11-87 Remington Question (problem)

[sbgruen]

I have an 1187 remington that did not seem to like to run well in the cold weather so I retired it after the factory could not fix it after 2 tries. I figured I would turn it into a 3 gun limited gun but it is not functioning too well even in the summer. The local gunsmith could not find anything wrong with it either.

I took it to the range after the smith looked at it and it is still inconsistently feeding. For some reason the bolt is locking back even when the magazine releases a shell and drops it on the lifter. It did not seem to happen when some guys with more mass were shooting it until they shot it from the hip.

I am guessing something is worn out that is affecting the timing but if anyone else knows or has had this problem come up and solved it I am open for suggestions for a fix...."buy "X"" is really not going to help...

Or if you can suggest a gunsmith that knows 1187 that would be great too.

Thanks

scott

[Mickster]

Does it have the DMW Easyloader on it?

My brand new Tactical ran perfect.

I put the Easyloader on it and the gun would do exactly what you describe.

I took the Easyloader off and put the stock parts back in.

Runs perfect again.

If no easyloader then the next step is to try a stronger magazine spring and replace the "O" ring.

Last resort is to drill out the gas holes. (Not recommended)

[sal3coach]

When I taught for the Remington shooting school, I saw this happen very seldom in the thousands of rounds fired.

Some of the causes were(You probably checked all these--sorry if this is a repeat):

Bad gas piston/seal and O-ring.

Gas piston/seal reversed.

Carbon in gas ports.

Carbon or nicks on magazine tube.

Soft shoulder by shooter--i.e. not pulling gun tight into shoulder.

[fastshooter03]

The shell intercept(or whatever)"flapper" is not adjusted right.

There is a small finger on the stamped POS "lifter" that puts tension on the little flap that the shell runs into when it flys out of the mag tube.

When the shell nails the flap, the action will cycle.

When there is no contact or there is too much tension on the flap, it will lock open.

The flap thingy is part of the button on the bottom of the "lifter".

I removed that function on both my 11-87s since is was impossible to correctly adjust.

Never worked right out of the box. Crappy ass design all around.

Sounds like you need to reduce the tension on the flap.

Nick

[Bryan 45]

Or as stated above- it's a weak mag spring.

[Big Bore]

First replace the magazine spring and if it still has problems check the adjustment of the easy loader. If any of the stock parts look the least bit worn replace them.

[StealthyBlagga]

It may help you to understand how the 11-87 cycles: the bolt actually locks back momentarily after each shot, and is only released by the next shell when it feeds out of the magazine tube. Check out this video.

There has been some good advice so far - the magazine spring is certainly a prime suspect, as a weak one will not propel the next shell back with enough force to consistently release the carrier/bolt.

If a new (preferably a Wolff extra power) magazine spring does not cure the problem, look at the carrier assembly. In particular, check what I have termed the "springy finger" in the photo below... it is supposed to catch the carrier release after a shell hits it and hold it back until the bolt starts to fly forwards. If it is tensioned incorrectly, it can either fail to activate (holds the carrier release forwards), or it can slip off (allowing the carrier release to slip forwards again), causing the bolt to lock back. A bit of gentle tweaking on this part can work wonders.

If you have an EZ loader installed, it may need to be fine tuned. However, the more usual failure mode with an incorrectly tuned EZ Loader is that the bolt fails to lock back when the gun is empty... this does not sound like it is your main problem.

Edited August 14, 2010 by StealthyBlagga

[sbgruen]

Thanks for all the input. The gun is currently set up back in the stock configuration. Figured I should trouble shoot from a "known" condition.

I have the original mag spring in the gun now and had the extended tube spring in before that and the same problem occurred.

SB thanks for all the pics and video. That certainly helps explain the functionality to me. I'm guessing that it is the carrier release, at least it warrants a closer look.

I have noticed a fair amount of wear on the lever arm next to that lever. Not exactly sure what its function is however.

Thanks again

scott

[sbgruen]

Well this weekend I took the gun to the Range and tried to adjust the little finger that controls the timing. It kinda worked. the shell that was ejecting and the shell that came out of the mag tube would both get stuck. I borrowed my neighbors 1187 that is almost like new and swapped out the trigger and ended up with the problem. I figured it might be the ejector at this point so I put his barrel and trigger in my gun and it shot fine. Then I put just the barrel in with my trigger assembly and it had the same feeding problem.

I am guessing at this point that it is a combination of wear on the trigger ass. and ejector on the barrel. The gun has somewhere between 15-20k rounds through it.

Am I missing something obvious here? Thought?

Thanks for all the suggestions.

scott