polishing shotgun chambers

2237 Views 9 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Maritime Storm, Aug 24, 2010

ARSENO

Discussion Starter · Aug 18, 2010

Did anyone ever do this before? Some people sometimes get ejection problems in shotguns and must polish the chamber where the shell is inserted. If yes could I get some tips?

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Twinfan

· #2 · Aug 18, 2010 (Edited by Moderator)

ARSENO said:
Did anyone ever do this before? Some people sometimes get ejection problems in shotguns and must polish the chamber where the shell is inserted. If yes could I get some tips?

If you are shooting a shotgun that has been manufactured in the last 20 years and having extraction problems, you almost certainly have an ammunition issue - not a chamber problem. The exception might be a poorly maintained gun that has obvious rust and pitting in the chamber. Try changing ammo brands before you decide to take at your barrel with power tools!

Remember that extraction (the removal of the spent cartridge from the chamber) and ejection (the tossing of the spent cartiridge out of the firearm) are two separate but related processes. There are lots of things that will cause ejection problems that have nothing to do with the chamber. Not shouldering the stock correctly with an autoloader is a common example...

If you must give chamber polishing a try, wander over to Brownells.com where you will find the relevant tools and also instruction books or videos on all sorts of gunsmithing projects.

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Maritime Storm

· #3 · Aug 19, 2010 (Edited by Moderator)

Twinfan said:
If you are shooting a shotgun that has been manufactured in the last 20 years and having extraction problems, you almost certainly have an ammunition issue - not a chamber problem. The exception might be a poorly maintained gun that has obvious rust and pitting in the chamber. Try changing ammo brands before you decide to take at your barrel with power tools!

Or you bought a newer Remington 870 or 887 with a rough finished chamber because Remington's quality control went to pot slowly starting around 10 years ago. In any case, final section of a shotgun cleaning rod put in an electic drill chuck with a bronze brush wrapped with steel wool(fine) and soaked ATF will polish your chamber. Failure to eject is actually getting quite common on a number of new model repeaters and contrary to Twinfans view on it alot of the time it isn't ammunition related but final finish related.

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Woolly

· #4 · Aug 20, 2010

Maritime Storm said:
Or you bought a newer Remington 870 or 887 with a rough finished chamber because Remington's quality control went to pot slowly starting around 10 years ago.

I'm curious where you are getting your information regarding this. I know a couple of gunsmiths and they say they are not seeing any more Remingtons in than Brownings, Berettas, or Stoegers.

I know, the "internet" has tons of "stories" re: the horrible extraction problems in the 870 when using the cheapest ammo available? Perhaps the cheapest ammo is not the best ammo. There is a reason why it is so cheap. I've even read of the chambers going oval and how polishing fixed them. I can't believe any one actually believes a visibly oval chamber can be polished out.

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Maritime Storm

· #5 · Aug 20, 2010

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=229164

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=227708

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=176496&hilit=870+Express

http://forums.oodmag.com/showthread.php?t=11563&highlight=Express

http://forums.oodmag.com/showthread.php?t=9268&highlight=Express

http://forums.oodmag.com/showthread.php?t=5050&highlight=Express

Plus my own experiences. For the moment I'll leave the 887 & 105CTI out conversation. Remington just isn't what it once was. Oval chamber cannot be polished round. The failure to eject on Remingtons pumps is a final polishing issue, if you pay attention you;ll notice is rarely shows up on the Wingmaster and target models they produce, whereas the Express is finish work is skipped far more often in order to sell it cheaper, a bit a polishing on(either by firing or by hand) get working properly after a short while.

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Chuck

· #6 · Aug 22, 2010 (Edited by Moderator)

Woolly said:
I'm curious where you are getting your information regarding this. I know a couple of gunsmiths and they say they are not seeing any more Remingtons in than Brownings, Berettas, or Stoegers.

I know, the "internet" has tons of "stories" re: the horrible extraction problems in the 870 when using the cheapest ammo available? Perhaps the cheapest ammo is not the best ammo. There is a reason why it is so cheap. I've even read of the chambers going oval and how polishing fixed them. I can't believe any one actually believes a visibly oval chamber can be polished out.

From personal experience with two remington guns last year I will NEVER buy another Remington product again. I had a 3.5" 870 Express where shells would not eject. The gun dealer was nice enough to take it back and sold me an 1187 supermag semi auto instead. It short cycled 1 out of 5 shells. This was not a cleaning issue however I did have to do a full cleaning even after shooting 4 to 10 shells as it was just a dirty firing gun. And on top of that both of these guns were essentially unfinished. There was no barrel finish at all and if it rained while I was on the way back to the car it would be rusting 10 minutes later. The trigger assembly was painted and started to flake off almost right away. And don't get me started on the gas assembly on the 1187 supermag. Let me get this straight, I have to take the gun apart and put in another metal ring in order to shoot 2&3/4" shells? Okay fine, but even then it still wouldn't cycle 3 dram loads reliably!!!! Remington used to be a great name in firearms but they are pretty much done as a company and are definitely dead to me. I give them 5 years and they will be dropped by the current parent company and bought up by someone else.

