E.Shell
Ultimate Member
I have been shooting several 870s for 40+ years. When I was RO at the Ft Meade Trap & Skeet Range, I used to shoot a few hundred rounds a week through my bird gun, an older 870 12 gauge 3" Wingmaster Magnum. It's been sea duck hunting, puddle duck hunting, goose hunting, deer hunting and has shot all manner of clay targets - definitely a 'working gun'.
While I was shooting at Ft. Meade one afternoon, the shotgun failed. The failure mode was that the safety was stuck and would not switch, and the trigger would not reset. The gun would load, cycle and eject normally, but would not fire. At the time, I was doing a little gun work and was dealing with Pennsylvania Gun Parts, a Remington parts specialist, for all of my parts.
I cannot recall his name, maybe John, but when I discussed the 870's failure with PGP's owner, he said he would be glad to sell me any parts I needed, but suggested that if I had that kind of volume through the gun and the trigger/safety broke, there are probably other parts in the "trigger plate assembly" that were getting close to failure too. He said I'd probably be better off just replacing the entire trigger plate assembly. I had never had the assembly apart and what he said made sense, so I just bought a replacement trigger plate assembly and dropped it in. I think the cost was around $65.00. The new assembly worked fine, I was back in business and life was good. I tossed the broken assembly into my "Remington" parts box and forgot about it.
A few years later, I had another similar failure with one of my other well-used 870s. Remembering PGP's advice and my prior success, I just ordered another trigger plate assembly, installed it and went back to what I was doing. I recall the cost being a little more, probably close to $75.00. I tossed this broken assembly into the parts box too.
Some time later, I bought a used 870 for a very cheap price, because it was broken...yup, same failure mode. Knowing that for $75-80 I could could get it running again and still save a bunch of money, I bought it, fixed it and tossed the broken trigger plate assembly into the parts box...
Fast forward...
This past Sunday morning, I went to PG Trap & Skeet with some friends to shoot sporting clays. I took my 870, because I don't own a dedicated target shotgun, and because sea duck season fast approaches and I could use the practice. Exactly TWO rounds into the shoot, my 870 broke. Same failure mode; trigger/safety problem... BrowningGuy was kind enough to share his very shiny Browning with me and let me shoot the rest of the course. Somebody, Wes, Ben, George, not sure who because they wouldn't let me pay for them, gave me a couple boxes of 20 gauge shells because all I brought were 12s. I'm very grateful for the gun loaner and the shells!
When I got home, I started looking online for a replacement trigger plate assembly. Several places showed them for $80-90, but didn't have them in stock. One other place had them in stock, but they were $118 + shipping. WOW!
Never having disassembled the complicated-looking assembly, but at this point having nothing to lose and being curious as to what was causing the same failure in multiple guns, I decided to tear it down and see if it was a part I could replace.
I followed a YouTube disassembly video and took it apart step-by-step. Easier than I thought it would be. I got the whole thing apart, with the trigger and safety being at the very end of the disassembly procedure. There were NO broken parts! Very odd... I put it back together and it worked. I had to find out what was going on, so I took it apart again, looked it over, then put it back together and now it doesn't work... Took it apart again and REALLY looked at everything carefully...
What I found was that the safety detent ball (#49), driven by a spring (#50) captured by a pin (#51) through the main trigger plate. The spring does not have "finished" ends and looks like it could have been clipped out of the middle of a longer spring. The bottom end of the spring, where it meets the ball, was deformed a little. The last coil had spread out and was engaging the sides of the bore, wedging against the ball and locking up the safety. First time I took it apart/put it back together, I had indavertantly flipped the spring and put the 'good end' against the ball and it worked fine. When I did that a second time, I had flipped the spring back to its original position and cause it to malfunction again.
Here's my shotgun with my collection of broken Trigger Plate Assemblies:
To remove the safety-related parts doesn't require disassembly of anything except the safety mechanism itself.
First, use a small punch to slide the retainer pin (#51) out. Let the punch follow the pin through and prevent the spring from escaping.
Here is the retainer pin (#51), at the tip of my probe:
Be careful to not allow the punch to back out until you can control the spring. Spring tension is relatively light, but it can still fly. Just put your finger over the top hole and slide the punch back out:
Once the punch is out and spring tension released, you can dump the spring out of the top opening. The safety can be gently worked back and forth to cause the detent ball to ride up and be out of the way, allowing the safety button (#48) to slide out. It will go out either way, and if you wanted to convert to a left-handed safety, you can simply reverse insertion of the safety button at this time. Once the safety is out, the ball didn't seem to want to fall out in either direction in any of them, but a small punch can push it out from the top and it will fall into the safety button opening. Here are the parts, arranged as assembled:
It is very hard to see, especially in pics, but I could easily feel the enlarged end of the spring, where the loose end is protruding beyond the main diameter of the spring, shown here on the right end of the spring:
By flipping the spring over, putting the enlarged coil at the top against the retaining pin and the un-deformed end down against the ball, I was able to make it work reliably. I then looked at the other three trigger plate assemblies and found exactly the same issue. I flipped the springs in all of them in about 5 minutes each and now they all work!!
Here is a view of the trigger plates and one thing to notice is the pronounced wear on two of the three, while the third one is relatively fresh:
In case it's not obvious, take a look at the hammers (#33) and where they contact the firing pin, shown at the tip of my probe:
The hammer on the far right shows very little wear. This difference in wear while experiencing the same failure mode tells me that it's not necessary to have a gazillion rounds through your gun to experience this failure.
