I recently had the opportunity to work on a Remington 870 that was having some feeding problems. As I began dissasembly of the gun the magazine cap flew off as I unscrewed it. Along with the cap came the green magazine plug for hunting. Thankfully I still have both of my eyes!

The customer was reporting cycling issues with the gun, and it became evident why. The magazine cap had been placed over top of the magazine plug, which was on top of the spring retainer. The plug should go under the retainer or else you will have the spring compressed by several inches making cycling problematic.

When I explained this to the customer, he said Remington had shipped the gun that way. This is the second time that a Remington 870 has come to the shop this way. I’m not sure how it ends up like this (customer or factory), but if you are experiencing cycling problems, look at the magazine spring setup.

Just got done putting some rifle sights on an 870.  This is a sweet setup for those of you wanting to take your home defense/competition shotgun to a new level.  Pictures to follow.

When will summer end?  Burning up in Nashville right now.  Hard to get in the shop when you are sweating!!

I am working with a customer on what will eventually become the SM-2, a pistol grip 870 that is awesome.  Same high quality components, but a Speedfeed pistol grip.

If you are thinking about adding a pistol grip to your shotgun there area a few things to remember.  The first is that you must have an barrel length of at least 18″ and the overall length of the gun must be 26″.  This last one is a little known fact, but ATF is serious about this one as well.  Make sure you don’t overlook this one.

A true pistol grip will only work on the 870, not the 1100 or the 1187.  The recoil system on the semi-auto shotguns runs through the stock.  The 870 doesn’t have this.  Speedfeed offers several pistol grips on full stocks if you need one, but not a true pistol grip.

I wanted to take a quick moment and talk about the Shotgun Magazine Extension Tube.  We add these to every SM-1 Package that leaves the door, and it is the shotgun accessory we get the most questions about.  The Magazine Extension tube shown above is our preferred tube.  It is from Wilson Combat who as you know, makes some great stuff.  We chose this tube to be part of our shotgun packages several years ago because of its design and ruggedness compared to man of the tubes that are available today.  It isn’t the cheapest tube, and we only make $3 every time we sell one, but we think it is worth it.

The Shotgun Magazine Extension is a necessity if you are in competition, and a very nice luxury for law enforcement and home defense purposes.  One of the things though that can plague many tubes available is a feeding issue.  While they don’t happen often, it does occur and when it does it is maddening.

Generally what happens if you have a feeding problem is that the spring is binding where your Extension screws onto the existing tube.  The best tube is a one piece tube from the factory because it eliminates this problem entirely (btw: the tubes on the Remington Tactical 870′s are not one piece).  The after-market tubes will all deal with this issue from time to time.  I have seen it most often show up while trying to load the shotgun.  I have experienced this several times while building the SM-1.

The remedy can be two fold: First, you can unload the shotgun and try again.  Many times this will alleviate the loading problems.  Second, you can load one or two rounds and run the gun.  Now is the part where we get into my theory and this is always scary!  My theory for most of these problems is the lip the spring has to travel over in the extension.  However, when you put on an extension you are twisting it on, and therefore you are twisting the spring.  I think it is possible that the spring itself binds from the twisting.  I haven’t had an extension that wouldn’t respond to those two simple steps.

Remington is no stranger to the world of shotgunners.  We have been using them forever with great success on hunting trips, in the field of competition and on the streets our cops patrol.  What you may not realize is how Remington streamlined manufacturing to give you some of the best shotguns ever produced.

Remington introduced the model 58 in 1956.  It was in production until 1963.  In 1959 they introduced the model 878 that ran until 1963 as well.  These shotguns were very similar because they had the same designer, L.R. Crittendon.  They had a recoil spring that was mounted in front of the magazine tube, giving the action a pull recoil operated by the gas instead of the more modern version which pushes the bolt into a recoil spring  in the stock.

In 1963, both of these shotguns were abandoned in favor of the new model 1100 designed by Wayne Leek.  The 1100 remains a staple of the Remington family today that is used in all the shotgun shooting disciplines.  This design was followed by the 1187 that debuted in 1987.  What is absolutely amazing is how similar all of these guns are to each other.

Remington did not reinvent the wheel in any of the 3 model changes that came after the 58.  For instance, the trigger mechanism and safeties are strikingly similar.  Another example is the bolt handle.  I had a customer bring in a Remington 878 over the weekend with a broken bolt handle.  All that was visible was a small piece of the bolt handle that had to be removed with pliers.  It was plastic, but it just seemed like it might be the same design as the 1100.  I had an extra bolt handle in stock and replaced it.

When you have a good design there is no need to throw it out completely just to make a few improvements.  Remington did this and saved itself millions of dollars in parts that could be used.  This may be the reason that when so many other companies have struggled, the continue to be an industry standard.

**Historical information taken from Remington’s Historical Website.

I mentioned the other day that I was having a little difficulty because of a mistake I had made in modifying the gas port on a Remington 1100.  I had to replace the customer’s barrel with a factory new 21″ barrel that came with two choke tubes, a wrench and rifle sights.

