I'll try to make the preamble quick...
The gun is a Remington 870 Express Tactical Magpul Edition.
Got this gun about 2 years ago as my first (and still only) shotgun. At the time it was my home defense long gun and initially it seemed to work well. Before long I noticed a small crack on the inside of the barrel, about half way down. I contacted Remington (no easy task) and when they said I'd have to send the whole gun in to get it serviced, I said screw that and left it. I have no interest in dealing with an inept company that can't receive and send a single part (see Ruger customer service for an example of how it's done). I would have been willing to spend $150 to just get a new barrel, but I challenge you to find an Express Tactical barrel for sale. Key word there is Tactical. Can't seem to source one from Remington without sending in the whole shotgun, and I can't find a site that sells it.
Now more recently I'm running into more severe problems. The crack never got worse so I can get over that. Now the gun is only about 50% reliable. What happens is rounds jam in the chamber after firing and won't come out. If the rim has a good ledge to it, the extractor holds tight and you can't run the pump without slamming the stock into the ground. If the rim doesn't have a good ledge, the extractor jumps it about every 2-3 shots and you get a double feed (not a practical clearance drill during a fight or a bear attack...). It seems the ejector might also be going, as I sometimes get failures to eject, but at least that's a part I can get.
Issues TLDR:
Crack inside the barrel... Not sending in the whole gun for service. Constant failures to extract (sometimes inducing double feeds, depending on if the extractor jumps the rim) and occasional failures to eject.
Attempted Remedies:
I polished the chamber thoroughly. It helped slightly for a while but now it's worse than ever. I tried replacing the extractor and extractor spring to make sure grip on the rim wasn't part of the problem (this worked so now it seems to be a barrel/chamber problem).
At this point I just don't want the thing. Even if I could get a new barrel, I'd be quick to try to sell the gun. I don't like the controls on Mossbergs, so I'm stuck with Remington. I think I want a Police Magnum next, as I understand they are much better made. I didn't know shotguns well enough when I got this, so I didn't like the idea of getting a Police Magnum and having to change the furniture and all. Still not loving the idea of all I'd have to do to put real iron sights and a rail on it, but I could handle that....
Anyone have any input on what I can do with the existing gun? I paid $750 for it and I'd need to unload it for at least $450. Even if I could get that much for it though, I'm not about to sell a defensive style gun that doesn't work right... Where do I go from here?
Resolved:
Called Remington today and ended up speaking to a polite and helpful woman. Rather than giving me the "nope, you have to send it in" line, and not caring, she spent 30 minutes with me and tracked down what I needed. She had to look up the parts diagram for he specific model shotgun in order to get the barrel part number. She confirmed it's an exceedingly uncommon barrel which they only stock in single digit numbers. This is likely why I haven't had luck finding one (even on Remington's parts site).
She confidently assured me that it's an exact match to my gun, due to how she looked it up, so hopefully I won't be back here whining again if it turns out to be 'the other barrel'.
She also found me an extractor, extractor spring, ejector spring, and choke wrench, and sent it out for under $200 shipped.
If all this fixes the problem I suppose I'll probably keep the gun. Definitely happier with Remington after this experience. This is the way it should work in my mind. If I want a part, sell me the part. It's my own problem to get it properly installed. Pleased it was able to go that way.
Update:
Got the barrel. Remington has started Cerekoting the tactical model since I bought mine, so the barrel came Cerekoted black. Nice touch.
This barrel does further support my feeling that Remington quality sucks. Works fine (I'll get to that) but the inside of the barrel is imperfect directly below the roll marks. Both sets of roll marks produced noticeable deformations inside the barrel. It's a shotgun so it won't matter much, but that's a pretty dumb flaw.
Still having the issue with it locking up with cheap Winchester target loads, but it ran high brass buck and slugs without a hiccup, so I'm pleased. I'll just start using better target loads for practice (and pissing off fudds by shooting trap with my 18" tactical shotgun with a red dot![[smile]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/001.gif "Smile [smile]")
).
Bottom line is that the gun works now, but I'd never buy an 870 Express again. Next time I'd get a Police Magnum and get all the work done after market. Heck, the next time around I'd abandon Remington all together, but again, I don't like the Mossberg controls.
