870 Police Magnum - First 20

BuckTurgidson

BuckTurgidson

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Hey Guys,

I purchased a Remington 870 Police Magnum with an 18'' barrel and 2 shot extension in December. First time out with it today and in 20 shots fired I had 2 functionality issues with it.

I had one failure to extract issue and one instance were after ejection the following shell failed to exit the magazine. I am brand new to 870's. I purchased the Police for the extra $500 over the express model 870 "Home Defence" specifically to avoid issues.

Can these issues be chalked up to the break in process or should I be concerned I purchased a sub standard firearm.

Thanks for any replies.
 
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It shouldn't mater in a premium model like the Police but if you were using cheap birdshot that might be part of the extraction issue....
The only other question is how hard are you pumping the gun? You need to pump with authority.
 
Have you cleaned the gun prior to firing it
Most new remingtons have storage gunk in them that can cake and cause issues
FACTORY 870 POLICE IS NOT a substandard pump total opposite
Cheers
 
i have one, runs flawless. i always throughly clean my new guns to get rid of the heavy oil. Also it not a toy, pump it hard. i also have ran across bad shells that none of my shotguns liked.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. You could imagine my disappointment having gone out to buy a quality shotgun only to have problems. I did clean it when I first got it. Only I didn't disassemble it. I only used solvent with a brush on the accessible parts. Was this not enough ?

The ammo that failed to eject was Challenger 00 Buck. I can't recall the shell that failed to leave the mag tube. I was shooting S&B 00 Buck, Estate 00 Buck and Challenger 00 Buck. Any of those have known issues ?

I'll make sure next time I'm out with it I'll work it as though my life depended on it.

Thanks for restoring my confidence in it. I hope next time has better results. Cheers
 
BuckTurgidson said:
Thanks for the replies guys. You could imagine my disappointment having gone out to buy a quality shotgun only to have problems. I did clean it when I first got it. Only I didn't disassemble it. I only used solvent with a brush on the accessible parts. Was this not enough ?

The ammo that failed to eject was Challenger 00 Buck. I can't recall the shell that failed to leave the mag tube. I was shooting S&B 00 Buck, Estate 00 Buck and Challenger 00 Buck. Any of those have known issues ?


I'll make sure next time I'm out with it I'll work it as though my life depended on it.

Thanks for restoring my confidence in it. I hope next time has better results. Cheers
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That ammo should function fine.
You shouldn't have to pump like a maniac but you don't want to baby it.... yank it back till it slams to the rear and then slam it forward.
 
Well. I have been through a lot of guns now. And EVERY new gun I have now learned to strip it down and clean it. Without fail. I would do that. Stripping an 870 down is quick and easy. Do that and clean it as packing oil is horrible gun oil : ) it's heavy and can easily cause sticky type issues. Course pump it like you mean it too. Get the full stroke.

The only ammo that should give any shotgun problems (and NOT police or wingmasters) are birds hot with a low brass collar . IF you have buck or slugs and a birdshot to compare it to you will see the brass only goes up the cartridge about half or less of that of the slug or buck. (Cheap birdshot of course)

But even a new express should cycle those no problem. My mossberg 500 's extractor got worn down after 6 or 7000 rounds and stopped gripping bird shot properly. 10 seconds with a file and problem solved.

To me it sounds like you need to clean the factory oil out of the tube and chamber. Both these jobs are really easy to do. The gun sits pointing up most of the time and that oil will settle at the bottom of the tube and barrel. NOW after about 10 shots it heats it up and you'd think that would make it hotter and thinner but I have found it just fouls it up quick. As I said the oil from the factory is designed to protect the gun before it's purchased. It's meant to stay on there for as long as it takes to sell the gun so it's thick. Get the bolt out of the gun and check the extractor as well. May just be a little bit of gunk on it too.
 
Visually inspect the chamber for any roughness or machining defects, it shouldn't need to be polished but it's an easy thing to rule out. Definitely do a full field strip and good clean, 870's are really simple to tear down. YouTube will have tons of good tutorials, once you clean/lube it and inspect it you can start from ground zero if the problem is still happening.
 
I had the same issue with an express, on visual inspection it seemed fine, I had cleaned it before. I ran a chamber and barrel hone through it, then it was fine. I never experienced anything like that with a Police. I’d ship it back if I were you. I had a bad barrel years ago with a marine police magnum and Wolverine and Gravel had a new barrel in my hands in two weeks. Never had any other issue since. That was flaking Chrome though, not your issue. Send it back.
 
