WarBoyz Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 So As you guys know I was wavering between the VersaMax and the M2, so I just bought the bullet and bought both. Well here are my initial thoughts on my Versamax Tactical. When I picked up the Versamax Tactical I brought it straight to my shop and initially tore it down for a good clean and oil. Once disassembled I notice this rifle had been fired. There was a significant amount of residue all over, but the front half of the inside of the barrel was horrible. It looked as though it had been greased, sand poured inside then fired 50 times. The gas ports were even heavily soiled. Needless to say, I made a call to the Dealer which went nowhere and one to Remington. Well Remington was actually very cool about it and offered to pay to send it in for a look. The lady I spoke with said they would possibly replace the entire rifle, but at least replace the barrel and clean or replace any other parts. As we spoke she said, "at this point warranty work is warranty work and for me to go ahead and clean the gun and take it out and shoot it. This way if any other problems arise we can address them all at once." So, somewhat reluctantly I proceed with her instructions. I cleaned it to the best of my ability (3 hours worth) and the barrel still looks horrible! After I got it as good as I could I went out and proceeded to fire 50 or so rounds threw it. It functioned fine, not a single FTF, but it seens to shoot high right. The biggest issue is the vent rib is also not aligned with the center of the receiver!! It is kicked over to the right by a good bit. You can straighten it back up and tighten down the barrel clamp, but once you fire it goes back to where it was. At this point I had seen all I need to with this gun. I brought it home, tore it down just to look it over and try and assess why the barrel is kicked over and I also notice the trigger hammer is already showing some huge nicks on the face. I hope this particular shotgun is not an indication as to the quality control of Remington. Needless to say, The gun is now boxed up and headed back to Remington. I will add some photos of the wear of the gun when I received it as well as a picture of the wear to the hammer. -WB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlin Orr Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 Is your dealer a straight up guy...? I would really think that Remington would not send a gun out the door that had been shot like that.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assaulter Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 (edited) I think they are all test fired. Mine was dirty too. The barrel seems to fowl up a little less than half way down. I love the way this gun feels and shoots, BUT I'm on my third barrel and even after sending it back for accuracy issues they still sent me a barrel that isn't POA. I've whacked it pretty good trying to bend it with no luck. I may have to just deal with kentucky windage, and I really hate that. My FN was dead on out to over 100 yards. Oh well, I still love this gun. I have the hammer nicks too, they haven't gotten worse in over 700 rounds. Edited August 11, 2012 by assaulter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MickB Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Interesting. Maybe a bad batch has gotten out? Seems this is not the first question about vent ribs not being straight. Mine is straight and I don't have the barrel rotation issues you are describing. So far so good for me. I still need to check POI with slugs, however. I will report back on mine tomorrow... Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RWF Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 some where in here i posted some pictures of mine and ton of fouling in the first 3rd-0.5 of the barrel and yes it was hell to finally get it clean! this was after the rockcastle shotgun championship 3 days and around 350-400 rounds i am a god aweful shotgunner. anyway went thru many brushes and a drill/soaking. went it was finally clean. i use JB cleaning compound again with the drill. then the JB bore polish again with a drill. i do not know if it something about there barrel finishing or what. BUT after lots of work and JB the barrel no lomger fouls up. i will say at first when i looked down i was worried, going from a M2 which never really got dirty. also my hammer also looks beaten up but have not worried about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt1911 Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Sorry about your bad experience with remington. I've owned 3 shotguns from them in the past, all 870's and all of them were shit. I won't go into my dislike of remington... Anywho... How's that Benelli doing? I didn't see anything bad posted so must be good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RWF Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 found it http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=155278 subjuct: why so much build up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RWF Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Sorry about your bad experience with remington. I've owned 3 shotguns from them in the past, all 870's and all of them were shit. I won't go into my dislike of remington... Anywho... How's that Benelli doing? I didn't see anything bad posted so must be good. i must agree with you on remington shotguns! if the Versa Max had been a copy of all of Benelli best ideas i would not have even looked at it. i can you for a fact, say; that the trigger group and bolt assy, look like one of them went thru a copy machine. the big difference my VM is 3.5" and my M2 a 3". the VM bolt assy when broken down is missing the inertia spring. the VM has 7 oval ports and the M4 has 6 round ports. