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Thread: Turning Point for Remington 870

  1. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by SeriousStudent View Post
    I'd never buy an Express when you can find a used Wingmaster or Police Magnum for under $300 if you look around just a little. I only buy used Remington Police Magnums or Wingmasters these days.
    ^^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^

    My HD setup is an 18.5" rifle sighted smooth bore 870 Wingmaster bought as new "old stock" the late 90's. Replaced/upgraded springs, upgrade butt pad, upgraded follower and had to trim the forearm so I could load regardless of position.

  2. #22
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    Thank you for the mfg. date data Serious Student. Both of my 870's were manufactured in 1984. The Police Model has been driven like a stolen car without complaint.
    Train 2 Win

  3. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by SeriousStudent View Post
    I think I'm going out on a pretty sturdy limb, but I'd start my research after this date: April 5, 2007.

    That was the date Ceberus announced they were buying Remington.
    That sounds about right to me!
    Good night Chesty...wherever you are.

  4. #24
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    What's the opinion on current 870Ps? Are they having the same problems as the express?

  5. #25
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    battlefield Vegas never went in to detail on round counts. i am curious as to the life of the 870 police models before they break. it makes them sound like junk?
    Last edited by feesix; 08-16-17 at 12:14.

  6. #26
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    This is what I found on Battlefield LV reference shotguns:

    "I don't know the name of the parts that are breaking on the Remington's but we would have to remove the rivet(s) on the left side of the receiver in order to repair it.

    He is referring to either the ejector or ejector spring. If you know anything about 870's, the tip of the ejector, which serves to keep the barrel from twisting (for lack of a better term) is prone to breakage if the mag tube end cap is not tight and the shooter twists the action bars as they cycle the action. The other thing that could be happening is the ejector spring itself is getting caught on the bolt somehow and getting bent. I've seen this happen but don't know how. The shotgun will run just fine without the spring if you cycle it properly. Most of the time if you have the rivet cutter you can replace the ejector spring without a new rivet (http://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-to...r-prod368.aspx)

    The other parts that both shotguns (Mossberg and Remington) lose very early, are the "forks" that operate the slide.


    These are the action bars. As mentioned above, on the Remington if the shooter is allowed to twist the forearm as they cycle the action this can torque the bars, causing them to break. The tendency to do that is amplified if the forearms is not tightened onto the action bars properly. This probably why he says the wooden furniture action bars last longer.

    They both last about the same time and I can't say one is better than the others. We did have some older police trade-in's Remington's with the wood furniture that lasted the longest. We spoke to rep's from both companies at a private tradeshow and both of them didn't seem to believe us in how short of a life-span the shotguns have on our range. I wish we could just use Benelli M4's but customers want to hear the pump-action sound that they've heard on every movie, tv show and video game.

    We consider shotguns disposable at this point and it's not worth the time to repair them. We will probably just start listing them on a Gunbroker account and sell them in lots as "fixer-upper's" because we don't have time to sell them one-by-one and then have to deal with customers telling us they want to return it because it's not easy to fix as they thought.. or they didn't know it was broken (though the ads CLEARLY stated they were), etc..."

    Later he goes on to say:

    "Mossbergs and Remington pump-actions will get 3 and at MOST 4 weeks of use before they are hard-broke. It's been abused with 00 buck, birdshot and even higher velocity frangible but nothing has taken it out of action.


    It sounds like what is killing his 870's is the fact that folks are not getting taught how to run them properly combined with perhaps his staff not keeping on top of little things that can be easily fixed on the line - keeping the mag tube end caps tight and ensuring the forearms are tight on the action bars.

    We had 26 to 30 Remington 870's and Mossbergs that recruit classes used, and used, and used. You can keep them running if you know what you are doing. I can understand, though, that in his case, he doesn't want to spend the time replacing ejectors.


    If I ever had to have one shotgun for the rest of my life, it would be the Benelli M4."

    Well, they are good, quality shotguns, probably at this point with better QC than Remington. Longevity compared to the pumps is probably more due to the fact that the M4's don't have folks yanking on the mechanism to cycle the shotgun.

    and

    "Trust me, we keep at least ten Mossberg and/or Remington's on hand because they go down so often. The biggest offenders are the Mossberg 500 and the Remington 870 (standard model I would guess). We had some old 70's or 80's police trade-in's that last quite a while and they finally all went down. We can get those up and running again but we need to punch the rivet on the left side of the receiver and replace a component. The Mossberg 590's do last much longer than the other two standard models they eventually break as well. We have a bunch of shotguns that we still have to demil. It's cheaper just to buy a new one than spend the money and TIME on replacement parts and all the "tuning" to make the replacement parts work properly.

    If it was up to me, I would only use the Benelli M4's but customers want to see and experience the "pumping" action of a shotgun. They've seen and heard it their entire lives on movies and television so most customers tend to choose the pump-actions. We let customers know that the Benelli (we've only had one) it much lighter on recoil so it does get used quite a bit as well."


    I understand the customer demand for the pump action, but I really think that regardless of manufacturer, you are going to have3 problems with pumps in the setting he is using them in, like I said I think the biggest problem with the action bar breakage is operator induced.
    Last edited by 26 Inf; 08-16-17 at 22:39.

  7. #27
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    I just picked up an Express for a short barrel shotgun project I'm doing...But I plan on replacing the springs and extractor with better parts, which is easy to do.

  8. #28
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    The number one malfunctioning firearm at our local 3 gun match is the shotgun....pumps and semi autos.

    I kind of wonder if newer things like Battlefield Vegas, 3 gun, and steel targets aren't exposing shotguns to levels of use historically limited to trap/skeet skeet shooters and exposing some weaknesses in the systems?

  9. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by JasonB1 View Post
    The number one malfunctioning firearm at our local 3 gun match is the shotgun....pumps and semi autos.

    I kind of wonder if newer things like Battlefield Vegas, 3 gun, and steel targets aren't exposing shotguns to levels of use historically limited to trap/skeet skeet shooters and exposing some weaknesses in the systems?
    one would think that as long as a lot of these guns have been around that unknown issues would have came up by now. i have 2 870 police models and have not put enough rounds through them to create any issues. what kind of issues have you seen at 3 gun matches?

  10. #30
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    Lots of feed and/or ejection issues. I am sure part of them can be blamed on using low powered shells in auto loaders, but there have been plenty with 500 and 870 users as well. Somewhat amusing considering 5.56 AR use by almost all shooters with malfunctions of any kind being rare.

    The only shotgun parts breakages I have seen were an extractor on my 500 and an ejector on an 870, both decades old and presumably on their first set of internals, but neither receiving the level of use they were getting in 3 gun.

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