Mattog22

Yes, I will get all the info I can. Hopefully it will help people troubleshoot the VM in the future. I'm just glad they were cooperative about it.

I was driving myself crazy too. I finally gave up, it shouldn't be this hard. I called Remington and spoke to an extremely nice guy in their repair department and he said just send it in. He said there's a two year warranty so I shouldn't worry. I even said something about the dimples so it wasn't a surprise and he had no problem with it. I will see how the repair goes but so far customer service has been good. Thanks for all the suggestions, if I knew someone I could try their gun I would have, but something needs to be fixed one way or another so I'll just let the factory do it. Just hate not having my new shotgun for a while.

I took it apart again and noticed that there was a lot more carbon fouling on the chamber side of the barrel and under the forearm than on the other side. This may also be because there are 4 ports on that side instead of 3 like the other side. It seems like all the ports had fouling so I guess gas is moving through all of them. I am kind of at a loss now. Everything looks like it should be running well.

Yes, I cleaned up the pistons and piston chambers. The problem is that you can't really get to the ports very easily. I tried a paper clip to try to get to the ports to make sure they're clear (recommended by Remington) but didn't feel like I could get to them very well. I would think that the hi brass loads would hopefully blow out anything in the ports but it didn't seem to change a thing. I am going to try to get to the ports again tonight and see if I can tell more.

Re-reading the post sounds like I was rude, but I was actually really polite explaining my situation. It just doesn't come off well the way I wrote it.

Yeah, like you said, they weren't real pleased about the dremel work. They still said they would take care of my problem. I explained to them that this shotgun is being used for a lot for 3-gun (which I'm sure they know) and it's impossible to get one of the tactical ones so what should I have done? Buy a different shotgun because of dimples in the mag tube? So I will tell them tomorrow that it still isn't working right and I guess send it back. I will keep everyone posted if I find out what the problem is.

so I spoke with Reminton today also. They said try again after I cleaned the pistons up and still no luck. Still seems like any 1 1/8 oz loads are fine but still wont work with the 1 oz. I guess I'll call them again tomorrow to give the update. I even shot 25 high brass game loads and 50 1 1/8 multi purpose loads hoping to break it in but still no luck. Co-exprs, i didnt have time to take it apart again, I went to the range straight from work. thanks for all the input thus far guys.

Well, I cleaned up the pistons. I didn't see really much grease, just some carbon. I guess I'll see when I take it out again.

dhill, thanks for the reply. I did not clean those yet. Hopefully that's the problem. I will clean now and try to get it out this weekend. I added the nordic +6 tube and cut the spring at 16" above the tube, could this cause the problems I'm seeing also?

Thanks Hurley, I hope it's that easy. I just haven't really heard of people having to break it in. I'll update on what Remington says tomorrow.

So, I loosened the tube a bit and used a barrel clamp. Gun fed nice and smooth all 9 rounds in the mag tube. Now if I can get the gun to shoot the lighter 1 oz loads it's supposed to I will be much happier.

Yes, I will call them tomorrow. I'm just frustrated since the mag tube wasn't parallel with the barrel either, now the gun doesn't cycle the loads it says it will. Hopefully I will feel better about this situation after I talk to them, but until then I can't help to be aggravated. My 1100 and SX3 I was using are more reliable than the Versa Max at this point.

So hopefully someone familiar with the Versa Max can point me in the right direction here. I recently purchased a 26" synthetic versa max and ground the dimples out and added a +6 nordic tube. So today I took it out for the first time. I bought a federal 100 round bulk pack of target loads that were 3 dram 1 1/8 oz.. I also grabbed two boxes of Winchester Hi speed 1 oz hunting loads and one box of federal topgun 2.75 dram 1 oz loads. I started with the Winchester hi speed 1 oz loads and had problems from the get go. More than 75% of them would not cycle correctly. The bolt would throw the case barely out of the chamber or stove pipe but not come back far enough to pick up the next shell. I could see the next shell sitting on the lifter and it would chamber just fine by hand. The lighter Federal 2.75 dram 1 oz shells would sometimes eject but not pick up the next round or would not eject at all and put the empty hull back in the chamber. Either way, the next shell would feed out of the magazine tube correctly and be waiting on the lifter. The first few of the Federal bulk pack 3 dram 1 1/8 oz loads had a few intermittent problems but by the time I got through about 50 of the various shells it ran them 100%. This is a bit concerning since I sold my 1100 tactical that would cycle the Winchester hi speed 1 oz loads and the Federal bulk pack target loads without a problem to upgrade to a gun that doesn't seem any more reliable. I almost forgot, I did shoot about 10 Expert Hi Velocity Steel shells through it without a problem so it seems like it just doesn't like 1 oz or less loads. I shot about 200 through it and still didn't have any better luck witheither of the 1 oz shells at the end of the shooting session. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I will most likely be calling remington in the morning. I am afraid they will say that the dimples being ground off in the mag tube is an alteration even though I know it's not causing any problems since the tube feeding is working fine. Matt

Thanks guys, I spoke with Nordic today and they pretty much told me the same as option 2 above. At least the mag tube can be replaced on these with the CarbonArms tube or a replacement if I accidentally messed something up getting the dimples out.

Hopefully this helps