cleaned. Maybe the chambers are reamed a bit tighter? I dunno. Interesting question to ponder.
 
Beretta, barring outright rust & pitting in the 1st inch of the chamber the cleanliness
of your 870 is not your problem. (Cleaning/spinning some oiled medium steel wool in
that 1st inch wouldn't hurt though.)

The problem is in the steel-base ammunition now being sold as "bargain" Once fired it is
permanently expanded to the point that it will not re-enter the chamber. If it won't even
drop back in, what bad things does that imply about getting it out in the 1st place ?

Change to better quality hull bases and the problem will go away.
 
Sure I probably "should" clean it more often, but until now I've never had a problem.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I don't get too worked up about 870 cleaning. I usually don't clean them until they start giving me problems. And usually, that problem is the spent rounds sticking in the chamber.

Cleaning also gives you the opportunity to give all the parts and pieces a good examination.
 
The 6 "P" edict

Proper preventive maintenance prevents **** poor performance, has been around for a very long time. Each time we ignore it we create the enviroment for FAILURE.

Good Luck & Be Safe,
 
686, I'm not an OC gun scrubber either. But the previous owner(s) of an old Revelation/Mossberg 500A I acquired, has us both beat. It was an old 70's gun that had layers of unburnt powder particles caked into the trigger assembly... took a soaking in Hoppes No 9 and two cans of carb cleaner to clean it out.

Your Express is of about the same vintage as my old Special Purpose, which was problematic as well. The issue with that one was an oddball shell carrier, not difficulty in unlocking. I'd say it's time to scrub your chamber bolt, carrier and the locking lug in the receiver.

FWIW my old '79 Wingmaster gobbles Universal, etc. by the hundreds.
 
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