BCshooterFMJ said:
The only ammo that should give any shotgun problems (and NOT police or wingmasters) are birds hot with a low brass collar . IF you have buck or slugs and a birdshot to compare it to you will see the brass only goes up the cartridge about half or less of that of the slug or buck. (Cheap birdshot of course)
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The "brass" (actually brass plated steel) on shotgun shells is basically decorative.

It's a holdover from the days of paper hulls, when it actually did something. There's no functional difference now between high and low brass hulls, apart from making it easy to distinguish different loads. EG, Activ hulls have no brass at all, just a steel reinforcement in the rim for extraction.

Cycling lower power shells may be an issue with some semi autos, but that has nothing to do with brass height. It definitely has nothing to do at all with cycling through a pump.
 
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flashman2 said:
The "brass" (actually brass plated steel) on shotgun shells is basically decorative.

It's a holdover from the days of paper hulls, when it actually did something. There's no functional difference now between high and low brass hulls, apart from making it easy to distinguish different loads. EG, Activ hulls have no brass at all, just a steel reinforcement in the rim for extraction.

Cycling lower power shells may be an issue with some semi autos, but that has nothing to do with brass height. It definitely has nothing to do at all with cycling through a pump.
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That all depends on what you shoot for hulls many of the quality target hulls are still brass. Brass height does make a difference on cycling a pump
Try resizing low brass when reloading and then high brass and tell me there was no forming differences in the chamber when fired which can cause resistance over the length

Cheers
 
Thanks for the detailed reply BCshooter. I think you may have exposed my problem. I stored the gun after passing an oily patch through the barrel. Me thinks (hopes) that the oil settled into the chamber area as it was stored standing upright and caused my extraction issue. I will definitely be taking it apart and cleaning the packing grease of ALL components.

What's the best product for removing packing grease ? Hoppe's 9 Solvent ?
 
BuckTurgidson said:
Thanks for the detailed reply BCshooter. I think you may have exposed my problem. I stored the gun after passing an oily patch through the barrel. Me thinks (hopes) that the oil settled into the chamber area as it was stored standing upright and caused my extraction issue. I will definitely be taking it apart and cleaning the packing grease of ALL components.

What's the best product for removing packing grease ? Hoppe's 9 Solvent ?
Click to expand...

I have always used action cleaner from remington but I am sure there are many others
Cheers
 
I had to polish the chamber on my early 2000s vintage 870P in order to make it reliable with certain brands of cheap shells, and that was before Remington got bought out by Freedom Group and really started cutting corners...
 
870P said:
I had to polish the chamber on my early 2000s vintage 870P in order to make it reliable with certain brands of cheap shells, and that was before Remington got bought out by Freedom Group and really started cutting corners...
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That is real sad to hear. I have never had an issue with any of my wingmasters or especially any 870P. Three are newer than 2000 a dozen prior Then again I have never run cheap shells in any of them either
I reload 100% of my shotgun loads all in good hulls. I have seen a lot of them come new gummed up however with old lubricant
Cheers
 
Clean the heck out of it like others have said. take it all apart the trigger group out the bolt etc. then get some gun scrubber spray and take it and blast it clean . then look inside to make sure everything looks good. inside action with a light and inside the chamber. then put a light coating of quality oil on the bolt and where the bolt slides in the action . reassemble and take it out and shoot it.
 
I bought four 870 Police shotguns in the last 2 years. All of them seem to have the chamber polished but not the inside of the barrel.
Maybe yours was a lousy chamber polish job. This is a known reason for extraction issues with the Express models.

With any new 870 ... Express or Police ... what I do now is to polish the barrel and chamber with a hand drill ...

1.) You need a sturdy cleaning rod with a copper or brass cleaning brush at the end.
2.) Wrap some very fine steel wool around the cleaning brush.
3.) Attach the hand drill to the other side of the cleaning rod.
4.) Spray lots of oil onto the steel wool and inside the barrel
5.) Now insert the cleaning brush with steel wool into the barrel and turn on the drill .... and pass the brush trough the barrel many times while the rod and cleaning brush spin.

This will slowly polish the barrel and the chamber ... and there is no danger of damaging anything.
Actually this is how I am clean my 870 barrels now ..... :)

Here a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwJpARA_1nw
 
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