12 gauge Winchester 1300 Defender Question

[Vintovka]

It seems that my guns have been cursed lately. This time it's the Winchester 1300 Defender. I was shooting it the other day, only to have quite a few failures to fire. Tried several brands of ammunition, same deal.

Took it home, figuring it might be dirty and sure enough, it was. Cleaned everything out really well and reassembled. Then I noticed something; with the shotgun fully reassembled and the nut tightened down on the barrel/magazine tube as far as it will go, the barrel still has about 1/8th of an inch of forward-rearward play. What could be causing this?

[williejc]

Sounds like the mag tube is loose if barrel has movement with the mag cap tightened. Or, barrel may not be seating into the receiver fully.

Start over. Attempt to seat barrel into receiver. Wiggle it. Bump butt on floor. Before tightening mag cap, check threads on it and mag tube.

During reassembly, move pump back far enough to allow barrel to seat without touching action parts.

Use hand pressure only on mag cap.

My bet is that gun is ok. If not, avoid spending much on repair. These shotguns are good but not valuable. Parts are becoming hard to find and are thus expensive.

[Vintovka]

I really appreciate your tips. I'm not sure what was going wrong last night, but I did what you suggested and it went back together just fine. Thanks! I've had it for a long time and never had that happen before.