Remington 870 Police Magnum Broken?-Photos

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870Fundi
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Feb 18, 2019 7:45 pm

Remington 870 Police Magnum Broken?-Photos

Post by 870Fundi »

I have an 80s era Rem 870PM in VERY good condition. I am teaching a shotgun class in a few weeks and while practicing malfunction clearing my shell stop did a nose dive. (see photos before pushing it back into alignment) I could load shells into magtube and they would not be retained. I do inspection and I can see that one shell stop (RIGHT SIDE) is out of alignment and its wing is trapped on receiver rail. I popped the shell stop back into alignment and now it is sitting in its slot. I can load the magtube and it retains the shells. Next if you rack the slide they do NOT stay there and they just all keep coming out causing them to jam into the shell on the lifter locking up the gun. I do a malfunction clearing and the shells keep spitting out of the magtube. But if I unload gun and put a shell in the mag tube it will hold it, until I rack the slide and it completely disables the shell stop. It appears for some reason that the right shell stop works for initial load then stops popping back into place after the first rack of the slide. So, has it come unstaked or what is going on here? Need to figure this out asap... Thanks!
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Chilly
Posts: 17
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2019 4:59 pm

Re: Remington 870 Police Magnum Broken?-Photos

Post by Chilly »

For simplicity lets agree that "right" means the side with ejection port, regardless whether it's held upside-down or not.

With action closed the shell in the magazine is held by the LEFT latch. The right latch is doing nothing right now, and is retracted outboard out of the way. When you rack thw slide rearward the first thing that happens is the right latch is released by the right action bar. It's now released, but prevented from actually moving inward by the shell in the mag tube.

When the slide reaches full rearward position the LEFT latch tucks into its recess, allowing ONE SHELL, AND ONLY ONE SHELL to pop back onto the lifter. Only one shell pops out because the RIGHT latch has already moved into position to arrest the rim of the second shell.

When the slide starts to move forward the left latch moves out of its recess in preparation for the hand-off that is about to occur.

When slide is almost into battery the right shell latch is retracted into its recess, releasing shell #2, which pops back only until it is captured by the left latch. Hand-off complete.
Chilly
Posts: 17
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2019 4:59 pm

Re: Remington 870 Police Magnum Broken?-Photos

Post by Chilly »

Retract your slide by about 2/3 of the way rearward. Push the lifter, it should pop up out of the way and stay there. Both latches should be extended inward, released from their recesses. Push on each latch. The latches should move smoothly without dragging. My hunch is the wing of your right latch might be tweaked and dragging on the bottom edge of the right action bar.
Virginian
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Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 5:03 pm
Location: Williamsburg, Va.

Re: Remington 870 Police Magnum Broken?-Photos

Post by Virginian »

Hard to tell for sure without watching it function, but it appears one or both shell stops may be bent. The engagement surfaces on the action bars may be at fault, but that's fairly rare. If you do not have the later version with the 'U' cut out on the carrier to allow you to clear a shell that slipped back on the carrier with the bolt closed, - the Flex Tab modification - it is possible that you were using excessive brute force to clear it and bending things doing this is common.
The shell latches not being staked in should have no relation to any malfunctions because all the staking is for is to keep them in place when disassembled. When assembled the pins and the trigger group keep them in the proper location. I had one come loose 7 to 10 years ago now and rather than staking I just Superglued it back in. I don't even remember which one it was now. I have seen several receivers marred by restaking. I have the staking tool and will never stake again.
P.S. - Both shell stops should not be engaging the shell base at the same time. When you pull the handle back the rearmost disengages releasing a shell and the other one pops out to ONLY release one shell at a time. When you rack it back into battery the rearmost stop pops back out and the other one then releases the shell to drop back a short distance on to the rearmost one and stays retracted.
What could have happened... did.
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