Questions/Concerns about new 870

[GR00VY]

Hello,

It has been a while since I had a shotgun or used one as I have been focusing on pistols and rifles for a couple years. I decided it was time to get an entry level shotgun to start practicing with again. I picked up an 870 turkey with a 21 inch barrel. When I received I noticed the receiver and barrel alignment was crooked and the holes that are drilled in the receiver for mounting scopes or red dots were not drilled center.





I sent it to remington letting them know what was wrong and the sent it back with a note saying they adjusted the barrel alignment to the receiver, which it looks like they did. However, they said the holes were centered which they clearly are not they are about 1/32 of inch closer to the left for the rear holes. The front hole is centered so it kinda goes at a slight angle. I am hoping it wont cause a problem (since it is closer to center alignment than before) if i ever want to mount a dot sight on it.





I am not sure how they adjusted the barrel alignment there is not welding marks or anything in the receiver and the barrel and receiver were not replaced.

I took it to the range and shot some slugs and it clicked and didnt go boom for 2 shots but that was right at the beginning and it worked fine after that for 20 slugs. I think there must have been some crud in the firing pin channel. The firing pin and spring look fine. It shot really accurate.

Upon cleaning it I noticed some gouges/peening and scratches in the barrel extension where the top of the bolt locks up and on the face of the barrel. Is this normal or self limiting? or is this a problem?





In my quest to determine why the holes in my receive were drilled a little off center I started taking measurements of the receiver. I noticed the flat on the left side is shorter than the right. Again, is this normal? I know this may seem stupid but i am tring to find out why they said the receiver was drilled properly. I couldn't find any 870 receiver blueprints online so I am asking here.



Thanks for any answers you provide and sorry for what might seem like stupid questions. I am just being a little picky since I was having problems with the gun out of the box. It didn't instill a lot of confidence.

[gritz]

Wow. I couldn't say one way or the other. I will be watching this post closely as I was just down at my local gun shop and have been eyeing a wingmaster light in beautiful condition for a good price. I have been dreaming about it for a while now. It is used but doesn't look like it has been shot. I shouldered it today and noticed that the middle bead and the front bead did not line up. It looked like the middle bead was slightly off to the left and i couldn't figure it out. Then I noticed that it seemed that the glare reduction grooves went strait down the receiver but the barrel then took on an odd canter as my eye followed the rib. I have seen people comment in many places about how remington QC has been iffy for new guns and I am starting to think there might really be something to this. Sounds to me that your receiver isn't true, which would maybe account for the barrel fitting wonky and the holes not lining up.
As a side note rant, I can't stand it when I go through all the trouble to give a company the opportunity to make something right and they come back with "everything is just fine." They probably had someone who known nothing about guns unpack your gun, put it in a machine that tests tolerances in some automated fashion. It cleared and that was that. When you can just look at the holes and can tell with your naked eye that they are not aligned it is something that should be fixed with no question. You went though all that trouble sending a gun back when you could have just sold it to someone else. They should be calling YOU to make sure you were satisfied and really, if that was my gun, I would be asking for a refund so I could invest my money in a gun that I had total confidence in. Any gun in my safe that goes click when I pull the trigger is out the door. Either to a gun smith or the scrap heap. Life is too short for shitty guns when there are so many great ones out there.

[GR00VY]

Well just to see what my options are I called Remington again and talked to Customer Service Supervisor. I told him I was not happy with the returned product. He looked up the notes and recited back to me what the technician wrote. He said the receiver and barrel were aligned and they didn't see anything that indicated the holes were misaligned. I told him they surely were and I'd ne happy to send a picture as it is very obvious. He then told me that he doesn't service the gun so it doesn't matter what he sees, only what the person who works on my gun does. He said that it was unlikely they would do anything since the tech already looked at it and it checked out but I could send it anyways and I would have it back in about 2 months (likely with nothing done to it). I was polite when I talked but when I get told that the receiver holes are not misaligned even though I am the one looking at it and can see i start get a little annoyed. So my options are to keep it and ignore the fact the holes are not drilled straight and the gun looks like it is destroying itself when it is fired or send it in and get back and accept that is not drilled right yada yada yada. I told him that my buddy who owns a gun shop said he would be happy to put it on display at his shop as an example of why he doesn't sell remingtons (this is true. he made the offer to me). The supervisor said that is fine but I will not be issued any refunds and sending it in probably wont do anything.

I guess I will hold on to it and have my smith figure out why it went click and not boom those couple times. I will get that fixed and use the gun as a beater gun. Just crappy service. 400 dollar lesson......don't buy remington again. oh well.

[gritz]

I think this would be a good time to mention how important those small gun dealers are in our local areas and how important, if you are lucky enough to have one, it is to support them. If you would have had this from a guy down the street you could walk back in there and show them what you are talking about. Face to face it would be up to that guy to make things right or risk losing business. Remington doesn't give a %$^# about end users. As long as they have Cabelas and Gander Mountain purchasing bulk shipments and moving the product they are banking on a certain percentage of customers being satisfied. If I buy a gun from a locally owned shop they take every complaint seriously because one customer and word of mouth could seriously impact their business. Also, they tend to take real pride in their business. I have no doubt that if you could prove your point face to face with a seller they would, at the very least, let you return your gun for refund at a great cost to themselves in order to make sure you felt like you had service. I have ordered guns unseen and have had decent success but I have also had to send back a few. Luckily, I have always had good service (Taurus, NEF). But I am tending to really hold off on guns unless I can inspect them personally before purchase. A quick look over can save months and 100's of dollars and worth waiting for the right gun. I've been in love with a few guns. Looked down the barrel or cycled the action and walked away from them.
Seriously feel the pain of a burned customer but this doesn't put Remington out completely. They do make good guns. But like everything else these days they make crap too and they are so big that if you get stuck with a bad one you are up a creek. You can make lemon-ade out of a lemon but you can't squeeze sh*& out of a bad or dangerous gun. I don't even know if it is worth parting out much unless you can really figure out exactly what is whacky (barrel, receiver, bolt, or all of the above).

[Synchronizor]

I second Gritz's comment about the smaller, more personal gun shops. My 870 came with the factory +2 magazine extension and I started having some feeding and loading hang-ups soon after I got it. Turns out I had just installed the extension improperly after cleaning, but I did take it back to the local, small-chain sporting goods store where I bought it. The employees there were very interested in trying to help me with the problem, and were more than willing to arrange to have it serviced if I wanted. Good folks there, and if it wasn't for an ordering mix-up, that store would have been where I purchased my Glock as well.

[Greg.41]

Don't give up on the gun yet! It's not a rifle, and not made with the same degree of precision, particularly if you bought the Express model! You did say it was accurate with the slugs you shot, seems to me the issue now would be optic alignment. Borrow a weaver or picatinny rail of appropriate length, mount a good optic and see how it shoots. You may be pleasantly surprised.