The gun is a Remington 870 Express Tactical Magpul Edition.
Got this gun about 2 years ago as my first (and still only) shotgun. At the time it was my home defense long gun and initially it seemed to work well. Before long I noticed a small crack on the inside of the barrel, about half way down. I contacted Remington (no easy task) and when they said I'd have to send the whole gun in to get it serviced, I said screw that and left it. I have no interest in dealing with an inept company that can't receive and send a single part (see Ruger customer service for an example of how it's done). I would have been willing to spend $150 to just get a new barrel, but I challenge you to find an Express Tactical barrel for sale. Key word there is Tactical. Can't seem to source one from Remington without sending in the whole shotgun, and I can't find a site that sells it.
Now more recently I'm running into more severe problems. The crack never got worse so I can get over that. Now the gun is only about 50% reliable. What happens is rounds jam in the chamber after firing and won't come out. If the rim has a good ledge to it, the extractor holds tight and you can't run the pump without slamming the stock into the ground. If the rim doesn't have a good ledge, the extractor jumps it about every 2-3 shots and you get a double feed (not a practical clearance drill during a fight or a bear attack...). It seems the ejector might also be going, as I sometimes get failures to eject, but at least that's a part I can get.
Issues TLDR:
Crack inside the barrel... Not sending in the whole gun for service. Constant failures to extract (sometimes inducing double feeds, depending on if the extractor jumps the rim) and occasional failures to eject.
Attempted Remedies:
I polished the chamber thoroughly. It helped slightly for a while but now it's worse than ever. I tried replacing the extractor and extractor spring to make sure grip on the rim wasn't part of the problem (this worked so now it seems to be a barrel/chamber problem).
At this point I just don't want the thing. Even if I could get a new barrel, I'd be quick to try to sell the gun. I don't like the controls on Mossbergs, so I'm stuck with Remington. I think I want a Police Magnum next, as I understand they are much better made. I didn't know shotguns well enough when I got this, so I didn't like the idea of getting a Police Magnum and having to change the furniture and all. Still not loving the idea of all I'd have to do to put real iron sights and a rail on it, but I could handle that....
Anyone have any input on what I can do with the existing gun? I paid $750 for it and I'd need to unload it for at least $450. Even if I could get that much for it though, I'm not about to sell a defensive style gun that doesn't work right... Where do I go from here?
Resolved:
Called Remington today and ended up speaking to a polite and helpful woman. Rather than giving me the "nope, you have to send it in" line, and not caring, she spent 30 minutes with me and tracked down what I needed. She had to look up the parts diagram for he specific model shotgun in order to get the barrel part number. She confirmed it's an exceedingly uncommon barrel which they only stock in single digit numbers. This is likely why I haven't had luck finding one (even on Remington's parts site).
She confidently assured me that it's an exact match to my gun, due to how she looked it up, so hopefully I won't be back here whining again if it turns out to be 'the other barrel'.
She also found me an extractor, extractor spring, ejector spring, and choke wrench, and sent it out for under $200 shipped.
If all this fixes the problem I suppose I'll probably keep the gun. Definitely happier with Remington after this experience. This is the way it should work in my mind. If I want a part, sell me the part. It's my own problem to get it properly installed. Pleased it was able to go that way.
Update:
Got the barrel. Remington has started Cerekoting the tactical model since I bought mine, so the barrel came Cerekoted black. Nice touch.
This barrel does further support my feeling that Remington quality sucks. Works fine (I'll get to that) but the inside of the barrel is imperfect directly below the roll marks. Both sets of roll marks produced noticeable deformations inside the barrel. It's a shotgun so it won't matter much, but that's a pretty dumb flaw.
Still having the issue with it locking up with cheap Winchester target loads, but it ran high brass buck and slugs without a hiccup, so I'm pleased. I'll just start using better target loads for practice (and pissing off fudds by shooting trap with my 18" tactical shotgun with a red dot
). Bottom line is that the gun works now, but I'd never buy an 870 Express again. Next time I'd get a Police Magnum and get all the work done after market. Heck, the next time around I'd abandon Remington all together, but again, I don't like the Mossberg controls.
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