Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

Yesterday, I went out to the skeet range with my daughter, herboyfriend, and another friend of theirs. I brought my skeet thrower and my Remington 870 Express 12GA which in perfect condition and doesn't have any problems - mine is a few years old and nicely broken in.

Anyway this friend of theirs brought a totally brand new (right out of the box) Remington 870 Express 12GA, which he bought just after Thanksgiving- and has never shot it before.

I ended upshowing the young guy a few things about 870's, showed him mine (mine iswood, his is synthetic), and whatnot.

When we were blasting clays out of the air, he kept having problems over and over and over. His brand new 870 Express was jamming (failing to eject), not once, butalmost every single time he went to eject the spent shell. I went over to help him and saw how the spent shell was stuck in the barrel and the slide was real real hard to move. You had to slam the butt stock on your boot or on the ground to get the spent shell to eject.

Then I asked him if I could really check it out, and opened up the slide, reached in with my finger and could feel roughness all over inside the throat of the barrel. It wasn't exactly smooth, polished, and clean.

Anyway, I told him he either needs to take it back where he bought it, or, if he has good skills, he could clean up the throat of the barrel with gun oil and 0000 steel wool, or take it to a gunsmith.

WHAT HAS HAPPEND TO REMINGTON'S QUALITY CONTROL?!?!? [:'(]

My 870 Express 12GA doesn't have a problem in the world. It never jams and functions perfectly fine with any type of ammo I feed it.

Anyone else heard of issues with the brand new Remington 870 Express 12GA ????

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

This is one of the first bad things ive heard about the 870. Id have the gun sent back to Remington. They are a better company than that. Id first call Remington and tell them the problems in great detail, so they will get the idea that something is wrong.

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

Shot it right out of the box? First thing I would have done was take it completly down and clean it as soon as I got it. I always clean a new gun first thing.

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

This is a pretty common issue with the 870 express. The rough chamber causes all sorts of ejection failures and/or rough cycling of the action.

A bronze brush with some 0000 steel wool wrapped around it, chucked into a drill and lubed with a decent oil will do the trick.

Yeah, I know, a new Remington shouldn't have to have this done to it but once that is done, it is all the problems you will probably ever have with it.

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

Are you sure it wasn't the ammo?

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

I had the same problem about 18 months ago when I bought mine. A hundred rounds or so and the problem went away.

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

ditto,shoot some rounds through. problem should go away

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

Correct! That and the "break in" thing too. You don't take abrand new, never run engine and red line it do you?

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

i had that same problem when i first bought my 870 but haven't had a problem since.

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

Remington has been turning out turds for 8 years now. Friends I hunt with bought brand new 1187's slug guns, and jams every shot. It won't lift the shell up. Bolt is so rough it gets binded up. I have had two 1187's and an 1100 from the 80's and 90s and no problems.

I have had littlerly dozens of 700's. And never had a problem with any until 2002. Rough barrels, bad fitting between barrels and stocks, crowns out of round. I am done with remington until they clean thier act up a tad.

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

I'm by no means protecting Remington and their Quality Standards!
However, all the gun manufactures that have been purchased by investment firms, they see only one thing, the bottom line.
"The most production at the cheapest cost and as fast as possible!
It is a sad day for firearm makers and quality standards!?!

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

Hmmm, that's weird. I purchased an 11-87 and a 700 within the last 4 months and both of them are awesome! The only jamming I've had with the 11-87 has been when I was being a cheap skate and used some Winchester shells. Went back to Remington shells and haven't had a single issue since. The 700 is just fantastic!

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

Hit the nail on the head right there. I always smooth it out to the forcing chamber.

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

Thanks for all the replies....

I was using Remington #6 shot (an old box I had laying around) - which is a little big for blasting clays, but what the the heck. My daughters boyfriend and his friend had two boxes of Winchester #8 target load (the cheap stuff with the aluminum end casing).

Anyway, I did a google search about the 870 Express "problem" and found an article and a discussionin Shotgun Journal or Gunner's World or some site like that. They mentioned the lack of quality control with Remington's Express line of shotguns. They are still fantastic shotguns, and they churn out millions of them every year. But the Remington 870 Wingmaster has more attention paid to it and everything is polished, honed, and smoothed out. The 870 Express is polished and that's about it. The action is a little rougher than the Wingmaster and takes more time to break in. The article also mentioned the 0000 steel wool/bore brush/cordless drill trick. But regardless, 870's are darn near indestructible. You can take one, drop it in the marsh, drop it in the mud, pick it up, wipe it off, and keep going. Everybody has (or has had) an 870. They are the F150 of shotguns.

