Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Guns N Gear 870 Express FTE

I had a failure to extract on my 870 express at a turkey shoot today. It broke my heart. In 15 years, I've never had a single problem out of this gun. Anybody got any ideas on where to start to fix the problem? This is the first gun I ever owned and I'd really hate to stick in it the corner to collect dust.

I clean it pretty regularly (after every day in the field, turkey shoot, etc.)

broken extractor? can't see how this would be a major repair issue. google 'em up ...

I'd look at the extractor first, then at the chamber to make sure its clean and slick. After that, I'd try to shoot some more of the ammo you were using. Was it standard or high brass?

The 870 is tough as shotguns come, but they are still man made and will break.

We were shooting some kind of target load stuff. I'm really surprised because this gun loved whatever I fed it until today. Never been high maintenance at all. I'll take a closer look at the chamber and extractor. Thanks.

That's what I initially thought. But I removed the spent shell and and cycled a few shells through and it did ok. I'm not 100% convinced that the extractor isn't fouled up though because it did seem to be a sluggish ejection as compared with the past performance. Thanks.

You might even spray some Gun Scrubber in that little recess where the extractor pins to the bolt and make sure there isn't any gunk in there preventing it from movin freely. After that make sure the notch on the side of the chamber where the extractor grabs the rim of the hull doesn't have anything wedged in there.

ok, then, could have been an accidental squib load from the factory; metal base of the shell swelled up and stuck in the chamber. make sure the extractor is clean and dry, and the chamber clean and dry. shoot some more; several brands and loads ...

Bigbamaboy has given you some good info on where to start looking for problems. The cheaper ammo uses steel instead of brass. It can swell causing an FTE. I'd try some brass shells before worrying too much.

What is your avatar a picture of gundoc?

My sons 870 20ga. Refused to lock up on a particular Federal shell last week. Would not eject it either. Only did it on the one shell, a 3" #6.

Did the ammo brass or steel head? My son has a 2 year old 870 that will not extract steel head shells. Brass works just fine though. Grandson has a new 870 Compact that does the same thing.

my buddies does the same thing got to be brass and has to be federal ammo pretty weird

My Firefighter badge.

Thanks for all the info. I'm planning to shoot again today, so we'll see if it was just the ammo or if there's another issue. On inspection, all surfaces of the chamber look polished. Extractor if free of burrs/chips/cracks/etc. All surfaces are clean. I even went back and put a bit of gun scrubber around the extractor as well.

was the shell that stuck a steel or aluminum base?

I believe it was aluminum

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=149107
Read the 5th post.. Looks like a lot of people have this problem. I had an 870 doing the something but didn't know about this before i got rid of it.

I'm not sure if that was my problem or not. I do know that I cycled 100 rounds through it today of similar type of ammo with no problems. I'm thinking that I may have overreacted a bit. Who knows? All I know is that I tried to replicate the issue every way that I knew and could not replicate it. She shucked every shell like a brand new gun today. I'm hoping I just had a jacked up shell casing that didn't want to cooperate. As for now, I'm satisfied that all is well.