Remington 870 Express 'action job'

fat tony

fat tony

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I got a barrel for my Remington 870 Express from badboybeeson (thanks Simon!) for a good price, and installed it. I didn't previously have one. I tried working the action and it felt like someone had poured tacky blackstrap molasses in there, it was very stiff and rough.

Seeing as how I had not much to loose except $150 bucks if I sent it in to someone for an action job, I took her apart and blasted the receiver with WD-40, and wiped off the excess crud.

Then I took a look at the action bars/pump assembly. It was in good repair with none of the action bars bent or misaligned with the assistance of a bench vise, framing square, eyeballs, and light and shadow.

A closer inspection of the action bars revealed they are probably stamped out by the hundreds of thousands on a punch press and assembled. The surfaces of these punched surfaces has the characteristic bumpy / wavy look of sheet metal stampings. I took a common 2nd cut file and drawfiled the top and bottom surfaces of both action bars, until most of the surfaces were shiny *( leave some of the pits as a guide as to when to stop drawfiling). I re-assembled the shotgun after wiping off the steel filings from the action bar assembly, and it was quite a difference in smoothness. I intend to try it out soon @ the range and get back to you with a report. Best regards, Tony :wave:
 
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I took her to the range today and fired some Winchester 1 oz foster slugs out of her at 50 yards, for some reason she is shooting them about 4" right and 12" high. The receiver came tapped for ghost ring sights, maybe I will invest in a set, and try again. However I also brought some Federal upland loads, #8 shot 1-1/8oz X3". Loaded the magazine with 5 rounds and it worked as slick as owl snot, fired 3 full magazines and it was like a typewriter. :D
 
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Are you just using a bead site to shoot slugs? If that is the case, your eye is the problem not the barrel.
 
fat tony said:
I took her to the range today and fired some Winchester 1 oz foster slugs out of her at 50 yards, for some reason she is shooting them about 4" right and 12" high. The receiver came tapped for ghost ring sights, maybe I will invest in a set, and try again. However I also brought some Federal upland loads, #8 shot 1-1/8oz X3". Loaded the magazine with 5 rounds and it worked as slick as owl snot, fired 3 full magazines and was like a typewriter. :D
Click to expand...

Like you say a bit of polishing makes a world of difference. If you ever get the chance get a 50's or 60's wingmaster 870 and take it apart next to the express. That is what I did with mine and polished , etc any differences I could see. The express is dam near now as smooth as the wingmaster.
 
I also took some 320 grit sandpaper and sanded the outside of the magazine tube. Imo, there is no point for the outside of the magazine to have a subdued finish, nobody is going to see it underneath the slide assembly anyways, and I think it contributes a bit to slight roughness in working the action. A bit of sanding made a slight difference in friction (hard to tell, but I think it made a bit of a difference).
 
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Usually when you have an arm that is shooting high with the sights on the 'proper' setting, it means you need a higher front sight. ;)

Edit: However, I think there is a school of thought for 'riot' barrel equipped shotguns that you need a 'heads up' sight in setting, that means the shotgun is going to shoot high, the rationale being you can aim at the middle of your tall / thin target-al area and see what it is doing in case things go to blazes quickly, in a tense situation. Also it makes for a longer point blank range, again if your target is tall and thin. . . :D.
 
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