Problems with certain Winchester Ammunition and the Remington 870 and 887

[goColt]

I also posted this in the Long Gun forum.

In our Defensive Shotgun 101 class yesterday, one of the students was running a Remington 887 pump-action shotgun in 12 gauge. He experienced several malfunctions (action jamming closed) throughout the course, finally resulting in an action that could not be opened at all. When I took the Yavapi Shotgun Level I class with Louis Awerbuck a couple of years ago, my Remington 870 experienced similar malfunctions with Winchester ammo. Louis shared with the class that this is very common with the 870 and some Winchester ammo.

The issue is due to using certain Winchester ammunition with these two shotguns. This includes but may be not limited to the Super Target and Super-X Heavy Game load.

The suggestion I've given to my students and posted on our Facebook page for Remington owners is to avoid these labels from Winchester for the 870 and 887. You may or may not experience these issues, but in my opinion there is no reason to take the chance on buying ammo that could cause malfunctions and possibly damage the gun.

Also, for those who are looking to buy a shotgun, this may be taken into account when considering these two Remington shotguns. There are other manufacturers that do not experience this issue with this ammo.

Until Remington fixes this issue, I cannot in good faith recommend Remington shotguns to my students. I myself am most likely going to switch to the Mossberg 500.

In my estimation, a defensive shotgun, and really ANY shotgun should be able to run ANY type of ammunition from a reputable manufacturer without any issues.

Take care and BE SAFE!

 

[chezuki]

I guess I'll reply here too...

My 870 had issue with cheapo "low-brass" aluminum stuff until I polished the chamber. Ran fine after.

 

[Jackson]

I have issues with Reminton "slugger" slugs in one of the barrels in my 870. Of course, it is the rifle-sighted barrel that shoots slugs the best. And why wouldn't it be?

 

[Barry in IN]

A few years ago in a YFA class, we were able to narrow it down to shells having silver colored rims. These turned out to be steel (or at least magnetic) rather than brass. The obvious guess was the steel held its fired expanded shape instead of "snapping back" a little like brass.

At at the time, these were only seen in the cheaper 100-rd boxes with names like "dove and quail". I'm sure the cheapness has expanded to other lines since then.

 

[rhino]

A few years ago in a YFA class, we were able to narrow it down to shells having silver colored rims. These turned out to be steel (or at least magnetic) rather than brass. The obvious guess was the steel held its fired expanded shape instead of "snapping back" a little like brass.

At at the time, these were only seen in the cheaper 100-rd boxes with names like "dove and quail". I'm sure the cheapness has expanded to other lines since then.

Those won't function in my Stoeger M2000 either, nor the Federal equivalents.

 

[sidewinder27]

I stopped shooting Winchester rounds for everything a few years ago. It felt like the rounds were loaded different, one would feel hot then the next low. I was also seeing brass that was not ejecting properly and lead that was seated crooked to the point it split the brass.