Shotgun Forum banner

Remington 870 Express exploded diagram and plug question

3478 Views 6 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  michauxii
Bought a nice used Express 12 Magnum. Did not come with a plug.
Grabbed a green plastic Remington plug at local gun shop and installed. Works fine with 2 3/4" shells. Will allow only one 3" shell in magazine.

First (and I call myself trying to use the Search feature) where can I pull up an exploded view of this shotgun? I want to see if I installed the plug correctly! .............. I did drop it into the the spring opposite the shotshells; directly under the barrel removal cap.

Do I just need to saw off/shorten the plug a little?

Thanks!
1 - 7 of 7 Posts
It sounds like you have it installed correctly. At least that is the way mine came out. You should be able to cut off a little at a time until it will just allow two 3 inch shells. As long as you keep the available magazine space under about 8 inches it still shouldn't allow more than two 2.75 shells to be loaded in the magazine.
You shouldn't need to cut the plug at all. Something is not right.

http://www.remington.com/pdfs/om/om_870.pdf
is it possible he has the plug ont he wrong side of the retainer clip or something like that
Figured it out!!!!!!!!!
The plastic magazine spring retainer was the problem...
It will slide into the magazine tube about 1" and lock into place.
Wrong...

It needs to be PROTRUDING about a 1/2" Above the lip of the magazine tube!

I don't know why, but it is easier to lock the retainer into place while it is pushed into the magazine than when it is slightly above(and correctly spaced) the the magazine lip.

Thanks for the replies! And I really appreciated a copy of the instruction manual..

The owners' manual does have a "semi-exploded view of this shotgun, but I know I've seen a more detailed "explosion" somewhere... If anyone has a link, I'd sure appreciate it.
See less See more
michauxii said:
Figured it out!!!!!!!!!
I don't know why, but it is easier to lock the retainer into place while it is pushed into the magazine than when it is slightly above(and correctly spaced) the the magazine lip.
My own vast experience at screwing stuff up is that it is almost always easier to put stuff together wrong :)

John
Yep, I agree!
But I put the durn thing back exactly as it came apart..
Gun is used;so someone applied their skills before I got to it :?

And a 'smith..I ain't!
1 - 7 of 7 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top