Extended magazine tube clamp problems

R

Rob62

New member
I'm having problems with the clamp that came with my Choate magazine tube extension for my 870 (20" barrel). The problem is one that some of you probably encountered as well, my clamp keeps working (shooting) loose.

The clamp is the 2 part type with a threaded bolt going through one part of the clamp and then screwing into a threaded hole on the other part of the clamp. I am concerned that if I tighten the bolt down too much I will strip the threads in the clamp since the clamp is very thin and the threads inside are few.

Any solutions or sugestions? I tried placing some electrical tape around the barrel and tube first. That seemed to help a lot, but for aesthetic reasons I would like to do it without the tape.

TIA,
Rob

RKBA!

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It's amazing what a large group of stupid people can accomplish.
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Dave,

Thanks for the advise. I tried using loc-tite but it did not work. I believe that it may have been due to the limited amount of threads that are actually gripping the bolt that holds the 2 halfs of this clamp together. The pieces of clamp are made out of aprox .25" metal and then a hole is drilled through one portion which is then tapped for the bolt to be screwed into thereby holdiing the 2 halfs together. Overall this seems like a very flimsy way of connecting the 2 halfs. I'm hoping there is some way to still use this clamp without replacing it. I'm thinking of trying a nut and lock washer since there is some bolt exposed after it screws through the far side of the clamp.

Rob
 
Try the nut and washer, Rob. Another idea is to remove all the oil from the threads and the clamp where the bolt touches.

S'funny, I've never heard of this happening before,it must be rather rare....
 
Thanks again Dave,
I did remove all the oil not only from the threads of the clamp & bolt but also from the barrel as well. I thought that this clamp lossening under use might be a fairly common phenomenon, one hears about scope mounts and other acccs. mounts coming loose all the time. But I personally have only heard of another extended magazine tube clamp working its way loose once. That problem was fixed by getting a replacement ($30+) clamp, something I want to avoid doing.

Rob
 
One of the side effects of the clamp is that it stiffens the bbl in effect. Slug groups oft shrink dramatically.

I've been using a clamp for maybe 15 years, and have them on 2 870s at the moment, never had one loosen.Yours has me scratching my head.

Try a bit of the Teflon tape plumbers use under the clamp.
 
Why not drill out the threads, and buy an appropriate sized bolt and a nylock nut, and use them instead. If you use an allen head bolt, it would look like it came that way. Just make sure to get a bolt that, when tight, doesn't extend much (if at all) past the end of the nut. Of course if you need to, you could just cut it down and touch-up the cut end of the bolt for looks. Just a thought...
-John
 
John, I like the idea of using a totally different bolt and locknut best. Ill make the modifications over this weekend. I'll post my results when I test fire the gun, which may not be till next week sometime.
Thanks to all,

Rob
 
The Choate clump/sling swivel on my 870 does the same thing. It slides foreward under recoil,especially in rapid fire. The odd thing is that the clamp is still tight. It`s very hard to slide it back into place without loosening it quite a bit. I just put a black tie wrap around the Choate clamp and back to the factory mag. tube support. It keeps it from moving and it`s practically unnoticable. There may be fore end clearance issues with some stocks but mine works alright with it. It would be nice if it wasn`t necessary at all though. Marcus
 
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