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WarBoyz Posted August 11, 2012 Author Share Posted August 11, 2012 Merlin ORR- Yea I have never had an issue with this place, and it now seems this is fairly common. Remington stated to me that they randomly test fire these guns, but mine really seamed to have much more than the quoted 3-5 round test fire.... Hey, RWF... Thanks for the link.. I did a quick search, but I guess not good enough. SO Ok I can deal with the soot being there. I am just a clean freak when it comes to a weapon. Maybe its the "your life depends on its dependability" thing that has been firmly impregnated into my head... But what I don't like is the barrel slop and hammer nicks. I'm not sure what the hammer needs to be made of maybe 17-4 ph Stainless or S-7 tooling steel, but obviously a better material than they are using... Matt1911- The Benelli is great. In typical Benelli fashion. Which I knew that, I shot a Benelli 20 guage in Argentina 2 years ago and shot a RIDICULOUS amount of rounds threw that gun. I was really surprised at how manageable the recoil was on the American model. I will say that the recoil on the Remington was really amazing. So I guess time will tell how this all shakes out, but it could turn into an overpriced Turkey gun for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RWF Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Hey, RWF... Thanks for the link.. I did a quick search, but I guess not good enough. SO Ok I can deal with the soot being there. I am just a clean freak when it comes to a weapon. Maybe its the "your life depends on its dependability" thing that has been firmly impregnated into my head... But what I don't like is the barrel slop and hammer nicks. I'm not sure what the hammer needs to be made of maybe 17-4 ph Stainless or S-7 tooling steel, but obviously a better material than they are using once you get it (Barrel)clean and polished like i said no more issue! also i have already replaced some trigger group parts with M2 parts. since you have both double check to be sure then oeder a spare M2 hammer from brownels, no more issue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RWF Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 just be sure what are you calling barrel slop? The build up or something else. if it the build up when your gun comes back do not even shot it and give the JB and drill treatment. the reciepe really calls for friz medal polish but i use JB polish and have at least 200 rounds in it and no build up. ands fatrly clean! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mifune326 Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Sorry about your bad experience with remington. I've owned 3 shotguns from them in the past, all 870's and all of them were shit. I won't go into my dislike of remington... Anywho... How's that Benelli doing? I didn't see anything bad posted so must be good. Hi Matt, I'm a huge fan of the 870s and just picked up an 870 Police Magnum. I'm curious, what models of 870 gave you the problems and what kind of problems were they? All the best, Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeE Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Sorry about your bad experience with remington. I've owned 3 shotguns from them in the past, all 870's and all of them were shit. I won't go into my dislike of remington... Anywho... How's that Benelli doing? I didn't see anything bad posted so must be good. I have not seen that much problems with any other guns, than with Benelli Nova/Super Nova Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt1911 Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 2 Express models and an 870P They all had the same malfunction, the slide would lock in the forward position preventing me from racking in another shell. Didn't matter if I was going slow or fast with it. I ordered new action bars, lined it up real good, even tried polishing the metal to metal contact points and nothing got it to run correctly. I wanted a pump for HD and had always heard how great 870's were. I know there's a bad apple every once in a while, but 3 in a row? That's uncalled for. I finally said screw it and got a mossberg 500... Haven't had a single problem since. I run it pretty hard on occasion as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt1911 Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Didn't mean to distract from the original thread. Back to the Versamax conversation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
torrpd Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Sorry about your bad experience with remington. I've owned 3 shotguns from them in the past, all 870's and all of them were shit. I won't go into my dislike of remington... Anywho... How's that Benelli doing? I didn't see anything bad posted so must be good. Wow! all three? I find that hard to believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WarBoyz Posted August 11, 2012 Author Share Posted August 11, 2012 just be sure what are you calling barrel slop? The build up or something else. if it the build up when your gun comes back do not even shot it and give the JB and drill treatment. the reciepe really calls for friz medal polish but i use JB polish and have at least 200 rounds in it and no build up. ands fatrly clean! I really used the wrong word to describe the issue. What I meant was, with the mag clamp off and the mag extension tight the barrel has right to left play. It is a good 1/16th of an inch. This causes the barrel vent to be around 5*deg off center of the receiver. You can rotate the barrel and get it to line up with the receiver, then clamp down the Mag Clamp. It will stay for about 3 rounds fired then it reverts back to its natural position which is clocked 5*deg right. I think the actual issue is that the vent rib on my barrel is not in the right location in relation to the gas tubes at the bottom of the barrel. When the gas tubes slide into the grooves of the receiver, they have a natural position they want to sit. I think at this point the gun is going back to Remington.