SinistralRifleman Posted April 21, 2005 Share Posted April 21, 2005 How often do you replace the magazine tube springs on your shotguns? I have an 870 police model that I've had for about a year and probably put 6,000 shells through in that time. I recently had some intermittent feeding problems with it, and dissassembled to inspect the magazine tube spring. The spring had lost a noticeable amount of length, and was barely the length of the tube versus the 33% longer it originally was. I had previously ordered a large package of replacement springs from Brownells, so I just swapped it out and it is running fine again. I am just curious what others experiences are with average magazine tube spring life in their guns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted April 21, 2005 Share Posted April 21, 2005 I just replaced the spring in my 11-87 after 8-10 years with the same one. It was working fine, it just occured to me that it might be sacked, so for under 10 bucks it seemed like a good thing to do. I have no idea if it needed it, or not. -- Regards, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillL223 Posted April 22, 2005 Share Posted April 22, 2005 I have never changed one in my Benelli M1, It is usually stored with 1+ 5 in its 8 round tube. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chp5 Posted April 22, 2005 Share Posted April 22, 2005 SR - do you keep the 870 loaded? I'm not sure if that makes a difference or not. I've heard people say that only using a spring wears it out and keeping it under compression from being loaded has no effect. That sounds counter-intuitive to me though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SinistralRifleman Posted April 22, 2005 Author Share Posted April 22, 2005 SR - do you keep the 870 loaded? I'm not sure if that makes a difference or not. I've heard people say that only using a spring wears it out and keeping it under compression from being loaded has no effect. That sounds counter-intuitive to me though. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I don't keep it loaded often. The diameter of the factory spring was narrower than my after market replacement springs. It was noticeably smaller than the tube diameter...I think this might have lead it to losing strength faster than some of the other springs I have used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted April 22, 2005 Share Posted April 22, 2005 SR, 6000 rounds is about 750 cycles. I think that's about all you can really hope for out of such a flimsy spring. I've heard lifetimes as short as 100 cycles for an STI mag spring (mine seem to last longer), so I think you're ahead of the power curve given how much you're shooting. The other thing that may help stave off the ineveitable is to use a slicker mag follower. I just cut one out of Delrin and it's like night and day compared to everything else. That with some silicone spray in the mag tube really seems to slick things up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SinistralRifleman Posted April 22, 2005 Author Share Posted April 22, 2005 You're probably right about the amount of shooting I do with it...it's also the gun I let anyone who wants to try an SST-870 on use when I am at the range. I'm using a stainless steel follower I got from Brownells, it moves really smoothly in the tube. In my other 870 I'm using one of Brownell's green anodized aluminum followers and it works great too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gun Geek Posted April 28, 2005 Share Posted April 28, 2005 Mag tubes have springs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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