870s - do they all eject shells weakly?

R

rc601962

New member
I have a new 870. There is no sticking of the shell in the chamber after I fire it. However, the ejection strikes me as pretty weak. For the most part, the shells just dribble out when I VIOLENTLY VIOLENTLY work the action. Mine does this with low base, high base shells, buck, and slugs.

Is this normal for the 870?

I looked on youtube at videos of other peoples 870s. And, they were pretty much the same. The shells dribble out 1-3 inches from the receiver. Every once in a while, one shell will be ejected strongly.
 
Unfortunantly i think a lot of the new ones do. The Remington 870 is no longer the good quality shotgun it used to be. I have a friend with an 870 that does the same thing. Sometimes when he tries to shoot doubles and he pumps it fast the shell get stuck because he can pump it faster than it can eject. He isn't short stroking it because it does the samething when i shoot it, but my shotgun doesn't (mossberg by the way).

Im not sure what you can do to make it eject stronger. I has to be a problem with the ejector, but im not sure what to do about it.
 
My grandson bought one a few months ago, same problem and some others. The new 870s are just junk. Not worth the money, too many problems. Compared to the older ones the new ones are trash. Makes me wonder about the newer model Remington rifles.
 
I had an ejection problem with my 870 when it was new. Some people have had success polishing the chamber, but I had a different problem. On mine, the extractor spring and follower were gunked up with corrosion, so the extractor was no longer spring-loaded, it was just flopping around and sometimes wouldn't grab the rim on the shell.

Try this - pull the slide halfway back so you can get at the extractor, and use your finger to pull it away from its "rest" position. When you let go, it should "snap" back into place with authority. If not, you may have to remove the extractor, follower and spring and clean them up. Mine's been 100% since I did this.
 
I took apart the extractor and cleaned a ton of gunk out of the hole. No improvement. I have had a few stovepipes with this gun.

I am violently and fully working the action. The reason I am concerned about the weak ejection is it doesn't leave any room for error.

I just cycled some loaded shells in the gun. It launches them 5 feet away.

I emptied the shot from a bird load. Just the plastic cup and powder was in the shell. It sent the semi empty shell about 3 feet away.

Fired shells don't do as well. They vary. They go 1 foot away sometimes. Other times they only go an inch away.
 
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My 870P doesn't have this problem at all. But then again, the Police models are made to a higher standard than the regular commercial line.
 
If you're having problems with spent shells and not new ones, and you've cleaned out the extractor bore, then yours is probably one of the guns that would benefit from smoothing/polishing the chamber.

Before I realized that my problem was gunk in the extractor bore, I polished the chamber with a piece of green ScotchBrite pad inserted into the end of a split dowel rod and chucked into an electric drill. It did make the metal in the chamber noticeably smoother and might solve your problem.
 
Dave Mc C, our fearless moderator and 870 aficionado, mentioned that he's at the range every Saturday. I guess that means his 870 ejects weekly.
 
Thanks, zippy, for the chuckle. Mostly I shoot the O/U these days at the range, but I often bring Frankenstein for new shooters. It ejects almost weekly...
 
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