20 gauge RemingtonMAGNUM 870 feeding problem

[Old Friend]

I have used 870s since 1964 and have had them in all gauges except 16. However, I recently bought a 20 gauge RemingtonMagnum [sic] and it has a feeding problem. This model is a 20 gauge built on a 12 gauge frame and appears to have been made between 1984 and 1994.

PROBLEM: This gun has a 12 gauge magazine tube, It adapts to feeding the smaller 20 gauge shells with a "magazine follower stop," a ring at the bottom of the magazine tube. It has a hole just large enough for the 20 gauge shell to feed through. Thus, the magazine follower stop is much wider and forms a shelf. On my gun, when the 20 gauge shell slides down and hits this stop, it catches and can't get past. won't go through the center. Please note that the "magazine follower stop" is internal to the magazine tube and is unrelated to the shell stops in the receiver.

Any help gratefully received.

Thanks.

Marshall

[BKinzey]

I've got a Large Frame 20ga. IIRC the new frames are "LW" or "LightWeight" designations.

From my Google research, the changeover to the LW frame occurred around 1977, so I think yours is a little older than '84.

So, trivia aside, I don't know much about them and I doubt I've put a box of ammo through my 20ga. I can only suggest the obvious and that is to look for wear or burs at the stop. How worn does the magazine spring look? If Wolff makes an extra power spring maybe that's what it needs.

[Old Friend]

Hi BKinzy, and thank you for your reply.

My gun's serial number has a prefix "W" which first appeared in 1984 and was replaced with an "X" in 1990. The barrel code is "00" which indicates the barrel was made in July 1994.

The actual condition is "nearly new." Magazine spring is excellent. (My guess is that the former owner never used the gun because it would not work properly.)

The problem is that the base of a shell sliding down the magazine tube stops against the "magazine follower stop." The magazine follower stop is a lip on the inside rear of the magazine tube. Its purpose is to stop the magazine follower's rearward movement when the magazine is empty. On my gun, a shell in the magazine tube cannot get past the magazine follower stop.

[BKinzey]

So I took some pics of my 20ga's magazine.

870 20GA Follower.jpg (228.35 KiB) Viewed 692 times

870 20GA load.jpg (148.92 KiB) Viewed 692 times

Compare these as to what your's looks like. It might help if you can upload pics of yours.

[Old Friend]

Hi again, BKinzy, and, again, many thanks for your efforts. I managed to fix the problem, and I will try to explain below how I did it.

Looking at your excellent close up picture of your shotgun's follower, you can see that the edge of the follower rests against a tiny rim at the end of the magazine tube which stops the follower from going past it and interfering with the shell stops. The ledge is called the "magazine follower stop." As you know, the magazine tube on the 20 gauge RemingtonMAGNUM is larger, 12 gauge instead of 20 gauge, so the ledge is wider. My reading indicates that tiny burrs can build up on the edge of this ledge, and when the rim of the shell hits the stop, these burrs capture the rim of the fresh shell and prevent it moving to the center where it can feed. I believe that this wider ledge causes the problem, and I gather that this problem is much more likely with the 20 gauge guns on 12 gauge frames.

Fixing burrs ought to be simple enough, just polish them out. Problem is that the burrs are at the rear of the magazine tube and mostly inaccessible. Then I measured things and discovered that the inside of the 12 gauge magazine tube is a bit over .901 inch. Eventually it dawned on my slow wit that the inside of the magazine tube is just slightly larger than 7/8 inches, so I got a 7/8" dowel, screwed a little Dremel Too sanding disc to the end of the dowel, slipped it inside the magazine and twirled it to smooth off the burrs. After three weeks of serious thought and help from people like you, the problem was fixed in about five minutes.

Again, many thanks for your help.

[BKinzey]

Glad you found a solution.