Hope this helps and good luck!
While I was shooting at Ft. Meade one afternoon, the shotgun failed. The failure mode was that the safety was stuck and would not switch, and the trigger would not reset. The gun would load, cycle and eject normally, but would not fire. At the time, I was doing a little gun work and was dealing with Pennsylvania Gun Parts, a Remington parts specialist, for all of my parts.
I cannot recall his name, maybe John, but when I discussed the 870's failure with PGP's owner, he said he would be glad to sell me any parts I needed, but suggested that if I had that kind of volume through the gun and the trigger/safety broke, there are probably other parts in the "trigger plate assembly" that were getting close to failure too. He said I'd probably be better off just replacing the entire trigger plate assembly. I had never had the assembly apart and what he said made sense, so I just bought a replacement trigger plate assembly and dropped it in. I think the cost was around $65.00. The new assembly worked fine, I was back in business and life was good. I tossed the broken assembly into my "Remington" parts box and forgot about it.
A few years later, I had another similar failure with one of my other well-used 870s. Remembering PGP's advice and my prior success, I just ordered another trigger plate assembly, installed it and went back to what I was doing. I recall the cost being a little more, probably close to $75.00. I tossed this broken assembly into the parts box too.
Some time later, I bought a used 870 for a very cheap price, because it was broken...yup, same failure mode. Knowing that for $75-80 I could could get it running again and still save a bunch of money, I bought it, fixed it and tossed the broken trigger plate assembly into the parts box...
Fast forward...
This past Sunday morning, I went to PG Trap & Skeet with some friends to shoot sporting clays. I took my 870, because I don't own a dedicated target shotgun, and because sea duck season fast approaches and I could use the practice. Exactly TWO rounds into the shoot, my 870 broke. Same failure mode; trigger/safety problem... BrowningGuy was kind enough to share his very shiny Browning with me and let me shoot the rest of the course. Somebody, Wes, Ben, George, not sure who because they wouldn't let me pay for them, gave me a couple boxes of 20 gauge shells because all I brought were 12s. I'm very grateful for the gun loaner and the shells!
When I got home, I started looking online for a replacement trigger plate assembly. Several places showed them for $80-90, but didn't have them in stock. One other place had them in stock, but they were $118 + shipping. WOW!
Never having disassembled the complicated-looking assembly, but at this point having nothing to lose and being curious as to what was causing the same failure in multiple guns, I decided to tear it down and see if it was a part I could replace.
I followed a YouTube disassembly video and took it apart step-by-step. Easier than I thought it would be. I got the whole thing apart, with the trigger and safety being at the very end of the disassembly procedure. There were NO broken parts! Very odd... I put it back together and it worked. I had to find out what was going on, so I took it apart again, looked it over, then put it back together and now it doesn't work... Took it apart again and REALLY looked at everything carefully...
What I found was that the safety detent ball (#49), driven by a spring (#50) captured by a pin (#51) through the main trigger plate. The spring does not have "finished" ends and looks like it could have been clipped out of the middle of a longer spring. The bottom end of the spring, where it meets the ball, was deformed a little. The last coil had spread out and was engaging the sides of the bore, wedging against the ball and locking up the safety. First time I took it apart/put it back together, I had indavertantly flipped the spring and put the 'good end' against the ball and it worked fine. When I did that a second time, I had flipped the spring back to its original position and cause it to malfunction again.
Here's my shotgun with my collection of broken Trigger Plate Assemblies:
To remove the safety-related parts doesn't require disassembly of anything except the safety mechanism itself.
First, use a small punch to slide the retainer pin (#51) out. Let the punch follow the pin through and prevent the spring from escaping.
Here is the retainer pin (#51), at the tip of my probe:
Be careful to not allow the punch to back out until you can control the spring. Spring tension is relatively light, but it can still fly. Just put your finger over the top hole and slide the punch back out:
Once the punch is out and spring tension released, you can dump the spring out of the top opening. The safety can be gently worked back and forth to cause the detent ball to ride up and be out of the way, allowing the safety button (#48) to slide out. It will go out either way, and if you wanted to convert to a left-handed safety, you can simply reverse insertion of the safety button at this time. Once the safety is out, the ball didn't seem to want to fall out in either direction in any of them, but a small punch can push it out from the top and it will fall into the safety button opening. Here are the parts, arranged as assembled:
It is very hard to see, especially in pics, but I could easily feel the enlarged end of the spring, where the loose end is protruding beyond the main diameter of the spring, shown here on the right end of the spring:
By flipping the spring over, putting the enlarged coil at the top against the retaining pin and the un-deformed end down against the ball, I was able to make it work reliably. I then looked at the other three trigger plate assemblies and found exactly the same issue. I flipped the springs in all of them in about 5 minutes each and now they all work!!
Here is a view of the trigger plates and one thing to notice is the pronounced wear on two of the three, while the third one is relatively fresh:
In case it's not obvious, take a look at the hammers (#33) and where they contact the firing pin, shown at the tip of my probe:
The hammer on the far right shows very little wear. This difference in wear while experiencing the same failure mode tells me that it's not necessary to have a gazillion rounds through your gun to experience this failure.
Hope this helps and good luck!
