Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Remington 31 Skeet Gun not lifting shell high enough to enter chamber

Hi to all you Remington Gunsmiths. I just picked up at 31 Skeet Gun and have been having some trouble on skeet doubles.
Sometimes the shell lifter does not lift the shell high enough to fit into the chamber. Not all the time but maybe one time out of 7 or 8. I have taken the gun down and cleaned and oiled everything and looked for signs of excessive wear. The lifter just seems to be a little bit shy of lifting the 2nd shell out of the magazine for the double. Can I bend the lifter slightly to get more of an arc to position the second shell on a consistant application to enter the chamber and not get hung up. It happened today after my second or third cleaning an check out. Yes I am using reloads, but factory shells would also have the same problem. Help in Michigan.

Your not short shucking it are ya? Post a pic of that thing, their one of the best pumps ever make IMO

There are several things that can cause the 31 to fail to feed... tolerances are pretty tight and either old sticky oils or junk can limit bolt travel to produce an involuntary short shuck...

Also, a weak magazine spring can fail to get the shell out far enough, fast enough to produce a similar result. Replace it or stretch the old one a bit and make sure everything is slick and clean.

I like DriSlide for the 31.

Thanks for the input, I am not short shucking the gun. I have completely disassembled, cleaned and oiled the gun twice and have improved the situation but it still on occassion jams the shell low entering the chamber. The magazine spring and tube have has been cleaned and oiled and has plenty of tension. The problem is that it will not lift the shell high enough on a consistant pump 100% of the time to enter. I have ordered a reprint of the orginal 31 Gun Smith manual that has trouble shooting and causes. Also I will pick up a new carrier so I don't have to bend the orginal. I have other 31's that don't have this problem. I will try driSlide, thanks for that tip. I have been using Tri-Flow with PTFE that has worked well on other firearms. Yes, the 31 is a great gun. I like them better than Win Model 12's which I also own. I have field strip mine in the field pheasant hunting to pick out weed tassels and or seeds that jam the action and put them back together on my hunting coat without tools. Try doing that with a Win Model 12. Thanks guys.

Okay, we got the fact you are good with the 31, perfect!

The magazine spring is not strong enough.

If you have cleaned the action as you sound like you have that leaves a timing issue based on spring tension.

You know the action well and therefore know there are no wear issues or points in that action. It is a good one.

Take the spring out and pull it good and hard.

The weaker spring pushes the shell out but fails to clear the mouth of the magazine before you are going forward on the slide leaving the shell riding nose-down in the carrier. It does not catch up and correct itself.

Thanks Sitka, I will try the spring pull trick. I noticed when I compared the magazine spring tension to another Model 31 that has no issues, it is quite a bit weaker.

If you bend the lifter you will more than likely screw up its interaction with the shell stops long before you "fix" the actual problem. People say you can fix a 31 this way, I just don't see it.

The carrier on a 31 is a long dog-leg piece that pivots from waaaay back in the receiver. The "knee" of the dogleg rides on the bolt slide, raising and lowering the carrier. When the knee starts to wear a little, and it will eventually, it doesn't lift the carrier as high and the shell may start jamming into the bottom of the barrel as you have noted.

Two things you can do:

1. Live with it.

2. Find a carrier with a fatter "knee", somewhere like gunbroker. Note: The three patterns of model 31s. '31, '34, and '41 all use carriers than do not interchange.

I guess there would be an option to weld up the carrier knee but that seems like it could take some serious skill.

PM me if you want more info.

Thanks to all that responded, I have order another carrier (ie. shell lifter) from ebay. I will let you know if that solves the problem.