But yet, it just seems that over these last couple of years, the quality of the 870 Express has gone down more so than in the past. [>:]

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

Are they doing a plastic trigger guard yet? I cant stand the way they cut the ribs on them, and that stupid key lock on the trigger. Then the dang laminate stock. Pure crap. I've got a model from the late 60's that was previously a prison gun. Refinished the wood and reblued and I've never seen a smoother action. True test is to hold the barrel up and push the slide release. A little shake and it drops right open.

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

I am not sure what you are trying to tell us? Are you trying to say just because you have a good working 11-87 then all of them should be perfect??:eek:

Then you have obviously never worked in a quality department or calculated yield or failure rates for a product.

SWT, how many have you owned? How many 700's have you owned? How many other types of guns have you owned?

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

I'm just trying to tell you that the guns I've purchased recently are in great working order. This was in reply to your post saying Remington has been turning out turds for the last 8 years.

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

Well, I realize it was in reply. But what I am explaining is people that have owned well over a dozen of these products are starting to see hiccups. There will be failures in any product. Even the ones I design:D. There are acceptable failure rates, and then there is unacceptable. Some I have seen lately are unacceptable. I have 700's that were made within the last 8 years that shoot well. I also have traded off or had the gun rebuilt on several that was not. I have had some real good 1187's with thousands of shells put thru them. But I have ran into some recently that are unacceptable.

You can't take your one product and apply it as a rule to all guns.

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

Considering how many 870's, 11-87's, and 700's are manufacturered and purchasedeach year, how many bad apples does it take to say that there are problems with Remington as a whole?

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

It's not just necessarily a function issue. Look at the fit and finish, nothing like it was.

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

Agreed. And nowhere in my post was I trying to do that.

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

I had the same issue with the 870 Super Express Magnum that I bought back in 2001, It would eject high brass with no problem, shoot low brass and it would jam each and every round. Called remington and they told me that it how it is and would not do anything to resolve the issue, this was within the first year of owning it. After that I bought a Hastings barrel from Cabelas bargain cave and told Remington that they can take a flying leap and that they would never get my money again.

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

I frequent auctions some times. And I picked up some late 70's 700's BDL's for $250 a piece. My gosh, the difference between those and these new ones are unreal. These BDL's were almost new in the box. Action smooth as any custom I have seen. Both shoot MOA out of the box. Blueing is deep and you would think it came out of a custom shop. copper fouling is minimal.

They have slowly sneaked in total crap these days.

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

i agree with all of u, u take any gun these days, or anything for that matter, there all made like crap, there just the output of companys taking short cuts to save a dollar and stick it to us. u even look at a car or truck these days, theres alot of plastic that never use to be there, IMO everything is going to crap

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

I have a Remington 870 Express Super Magnum in a 12 gauge I got around 2 and a half years ago. Well a little longer than that but not quite 3 years yet. I had the same problem only it only did it with 2 3/4" shells. Federals worked fine but the Winchester 2 3/4" shells would do that. On 3" and 3 1/2" shells I never had the pump lock up like that but honestly it jams all the time. You'd be lucky to shoot off 20 rounds without it jamming at least once or sometimes 2 or 3 times. You wouldn't shoot 20 rounds off of Winchester 2 3/4" rounds without it jamming every few shots. On the 3" and 3 1/2" it was random jamming like the shell not ejecting all the way or turning sideways or not catching on the old shell and trying to send a new one in while the old shell was still in the barrel. Just random stuff like that never locking the pump up like it did with the others. I finally read that article and got a gun smith to clean the chamber of the barrel up and it works perfect with Winchester 2 3/4" shells now. I shot a box of 25 up with no jams and it did it every 3 shots or so before. I've not had it jam with any other shells I don't think now but I haven't shot many 3" or 3 1/2" shells through it since. I hope it fixed that issue too though. I've had several guys I hunt with tell me they have never seen a pump gun have as many problems as mine. I'm hoping I've got the problems worked out as I like the feel of the gun.

RE: Remington 870 Express (What happend to Remington?)
 

Not everything. People was willing to pay 500 for a rifle in 1980, but still want to pay 500 now, and you get what you get. Sako, browning, FN-USA, all make top rifles. I wish I could add kimber to that list, but it appears, its hit or miss. And you can alwaysshell out 1500 for a total custom rifle.