About two years ago, I bought a NIB 1975 Remington Wingmaster 870 with a 20" barrel and rifle sights that is a slightly more fancy version of my issue 870 that accompanied me for a couple of decades.
I cleaned and inspected it, oiled it judiciously, and have run a hundred or two rounds through it. While it balanced and shot perfectly (muscle memory lasts a long, long time), loading was not what I expected and it was easy to not get shells deep enough into the magazine 'cleanly.'
Suddenly I snapped - I had not disassembled the mag tube, follower, and spring. Well, surprise, surprise - there was fairly thick rust preventative inside the tube, on the outside of the follower, and all over the mag spring. Brushed out the tube with an old copper 10 gauge brush, scrubbed it thoroughly with Hoppe's #9, and when the patches came out clean, oiled it lightly, then ran a dry patch through it. The follower, 50 year old plastic, was just a gummy mess, and I got it to new condition with #9 and old t-shirt material - same with the mag spring.
Unsurprisingly, she loads slick and perfectly now.
I'm not feeling particularly smart right now...I should have done this two years ago, but I guess I forgot NIB meant exactly that. Aging sux.
I cleaned and inspected it, oiled it judiciously, and have run a hundred or two rounds through it. While it balanced and shot perfectly (muscle memory lasts a long, long time), loading was not what I expected and it was easy to not get shells deep enough into the magazine 'cleanly.'
Suddenly I snapped - I had not disassembled the mag tube, follower, and spring. Well, surprise, surprise - there was fairly thick rust preventative inside the tube, on the outside of the follower, and all over the mag spring. Brushed out the tube with an old copper 10 gauge brush, scrubbed it thoroughly with Hoppe's #9, and when the patches came out clean, oiled it lightly, then ran a dry patch through it. The follower, 50 year old plastic, was just a gummy mess, and I got it to new condition with #9 and old t-shirt material - same with the mag spring.
Unsurprisingly, she loads slick and perfectly now.
I'm not feeling particularly smart right now...I should have done this two years ago, but I guess I forgot NIB meant exactly that. Aging sux.
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