Yesterday I took it to the range for function testing and evaluation.  It was a great expereince.  It gobbled up every bit of ammo I threw in it and forcefully ejected the empites into a nice clean pile.

The rifle sights made a huge difference in long range shooting.  For me they make the sight picture clearer on all shots.  There is a lot of debate out there about which sights make you faster.  If memory serves me correctly, D.R. Middlebrooks has said that the bead is faster on everything in the testing that he has done.  He is certainly a reliable source, and one that I trust.  If you are going to be shooting stages with lots of steel where you will be using slugs, this could be the setup for you.  Likewise, it would be a great home defense setup.

Either way it made the gun handle great.  For $100 more you can add this to your SM-1 package saving you almost $100 off of the average sales cost.

I guess there is a first time for everything.  Last week, I was performing one of our SM-1 conversions when I accidentally used the wrong drill bit to open up a gas port making the gun not only kick like a mule, but unsafe to use.  You can imagine my despair.  Not only had I wrecked a barrel, but I had to call a very nice customer and explain the error of my ways.  Luckily, he was completely understanding, and I offered to replace his barrel with a factory new barrel from Remington.

This barrel was a surprise and a pretty cool upgrade so I think it is going to work out for both of us in the long run.  The barrel comes with many features that are not available on a standard SM-1.

The first are the rifle sights.  They are mounted to the barrel and give an unbelievable sight picture.  The second is that it is threaded for choke tubes.  The third feature is that it comes with Improved Cylinder and Rifled choke tubes and a choke tube wrench.  The barrel itself is 21 inches which makes it a very manageable self-defense or woods gun.

The barrel sells for almost $200, but I’m thinking I might could work this into an SM-1 package that will sell for $100 more.  The advantage to you is that you can keep your standard barrel for hunting or shooting clays, and the advantage for me is that it takes away any possibility that I will grab the wrong drill bit.

I’m going to the range tomorrow so I’ll give a report on how it performs.

This week I got to spend some time with a few folks who were new shooters.  It was interesting to watch because many of the shooters were women.  We wrote about the Taurus Judge, and told you that it was a gun worth looking at.  Seeing it in action was confirmation of what the gun is capable of doing.

Shots were taken at several cans lined up.  On more than one occasion the cans were dispatched in one shot.  Recoil was mild, and even the smallest framed ladies had no problem with it.  No one had any complaints about the gun.  In fact, many shooters were so impressed they said they would like to had it to their collection.  If and when guns ever become available again, this should be one you look at.  The .410 option makes it a great home defense gun because of the low risk of hurting unintended neighbors and relatives, and the simplicity of the revolver makes it a logical choice for someone that doesn’t shoot much.  Check it out.  We don’t thin you will be disappointed.

Recently we had a customer bring a Remington 58 into the shop for service and repair.  The gun showed visible signs of rust on the 60% of the barrel and the frame was badly pitted.  The customer wanted the surface rust removed and functionality restored.

If you own one of these guns, you may be aware that there is virtually no information available for take down procedures and parts are not cataloged anymore.  Even though you may not know much about the 58, don’t let that intimidate you.  They are closely linked to the Remington 1100 and 1187.

Remington’s website says that approximately 271,000 were made between 1956 and 1963.  It was made in 12ga, 16ga and 20 ga in various models such as trap and skeet.  The particular gun that we worked on was a 16 ga.

To take the gun apart you will simply remove the barrel and fore end as on the 1100 or 1187.  The gas system works on a piston that is linked to the bolt with an arm extend into what you may think is the magazine tube.  To remove the bolt you will need to place a screwdriver down the magazine tube to restrain the piston.  Please note; the piston is under pressure and can fly off.  Make sure you restrain it well and use safety glasses as always.  Move the piston down with the screwdriver until the bolt arm and clear a notch in the piston tube.  This will allow you to continue disassembly just like the 1100.

There is nothing difficult about cleaning this gun.  The only tricky part is getting the piston and bolt arm to line up in the piston tube for reassembly.  Try it a few times and you will get it.

If you have one of these guns you should be able to maintain it and continue to shoot it for a long time.  If you need some parts you could try Numrich.  From time to time they have parts available for obsolete guns.

Many of you have been asking questions about the SM-1 package lately as you consider purchasing one for your needs.  Obviously it has been become a standard in the MCC lineup.  We think it offers the features that you need for a competitive price, but we thought you might be interested in hearing from a customer who just received one last week.

Hi Jeff,

Field tested the SM-1 Sat. after work.  As I said on the phone..Craftsmanship fit and finish excellent..10 of 10..Speed feed stock great..I used 00 buck, 2 brands high velocity over the counter ( 1300 fps or close) and some old buckshot I had from 2004 deer season. Not 1 ejection or feed problem in 36 rounds. Since my application was home defense ranged @  7 & 10 yards. It did what you would expect at this range. The MCC SM-1 is a high quality,  value priced,  performance package. Thanks for your work.

Sincerely,

D. M. from Tennessee