870 Jams !

[ALBY]

I must have witnessed this jam at least 5 times on the summer blast shotgun side match.

Competitor loses count (we had a 5 round limit for pump... not my idea)drops hammer on empty chamber, immediately attempts to load gun without racking slide and the shell jams between the lifter and magazine tube.

I have not been able to find any documentation on this jam anywhere on the internet and I'm curious if it applies to flexi tab guns only, all 870's or whether I was imagining things ! Some competitors used my 870, but it did happen on at least two other guns.

A few of these stoppages were quite difficult to clear. One competitor drew his knife and pried the shell out.

I tried pushing the slide well forward, no luck. The only cure was to pull the shell out, rack the slide and begin the reload again with the hammer cocked.

[jbullgpd]

I must have witnessed this jam at least 5 times on the summer blast shotgun side match.

Competitor loses count (we had a 5 round limit for pump... not my idea)drops hammer on empty chamber, immediately attempts to load gun without racking slide and the shell jams between the lifter and magazine tube.

I have not been able to find any documentation on this jam anywhere on the internet and I'm curious if it applies to flexi tab guns only, all 870's or whether I was imagining things ! Some competitors used my 870, but it did happen on at least two other guns.

A few of these stoppages were quite difficult to clear. One competitor drew his knife and pried the shell out.

I tried pushing the slide well forward, no luck. The only cure was to pull the shell out, rack the slide and begin the reload again with the hammer cocked.

I don't mean to sound like a smacktard here but if those guys were practicing properly they would automatically be cycling the forend evertime they pull the trigger no matter if it goes boom or not. In the case of the no go boom problem, they should rack it back and load straight into the chamber, forend foward, and then start loading the tube. It also sounds like they were maybe not pushing the shell far enough foward for the shell latches to catch it so it was caught in limbo.

[mike.45]

jbulljpd, is correct in his assumption that these guys were lacking on basic pump skills, and they clearly were, but everyone starts from somewhere and sometimes you learn the hard way.

What sounds like is happening is the same with the Remington 11/87 or 1100 models that if the bolt is closed and hammer down it will not allow you to chamber a shell into the magazine as the interceptor latch drops and prevents loading.

If they simply pushed the slide forward and didnt pull the trigger and drop the hammer on an empty chamber then it would load fine. The Remy semi auto shooters have faced this problem for years - clearly it faces the pump guys too !

[ALBY]

i just figured it out.

it's not the hammer being down, the slide must be all the way forward. if it comes back even a tiny bit, you cannot get a shell past the carrier.

interesting that nobody figured it out on the line.

i try not to let my shotty run dry, so i personally never had this failure.

but, i could see how this couild get you killed in a gunfight !

[jbullgpd]

i just figured it out.

it's not the hammer being down, the slide must be all the way forward. if it comes back even a tiny bit, you cannot get a shell past the carrier.

interesting that nobody figured it out on the line.

i try not to let my shotty run dry, so i personally never had this failure.

but, i could see how this couild get you killed in a gunfight !

That will do it, I run into that just about everyday when I am putting my gun into crusier ready condition at work, the gun is dry fired and then put back on safe and then loaded with 6 into the mag tube. If there is a slight tilt and the forend comes back it aint gonna work for ya.

[wsimpso1]

This topic, along with a bunch of others, is covered in Pat Sweeny's book on shotguns...

M870's and M1100's can have a round get past the shell carrier but not caught by the shell latches. The shell will then slide back and be trapped between the slide and the shell carrier with the round partway in the magazine. Is that what you saw?

To fix this, I believe that Remington put the flex tab in the shell carrier. If I remember correctly, the flex tab carrier is supposed to allow you to forcibly cycle the gun, which also loads it.

Contributing to this problem is that there are several machining cuts for the mag tube and feed path, each done on a different machine. If the tolerances run the wrong way, you can end up with a bump in the loading path that catches the rim of the round being loaded, making the jam much more likely. My M1100 had that problem.

It is covered pretty thoroughly else where, but if you can not find it using the search function, come back to us with questions.

Billski

[ALBY]

I believe what i was seeing was a different jam.

in these cases the shell never makes it into the magazine and the rim was jammed between the bottom of the carrier with the shell most of the way into the mag tube...

[sargenv]

This has happened to me before with several different models and gauges of 870 (12, 20, and 410). The problem is, the person loading the gun did not seat the round into the mag tube sufficiently to lock the shell with an action bar and there is enough room when the lift gate pops back down that the shelll will now be ejected backward under spring pressure with the bolt closed thus jamming the bolt and blocking it from opening. The only way to unjam that whole mess, is it remove the barrel and barrel nut, remove the spring, spring keeper, and the plug, and then in turn remove the shell from the loading gate and that area down below the bolt. It's annoying but it teaches you to make sure that your shell is all the way home and that you either hear or feel the "click" of the action bar blocking the shell into the mag tube. At least that is how I understood what was going on..

Vince