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt1911 Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Sorry about your bad experience with remington. I've owned 3 shotguns from them in the past, all 870's and all of them were shit. I won't go into my dislike of remington... Anywho... How's that Benelli doing? I didn't see anything bad posted so must be good. Wow! all three? I find that hard to believe. Exactly my thoughts. I figured by the third time I would either learn my lesson or get a quality gun. Guess I learned my lesson. For cheap pumps ill go with mossberg from now on and Benelli for competition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RWF Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 just be sure what are you calling barrel slop? The build up or something else. if it the build up when your gun comes back do not even shot it and give the JB and drill treatment. the reciepe really calls for friz medal polish but i use JB polish and have at least 200 rounds in it and no build up. ands fatrly clean! I really used the wrong word to describe the issue. What I meant was, with the mag clamp off and the mag extension tight the barrel has right to left play. It is a good 1/16th of an inch. This causes the barrel vent to be around 5*deg off center of the receiver. You can rotate the barrel and get it to line up with the receiver, then clamp down the Mag Clamp. It will stay for about 3 rounds fired then it reverts back to its natural position which is clocked 5*deg right. I think the actual issue is that the vent rib on my barrel is not in the right location in relation to the gas tubes at the bottom of the barrel. When the gas tubes slide into the grooves of the receiver, they have a natural position they want to sit. I think at this point the gun is going back to Remington.. yeap, just be sure to explain it well in the letter with the shotgun. i know my POI was off when i first got it but just shimmed the stock/but pad and not the factory shims because installed a pistol grip stock. but my barrel has always seems to solid. best of luck, it will run anything. RWF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MickB Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Remove your mag clamp and take the mag tube off, leaving the barrel nut in place. Crank down the barrel nut. Now put the mag tube on and turn it down till it just stops. Back off a fraction. Now put the mag clamp back in place and go shoot the gun. If you put the mag tube on first, then screw the assembly with nut on, you may well not be able to tighten the nut down far enough, causing your barrel to be loose. A sysmptom of this will be a loose hand guard. Mick just be sure what are you calling barrel slop? The build up or something else. if it the build up when your gun comes back do not even shot it and give the JB and drill treatment. the reciepe really calls for friz medal polish but i use JB polish and have at least 200 rounds in it and no build up. ands fatrly clean! I really used the wrong word to describe the issue. What I meant was, with the mag clamp off and the mag extension tight the barrel has right to left play. It is a good 1/16th of an inch. This causes the barrel vent to be around 5*deg off center of the receiver. You can rotate the barrel and get it to line up with the receiver, then clamp down the Mag Clamp. It will stay for about 3 rounds fired then it reverts back to its natural position which is clocked 5*deg right. I think the actual issue is that the vent rib on my barrel is not in the right location in relation to the gas tubes at the bottom of the barrel. When the gas tubes slide into the grooves of the receiver, they have a natural position they want to sit. I think at this point the gun is going back to Remington.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MickB Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 After today's match, no issues with slugs. Elevation is dead on at 50 yards. It MIGHT be shooting right by 2 inches, but that could well be me - I'm having issues keeping my head down on the stock. I think and Ashley rear sight is in order to cure that... Mick Interesting. Maybe a bad batch has gotten out? Seems this is not the first question about vent ribs not being straight. Mine is straight and I don't have the barrel rotation issues you are describing. So far so good for me. I still need to check POI with slugs, however. I will report back on mine tomorrow... Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StealthyBlagga Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 (edited) Remove your mag clamp and take the mag tube off, leaving the barrel nut in place. Crank down the barrel nut. Now put the mag tube on and turn it down till it just stops. Back off a fraction. Now put the mag clamp back in place and go shoot the gun. If you put the mag tube on first, then screw the assembly with nut on, you may well not be able to tighten the nut down far enough, causing your barrel to be loose. A sysmptom of this will be a loose hand guard. Mick ^ Good advice - the Nordic magazine nut on my VM actually liked unscrewing itself, resulting in a loose handguard/barrel. In the end, I found the best solution is to screw on the Nordic nut as tight as you can, then apply RED LocTite to the Nordic tube and screw it all the way down, then back out just a tad. When the Loctite sets, the nut will not be able to unscrew (assuming your barrel clamp is solid). Edited August 11, 2012 by StealthyBlagga Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt1911 Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Blue locktite is more than sufficient to keep the nut from backing off. Using the red Will require a torch for removal in most cases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mifune326 Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 2 Express models and an 870P They all had the same malfunction, the slide would lock in the forward position preventing me from racking in another shell. Didn't matter if I was going slow or fast with it. I ordered new action bars, lined it up real good, even tried polishing the metal to metal contact points and nothing got it to run correctly. I wanted a pump for HD and had always heard how great 870's were. I know there's a bad apple every once in a while, but 3 in a row? That's uncalled for. I finally said screw it and got a mossberg 500... Haven't had a single problem since. I run it pretty hard on occasion as well. Thanks Matt. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StealthyBlagga Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 Blue locktite is more than sufficient to keep the nut from backing off. Using the red Will require a torch for removal in most cases. Once properly adjusted, there is no need to separate the tube from the nut. The separate nut and tube are one of the weaknesses of the Nordic design IMHO, and why I stuck with Choate for so long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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