Remington 870 Deer Special with factory extension occasionally double feeds.

highbeam

highbeam

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I’ve got a Remington 870 Deer Special (20” barrel smooth bore rifle sights) that has a non matching factory magazine extension. It has that stepped shoulder at the front. It’s the same length as the barrel with it so I believe it’s a +3. Now my problem is it will occasionally fire two shells out of the magazine tube which jams the heck out of things. I use it for 3-gun and it’s been costing me a lot of positions when I have to sometimes clear three double feeds in a stage. It’s also broken the lips off of some aluminum snap caps. I suspect the spring is just too long causing way too much tension. My other 870 with a +2 is way easier to load.

Now I know I can just trim the spring, but I hesitate to do it when I only have the one and a match is coming up early next month.

Any suggestions? I’ve spent a lot of time trying to research how long that spring should actually be but haven’t found anything definitive.
 
Had a look at the shell latches and compared them to an ex brinks wingmaster I have. They’re in great very close to new condition. I don’t thing they’re the problem. Out of the three 870’s I have to compare to, this one is the hardest to feed by far due to spring pressure.

I think I’ll figure out a place to order the spring and a brighter coloured follower.
 
How much tension is on the spring when loading the last shell? If it's really hard compared to the first few, it's probably too tight. I use Nordic or S&J springs and trim them to have anywhere from ~6 to 12" extra length in comparison to the total magazine length when uncompressed, and it usually gives enough tension to easily load the last shells, but still has enough force to get the last shell out with no issues.

I also used to have the same malfunction on a Dominion Arms Grizzly that had excellent condition shell latches. It's currently at Canada Ammo for warranty servicing, but I suspect something internally wasn't sitting right and the latches had too much wiggle room because of poor QC, which caused them to fail often.
 
highbeam said:
Had a look at the shell latches and compared them to an ex brinks wingmaster I have. They’re in great very close to new condition. I don’t thing they’re the problem. Out of the three 870’s I have to compare to, this one is the hardest to feed by far due to spring pressure.

I think I’ll figure out a place to order the spring and a brighter coloured follower.
Click to expand...

Why not swap the spring out for one of the other 3 870's you have to compare to and see if the problem disappears.
If I remember correctly, I"ve never been able to use the spring as-is, had to always cut them down to suit.
Find the one that works and order/cut-down the new spring to match.
 
Swapping springs doesn’t help as one has just the end cap, one has a +2 extension and this has a +3. I have swapped the +2 onto it before and the stuff loading is gone as the spring is much softer. I can’t say if it stops the issue during competition, as the issue doesn’t always happen. Comparing the springs, the +2 and +3 are about the same length longer than the tube and extension but the spring on the shotgun having issues is way way thicker and stronger.
 
I have an 870 factory standard length spring that is brand new I can measure for you if you like, I swapped it for an s&j 12g spring when I added a +2 mag extension. I can pull it out tomorrow and measure if you like, it’s in my spare parts box.
 
Thanks for the offer. I’ve ended up ordering a new spring to try to fix this thing up. While I was at it I ordered a larger safety and a couple different followers.

Thanks for the help.
 
I’m wondering if the two dimples at the end of the magazine tube as in the newer model’s end cap system have been removed before the extension was installed. How many shot shells are you able to load into the mag tube?
As for the rims of the cartridges being chewed up, does that happen to live rounds, or are you testing with snap caps? Snap caps are often made of aluminum and shear off quickly on extraction.
At what point does it spit out two shells? At the beginning with a fully loaded mag tube, or randomly after the first shot.
 
Also, for a two and three shot extension, Wolff Gunsprings sells extra power springs and for both 2 and 3 round extensions, the springs are the same spring and length.
 
Snaps caps are a mix of plastic snap caps, azoom aluminum and dummy rounds made from real shells. Even real shells dent. It’s a far thicker spring than anything else I have. My wife’s 870 express suffers from dimples, neither of mine do.
 
Well I changed out the spring. I had planned on an S&J hardware spring, but by the time I had shipping added to the cart, it was the same price to buy an entire kit by choate from another supplier. So my other 870 got the orange follower, this one got a Dlask aluminum follower.

The spring was a softer rate but super long. I ended up taking note of the amount of spring that protrudes on an 870 that runs wells and adding a bit so I could trim more if needed. It’s easy to cut with some linesman pliers and then bend to replicate the factory flat end.

The gun runs like a champ now. It has enough push to overcome out of spec proving rounds that it previously mangled, but not so much that it mangled them further. Ran a box of bird shot through it and no issues at all.

Still odd that what seemed to be the factory remington extension spring wasn’t overly long, but it was very very stiff.
 
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