If there is only one word of advice I could give someone looking for a new gun these days is don't let anyone talk you into buying a new Remington shotgun! And after owning a Browning product for the first time, I find it VERY hard to believe that the same number of new Brownings are making their way in for repairs as are Remingtons.

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Woolly

· #7 · Aug 23, 2010

Maritime Storm said:
http://www.shotgunwo...p?f=55&t=229164

http://www.shotgunwo...p?f=12&t=227708

http://www.shotgunwo...lit=870+Express

http://forums.oodmag...ghlight=Express

http://forums.oodmag...ghlight=Express

http://forums.oodmag...ghlight=Express

Plus my own experiences. For the moment I'll leave the 887 & 105CTI out conversation. Remington just isn't what it once was. Oval chamber cannot be polished round. The failure to eject on Remingtons pumps is a final polishing issue, if you pay attention you;ll notice is rarely shows up on the Wingmaster and target models they produce, whereas the Express is finish work is skipped far more often in order to sell it cheaper, a bit a polishing on(either by firing or by hand) get working properly after a short while.

Well the first three links worked for me, the others require joining and I don't feel the need to join any more forums right now.
In the first 3 the OP talk about 870s only twice.
The first one says nothing about the chamber.
The second is about an 1100 which the fellow praised Remington's customer service.
Reading further down through the links you provided shows many happy 870 Express and Supermag Express owners.
I'd hardly call these conclusive as all were fixed to the customer's satisfaction and there were more replies praising the 870s than condemning them.
There was also mention AGAIN of using cheap ammo, particularly Winchester.

Of the over 10 million 870s made I would certainly expect several thousand to be defective. Does this mean all 870 Expresses are defective? I doubt it.
Honda has a 400,000 car recall out right now, does that make all Hondas unsafe? Of course not.

It seems it is human nature to complain when something does not perform as expected. It also seems to be human nature to fail to compliment when things work better than expected.

When is the last time you contacted a company to tell them you were pleased with their product?
When is the last time you complained about a companies product? Oh wait, you just did.

For the record I have owned and used 870s for more than 30 years, including a couple of newer manufactured models. I've never had a failure from any. What does that prove? Nothing, only that of the 8 or so 870 Expresses I've owned and used none were defective. 8 out of 10,000,000 is really insignificant.

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Chuck

· #8 · Aug 23, 2010

Woolly said:
Well the first three links worked for me, the others require joining and I don't feel the need to join any more forums right now.
In the first 3 the OP talk about 870s only twice.
The first one says nothing about the chamber.
The second is about an 1100 which the fellow praised Remington's customer service.
Reading further down through the links you provided shows many happy 870 Express and Supermag Express owners.
I'd hardly call these conclusive as all were fixed to the customer's satisfaction and there were more replies praising the 870s than condemning them.
There was also mention AGAIN of using cheap ammo, particularly Winchester.

Of the over 10 million 870s made I would certainly expect several thousand to be defective. Does this mean all 870 Expresses are defective? I doubt it.
Honda has a 400,000 car recall out right now, does that make all Hondas unsafe? Of course not.

It seems it is human nature to complain when something does not perform as expected. It also seems to be human nature to fail to compliment when things work better than expected.

When is the last time you contacted a company to tell them you were pleased with their product?
When is the last time you complained about a companies product? Oh wait, you just did.

For the record I have owned and used 870s for more than 30 years, including a couple of newer manufactured models. I've never had a failure from any. What does that prove? Nothing, only that of the 8 or so 870 Expresses I've owned and used none were defective. 8 out of 10,000,000 is really insignificant.

I'm not trying to make this into an argument or anything but to me the "express" is a totally different gun than guns manufactured 15-20 years ago. For example the finish or lack of, and the quality control. All my life we had 870 Pump guns. I had two bad guns, two different models. Not just from a quality control standpoint which would apply to the pump I had, but the 1187 was also poorly designed. And you are right that we don't usually contact companies to tell them how well they are doing, but I pay them my hard earned money and I expect that things should work as advertised 99% of the time.

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ARSENO

Discussion Starter · #9 · Aug 24, 2010

I juste bought a Remington 870 express with the shurshot stock and its AMAZING, i did hear alot of horror stories about the rough chamber of the express but this has been fixed, the chamber of my express is as slick as they come and i didnt get a hickup yet. Whenever you buy a brand new gun IT MUST BE COMPLETLY CLEANED AND OILED. It was unbelevable how much stuff came out of the action and even more out of the barrel. I asked this question because i thought that remington didnt fix this chamber issue, but they took care of it!! The only complaint i have about this gun is that the cheek peice of the shurshot stock is made for a scoped shotgun more or less so its a bit high, gotta be carefull or the stock gets you in the face. I LOVE THIS SHOTGUN

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Maritime Storm

· #10 · Aug 24, 2010

Arseno; sounds like may'be Remington is finally addressing the chamber finshi issue. It's a shame they didn't get around to it a few years ago, they may have saved losing customers like Chuck and myself. I don't mind paying a premium price to get a premium product, unfortunately for the last 10 years or so, their products just haven't lived up to the price they commanded.

Woolly; Let's agree to disagree on this issue. Mine suffered an number of issues that were costing me targets and game, it promptly sold after the third trip to my gunsmith, in the middle of bird season, at a loss.

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