Questions about my Remington 870 Express Tactical.

[AlexPdHJ]

Hi, I'm a pretty new shooter and I could use some help with a couple questions I have about my Remington 870 Express Tactical 12 Gauge Shotgun.

1) I am having a hard time getting my barrel clean. What am I doing wrong? Here's the story. I go to the range, fire 30-50 slugs, fire my other guns too, come home and start cleaning them. With my other guns, bore snake to remove the major gunk, and then copper solvent and a barrel brush first and then patches until clean, dry patches, then g96 wet patches until really clean and then dry patches until clean and dry. With the 870 firing slugs, no need for the copper solvent so I go straight to the barrel brush and g96 but when I switch to patches they never stop looking black and dirty. So I keep going, barrel brush some more, more patches and it seems to never ever ever ever get clean. What am I doing wrong. I went at it for 2 hours and like fifty patches or more yesterday and they were still dirty coming out! Is it just because the lead slugs put down that much crud in the barrel and I need to keep going until I get it all? That's the only thing I can come up with.

2) The gun has ghost ring sights and I was able to zero it pretty easily for windage, but I have bottomed out the rear sight (screwing it in (CW) so it goes lower and brings my group down) trying to zero it for elevation and my slugs are ending up 6 inches high at 25m. Is this my stance or shooting position, lack of follow through? Flinching? I have really tried to eliminate these human factors by shooting it off sandbags, controlling my breathing, gentle squeezing of the trigger, letting the shot "surprise" me, and having follow through. Like with my 30-06 I have no problem getting tight little groups out to 200m so I don't think I am messing up with my shotgun so badly that I am causing the round to be 6" high with bad technique. Is this because the ghost ring sight is not able to be zeroed at 25m? Am I using the sights wrong (white dot of forward sight in the centre of the ring)? Do I need to shim it? Bring it to a gun smith? Or should I just get a red dot? This is happening with both Winchester and Sellier and Bellot slugs. What's going on? Why are my slugs always 6" or more high? I am at a loss.

Any help you have would be appreciated.

 

[alpining]

I never worry about getting the shotgun barrel clean. Unless it's actual dirt and/or moisture, it's really not a problem.

Your fouling could be lead, btw. You can polish the chamber and bore very easily using steel wool wrapped on a dowel, chucked in a drill. The relatively rough bore and chamber that the Express has from the factory collects a lot of fouling (of all sorts).

Your shotgun might be zeroed for 75m, or calibrated for low recoil slugs, or who knows what. Your point of impact will drop if you use the top of the front sight blade instead of the dot (dots are rarely aligned properly anyway). Flinching will generally result in shots going low and to the side opposite your trigger finger. Posture, grip, and "cheek" will affect POI, so you can play with those, too.

 

[EggMcMuffown]

Here is how I clean my shotty barrel.

1. Dump a liberal amount of g96 down barrel, hold vertical and rotate until the entire inside is covered in oil.

2. Put cleaning rod and bore brush in a drill. Fire it up and work that sucker back and forth through the barrel for a minute.

3. Jam a big wad of TP in barrel and push it through. Done! The bore will be shining like a mirror.

 

[AlexPdHJ]

Thanks for the replies guys

 

[klepper62]

I had the same problem with my 870 Express barrel, only using a drill would clean it up.
My 870 Wingmaster is a different story, all I use is a bore snake.

 

[mg4201]

get some aerosol choke tube cleaner. that stuff is stupid strong. use it outside and wear safety glasses.