New magazine spring... Anything else?

[DaveC]

So my wife alerted me that there was some strange man with a backpack on in the alleyway near my house. She thought he was hanging back by various trees and shrubs. My dog was completely quiet, which seemed odd?

So I got my 12-ga. 870 Synthetic Express from circa 1989/1990 with a Mossberg 18-in. barrel, racked a No. 4 buckshot shell into the chamber from the loaded tube magazine, put a fourth shell from the side-saddle into the 4+1 magazine, and went outside for a look. I shone the light from my EOTech forend in various dark corners of my yard, behind my shed, and other venues where someone might try to hide out. No one was there.

Great! False alarm!

Once back inside, I unloaded the shotgun by easing the slide back, extracting the shell from the chamber, popping the elevator up, and pulling the slide the rest of the way back to eject the shell in the magazine into my hand. then I depressed the the magazine tube catch with my thumb and ejected the third and fourth rounds. But the fifth would not come out!

Try as I might, the last shell, the fourth in the magazine, the fifth in the shotgun, would not come out... I racked the slide repeatedly, and forcefully, but it would not go back past the tube magazine into the elevator. Eventually I had to leave the bolt at the half-way mark in the ejection port, unscrew the magazine cap, pull the barrel off, remove the magazine spring retainer and spring, rotate and remove the magazine follower, and then allow the shell to fall out...

Clearly, I need a new 4+1 magazine spring! I guess keeping it loaded with 4 shells eventually compressed it to the point where it took a "set?"
What more would you all do other than replace the spring to insure that all the shells would load from the tube magazine? Help please?

[Klagz13]

Replace the follower as well, would be my suggestion. Several companies make brightly colored aluminum ones


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[Germansheperd]

Put a’police’ Magazine spring (its slightly longer) in with a new aluminum follower and you will never have another issue the rest of your or your children’s lives.

[DaveC]

Ha-ha!

OK. Thanks!

I've got a pretty snazzy Delrin hi-viz follower... So I will start off with the new spring y'all recommend... On looking very closely, I do detect a slight dent in the tube magazine, but I don't think that is it... I'll try the new Spring and if worse comes to worst... And it often does? I'll take it in for a 'smith to check out. Thanks for the recommendations.