870 Express chamber polishing~done, still sticks. Any ideas?

.22LRGUY

.22LRGUY

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Hey guys~hesitant to ask this since I'm not keen on hearing a pile of "870 Expresses are garbage" comments. I have more pre-1970 Remingtons than anything else, so I know the difference. With that said...I was keen to try a 21" VR/Remchoke turkey barrel on my 870 Police for tight bush grouse shooting this fall so I sourced a used one. First day I tested it, I was running 00 BUCK because that's all I had on hand at the time. I was on a groundhog hunt after all. :) Anyhow, I had 2 varieties of 00, Winchester and Remington. The Remington ran perfectly, the Winchester empties jammed pretty good. By about the 10th shot, I realized that being a modern, Express-grade barrel....the chamber might req. a little TLC. So, back at home, I wrapped a strip of superfine 3M Scotchbrite polishing pad around my 12ga. brush, added it to a short length of cleaning rod, put that in the drill, a nice shot of oil on the pad and polished it for about 3 minutes. Cleaned everything thoroughly, light film of oil, and took it out yesterday with some #7-1/2 Winchester white box. First shot, jam. And I mean...REALLY jammed. Unlike the Winchester 00 buck that just needed a stout cycling of the pump, I actually had to use a wood dowel from the muzzle to free it's grip from the chamber. I inspected the hull, no sign of what might have been the issue. Took the barrel off last night, inspected it under a bright light...everything bright, super-smooth...no rough spots/burrs that I can detect in the chamber.

Any ideas? Are there specific spots I should be looking at that are known to be problems? Better technique polishing? I know WWB is the bottom of the heap for target loads, but it's served me perfectly in every other gun I've ever tried it in~20ga/12ga...even a 20ga. Youth Express my daughter has been shooting for a few years. Zero issues.

While I haven't gone back at it today, I did pick-up some 220/320/400/600 wet/dry paper, and some 0000 steel wool...ready to attack it again, but looking at how smooth/shiny it is now...I have a hunch I'm missing something obvious. Any ideas?
 
I wouldn't use anything finer than 220 grit wet/dry paper or an actual medium hone and cross hatch the polishing... you just want to make sure there are no ridges in the chamber. I think an extremely polished chamber could be worse... however ammo is a big factor as well.... The Remington ran perfectly, the Winchester empties jammed pretty good
 
Crappy ammo that white box ####e BUT the 870 will run it if polished right. Use polishing compound (Flitz etc) on fine steel wool wrapped around a 12 gauge cleaning bronze brush. Chuck it up like you did and run it until the barrel is very warm to the touch. This will fix it. This will not remove any material just polish the little dibbles that the steel cased cheapo case head is grabbing.

Darryl
 
If your plan on keeping it use any other brand of shells. I see lots on my skeet field that won't cycle win ammo. Hand them a rem reload or clever factory shell. The gun runs as smooth as an express can
 
I find that the 0000 steel wool on a bore brush with a generous amount of polishing compound like madtrapper143 suggested works well.I use Mothers brand mag and aluminum polish instead of Flitz.Either will serve you well.A properly polished up barrel should have no problem extracting any brand of shell even the notoriously crappy Winchester Universal rounds.

Now i have never personally seen this on an 870 barrel but perhaps you have a small ridge on yours that needs to be taken down like in this video:


 
I don't have any issues with the cheap low wall target loads in anything other than the 870, ( until I polished it )

It appears that this is an 870 issue, not an ammunition issue.
 
Hi everyone I bought my son a 870 express youth model and had the same trouble I tryed polishing the chamber. Didn't help but did do what the utube clip says and the gun is working great it seems a little aggressive but it works
 
Nope, same thing can happen with mossberg guns. I've seen a 590 Marine lock up completely with a fired Winchester SuperX 7.5 stuck in the chamber.

My Mossberg 930 would sometimes rip the rim off the same shells after firing, locking back the bolt but leaving the cartridge (minus a chunk of the rim) stuck in the chamber. It then had to be tapped out with a cleaning rod from the muzzle end, just like OPs.

It's a combination of poorly machined/polished chambers and sh!itty ammo. My 40 year old Browning Gold Hunter cycles the same stuff without any issues.
 
Ditch the cheap winchester stuff and buy the equally low priced Remington shells at Peavey Mart, Challenger shells at Cabelas, or Score shells at WholesaleSports.
 
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