Remington 11-87 Won’t Fire

[illini40]

Hi INGO

I have a Remington 11-87 Sportsman 12 gauge. I’ve had it out waterfowl hunting twice now, and when the trigger is pulled, the gun does not fire. The trigger moves/pulls, but doesn’t fire. I have dry fired it and it seems fine, though.

I do not see anything on the shells. I’ve also tried a few shells, and these are heavier 3”
loads.

I have not broken it down and dug into much, nor gotten it to a gunsmith.

Any initial thoughts or things I should check out? Prior to these two instances, I’ve never really had a problem with this gun. It’s always run great.

 

[jaymark6655]

If you're not seeing anything on the shells (no primer indent) and it is going click during dry fire, I am thinking broken firing pin or something blocking it.

 

[Cameramonkey]

check the firing pin. sounds like it is not moving since everything else sounds/feels normal to you.

Unless you are part of The A-Team. In that case expect your nemesis you thought was your ally to appear shortly and tell you that your guns firing pins were removed while you were asleep/not looking. (like they could just reach in and take it as easy as removing a screw)

 

[Bigtanker]

These are pretty easy to fieldstrip. I wonder if it wasn't put back together last time it was apart.

Brownells has a 4 part series on this gun. Here is the first one.

[video=youtube_share;YBOreNAvSwE]http://youtu.be/YBOreNAvSwE[/video]

The others can be found easily. I'd follow the video and strip it down and put it back together.

 

[illini40]

Thanks for all of the responses and ideas. I’ll try to dig into it the next day or two.

I did swap out the stock and fore end for an aftermarket set. I cannot remember if I fired since swapping it out, or if if hasn’t fired since I did that. Would that have anything to do with it not firing now?

 

[TJ Kackowski]

I had this same issue with my Rem 1100 years ago. Turned out to be a broken firing pin return spring. This prevented the firing pin from moving freely when struck by the hammer.

This is a super easy fix, but you will want to also examine the breech bolt buffer. This is a plastic piece that must be removed to replace the firing pin or firing pin return spring. It gets all mashed up due to normal use and if you need to disassemble the bolt assembly, you might as well replace it.

Brownells schematic is awesome for identifying which pieces and parts you will need for this fix ... https://www.brownells.co.uk/Schematics/Remington/Shotguns/Remington-11-87-Schematic

 

[diver dan]

One thing for sure, these guns are easy and cheap to fix.They are pretty indestructable,I have one myself and a 1956 or so wingmaster 870 in 16 gauge, uncle gave to me for rabbit hunting probably 50 years ago.

 

[TJ Kackowski]

One thing for sure, these guns are easy and cheap to fix.They are pretty indestructable,I have one myself and a 1956 or so wingmaster 870 in 16 gauge, uncle gave to me for rabbit hunting probably 50 years ago.

QFT ... anybody who owns a Rem 870 / 1100 / 11-87 needs to pick up a copy of Jerry Kuhnhausen's book The Remington M870 and M1100/M11-87 Shotguns. This book explains all there is to know about these shotguns.

I've found that the easiest way to keep my 1100 operating is to keep it slathered in Break Free. Something else to keep in mind ... Remington gas guns (1100's and 11/87's) are like sheep ... they know when they're alone and don't like it ... if you keep a 2nd shotgun as a backup handy, the first will never break!