Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Remington 11-87 and Winchester Light Target Loads

took my remington 11-87 (12g) and fired the first shot ,It would fire the first shell but not eject or load second round. tried a few times to manually eject the round and the same thing happened.

called the original owner and he said it must be the load . so i started searching for issues with 11-87 and it seems like many people have the same issue with "winchester target 2 3/4 #7 1/2".

among many postings this one seems to be identical to my problem :





https://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=570228

any comments ? should i try another ammo or go to gunsmith ?

Make sure the rings are installed in the correct order and replace the O-ring. The whole design change on the 11-87 was to allow for light loads. I shoot 7/8oz loads in mine without issue.

I have the same issue with a new 20ga 11-87 I bought for my daughter. It will cycle high brass loads O.K. But not cycle light field/target loads. Will fire and fail to eject. Or, will fire and eject, but fail to pick up the new shell from the carrier. All of the parts and pieces installed according to the Remington manual. The only input I picked up was to shoot a flat of high brass shells thru it to "loosen it up" and then it will (might?) shoot the light field/target loads. Any pointers would be appreciated.

What your experiencing is a rough chamber. It's evident on the Winchester loads because they are cheap rounds often called promo loads. The case head is actually copper washed steel and they tend to stick. Winchester Universal and the Federal loads sold in Walmart are generally the prime offenders. These shells often won't cycle in an 870 or a 500 believe it or not.

The fix is to polish your chamber. I use a brake cylinder hone with a drill then finish with 0000 steal wool spun with a drill. Works every time and its what a gunsmith would have done. Remington has corrected this issue and is polishing the chambers more fully to agomedate these cheaper loads. Takes about 5 or 10 minutes.

You wont be able to see or feel the chamber roughness...it doesn't take much to make shells stick


Only other issue could be the gas bypass valve on your barrel. Its a steel C clip that fits over bypass holes next to the gas cylinder. Its design allows the gun to cycle 3 inch shells by allowing excess pressure to bleed off. If that spring steel clip is not present it allows even lower pressure loads to bleed off and doesn't allow for enough gas to move the gas piston. Late model 11/87 barrels don't come with this for some reason known only to Remington.

Contrary to what less experienced people may tell you the 11/87 guns are extremely reliable when setup properly and maintained. Id suggest you head over to shotgun world forms and read up on them.

FWIW I use 1100s in competition and have several with over 25k through them with no issues what so ever.

Here is the correct name and part number. If your barrel does NOT have this installed it wont cycle light loads PERIOD

remington gas cylinder collar spring F93498


Be advised the part number does vary by gauge

Sounds like you need an o-ring.

Or what Quak said.

I've had problems with those Winchester shells myself, and that particular 11-87 would shoot anything else without a hiccup.

I started having the same problem at our dove hunt a couple of years ago with my browning Auto 5. Did a little googling and what I found is those cheap dove loads they sell at Wal Mart are cheap for a reason. They went steelhead because they are cheaper than brass and have thinned the plastic to the point that the shells flex and deform during recoil and cycling enough to make them not feed and eject properly in autoloaders. I bought some shells that had a decent hull that cost a couple of dollars more and my gun cycled them as fast as I could shoot and never failed to cycle again.

You need a new o-ring. My son shot trap and skeet with my 1100, and when it was time for a new o-ring, it would start fail to feed the lighter loads. Replace the o-ring and it was good to go again. If you shoot a lot, you might as well but a pack of 3 or so.

O rings are easy to inspect but they don’t really wear out. They fail due to rough handling when taking them on and off. I’ve seen them last for over 40k on comp guns when 1100s were THE skeet guns.

Regardless I’d look at. Good advice above

My 11-87 wouldn't shoot those cheap Winchester shells when it was brand new......yet it shot everything else perfectly. Not saying it's an O ring problem, because it can happen. But, it's more than likely the cheap shells.

Chamber polish level causes this

Those silver replacement Remington O-rings seem to last longer.

If you want to try an o ring pm me your adress and I’ll give you one. I got lit up some years back and ordered a 500 pack lol.

thanks , i am going to take it to a gunsmith and have him check everything. the gun looks brand new and seller said he didn't use it much and I believe him.

The gun my son used was the same way, but we found out from it sitting the o-ring was pretty much dry rotted. I think in about a 3-week span, half of his team that shot semi-auto's, had to replace their o-rings. If I would have had money to spare, I would have bought him an over under. He did pretty good at trap and loved it, skeet was a different story. After looking at my finances, and him driving, he was given the chance to keep driving or continue trap/skeet shooting. I did the math, during the season, I was spending over $500 a month on ammo and entry fees. That's not counting the membership fees for the team, uniform, vest, etc.

just came back from RK gunsmithing in Nampa ID , he is going to order extractor assembly and check everything for $40. he also mentioned the winchester with aluminum head is junk , toss it.