H&R Pardner Bolt Assembly Won't Remove?

[mh2000]

I just picked up one of those H&R Pardner Protector 12 gauge shotguns guns because they were only $148 at the Walmart. Trying to clean it to take out shooting. Cannot get the bolt assembly to separate. Is there a special trick? Manual says to push little release on left side and side out. No matter how hard I push (and I tried using clothes pin to push harder), the dumb thing still hits a hard stop.

All help appreciated!

 

[mh2000]

Something was wrong with the installation of the side spring. Removed that from the rear and reassembled and it more or less works as intended.

So I guess I'll leave this here for anyone else who has the same problem. If it won't work out the way it is supposed to, just remove the side spring by prying out the back end. Everything comes apart and you can reinstall the spring (making sure the holes line up).

Any other suggestions for this popular dirt cheap shotgun appreciated!

 

[Kookla]

Glad you got it fixed. I had one years ago. With some shells I had issues with extraction. Few minutes with a dremel took care of it.

 

[mh2000]

Thanks! Like your Elvis Costello lyrics!

Since I wasted so much time figuring out what was up with that spring, I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow to go out shooting it with my son.

What did you have to tune to get the eject working? I cycled through a bunch of shells just to see and mine seems pretty crisp.

 

[Kookla]

Lol, thanks mh200.

It shared some of the problems that some of the 870 express' it cloned, the chamber and just outside the chamber were very rough on mine- lot's of machine marks. The fired shell's rim would get hung up on the chattermarks outside the chamber. I did my best to smooth all of that out and worked fine afterwards.

 

[mh2000]

Well, doing research, I figured out the the latch lever was not staked well enough and when i tried disassembling it that it just slid into the wrong position. Restaking tools are pretty expensive so i think i'll just deal with it as-is or go the Super Glue route.

Got the gun out for shooting today and my son and i put nearly 100 rounds through it! Holy Wow! What a blast!!!

Since every other function of the gun is dead on, just going to accept that it came with this flaw... and honestly, i think it's just a minor flaw in the 870's design.