Originally Posted by
Ned Christiansen
That's a designed-in feature of the '97, to make sure you don't open the action without the gun firing and recoiling first. The Winchester '93 did not have this and there were issues supposedly with hangfires. Click, rack, bang instead of clickbang rack. So it is intended that recoil makes the fore end jump forward, unlocking it the action so it can be cycled. Seems to work. I guess hangfire issues went away to the extent that the 870 and most everything else, the dropping hammer is what unlocks the slide.