I’ve seen the story first hand and I’ve also seen it online I don’t know how many times. It goes like this:
“So, I was out shooting my new Remington 870 Express and it locked up. After firing a shot we couldn’t get it to eject unless we slammed the butt on the ground with significant force. What’s wrong with this gun?”
When you ask what ammo they were using it’s always going to be Winchester bulk-pack ammo. Not Federal, not Estate, Winchester. Always.
Here’s the problem: The 870 Express chambers that they’ve been shipping the last few years are rough. That doesn’t help any with extraction. Now, combine that with the shitty Winchester Universal hulls that they use in those bulk packs and you have a recipe for a failure to extract.
I don’t know exactly why it plays out this way but it does. I suspect the Winchester Universal hulls are using a softer steel than most others out there and that aligns nicely with my experience reloading them. Yes, I’ve reloaded those stupid things*. The resizing process just feels a bit different on them than other steel bases.
Now, why is it so common? That’s easy. The Remington 870 Express is the most popular budget shotgun out there. The Winchester bulk packs are also, in my experience, the most common cheap shooting fodder on the shelves. You can find both at your local WalMart most likely. The two often get mixed together for economic reasons.
The solution? That’s also easy. Either buff out the chamber of the Express barrel or start using better ammo like a Remington STS, Gun Club, or Winchester AA load. The former takes a little work while the latter takes a bit more money. Weigh the options and proceed with what suits you best. If you opt for just buying better hulls I’d suggest saving the spent ones and trying to resell them. Hell, I’ll buy ‘em!
*: It’s usually not recommended to reload the cheap Winchester Universal hulls but I have it on good authority that you can do it using the same recipes you’d use for Winchester AA hulls. The main problem with reloading them is the plastic isn’t real keen on keeping a crimp. It’s not uncommon for me to load up 25 rounds, set them on the bench, and the next day find 4 or 5 of them have crimps that resemble pyramids. So, I shove them back into a final crimp before I box them up. That usually does it. The secondary problem is that because they’re crap they wear out pretty quick. They’re beat up pretty bad after 3 reloads.
