Steve in NC
Member
FYI. Do NOT use WD40 for long term firearms storage/protection. You will be paying someone to tear it completely apart to remove all the jelled “goop” so your trigger mechanism will work again.
How Often To Remove Trigger Group on 870?
- Thread starter Homerboy
- Start date
Homerboy
Member
I’d never use WD40 on any of my guns.
Bwana John
Member
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- Sep 10, 2004
- Messages
- 2,960
I had a friend that asked the same question, I told him especially if the shotgun went swimming.
Sure enough the next week while duck hunting the shotgun got fully immersed.
He showed up at my door 3 or 4 days later, he had dissembled the entire trigger group to the smallest parts and had a box of parts that took more than a week to figure out how to put them back together.
Sure enough the next week while duck hunting the shotgun got fully immersed.
He showed up at my door 3 or 4 days later, he had dissembled the entire trigger group to the smallest parts and had a box of parts that took more than a week to figure out how to put them back together.
Bwana John
Member
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2004
- Messages
- 2,960
It works great to displace water after a good hot water rinse to neutralize parkerizing salts.
Homerboy
Member
Maybe. But certainly not for routine cleaning and certainly not for long term storage.
Homerboy
Member
Reminds me of the ONE time I disassembled a Ruger Mark 2. This was before the prevalence of YouTube videos. Took me forever to get it back together.
If you've never done it, take it out and see how much crud is in there. Figure out how many rounds or trips to the field it took to generate that much crud, and clean accordingly. As others have stated, I too was a bit surprised by how much powder and gunk built up in there.
If hunting in weedy areas a lot, spending a lot of time in the duck blind, or running a ton of trap roads through the gun and only giving it a shot of something like WD40 every now and then, the need to remove and clean will show itself at the most inopportune moment.
I had a buddy who hunted every day of duck season. At the end of each day he'd give the internals a shot of WD and throw (literally) it in the trunk.
I was doing another repair on the stock for him one time and took the trigger assembly out. You could not identify any specific part. 30 minutes to clean it. What surprised me was that it functioned before I cleaned it.
I think the 870 trigger group is one of the toughest units out there other than the pieces of crap that had the lock built in. I've replaced a dozen of them for people.
Dad's Sportsman 58 was so crudded up when I inherited it that it needed a good cleaning but that was from dried oil of some unknown source.
I had a buddy who hunted every day of duck season. At the end of each day he'd give the internals a shot of WD and throw (literally) it in the trunk.
I was doing another repair on the stock for him one time and took the trigger assembly out. You could not identify any specific part. 30 minutes to clean it. What surprised me was that it functioned before I cleaned it.
I think the 870 trigger group is one of the toughest units out there other than the pieces of crap that had the lock built in. I've replaced a dozen of them for people.
Dad's Sportsman 58 was so crudded up when I inherited it that it needed a good cleaning but that was from dried oil of some unknown source.
Steve in NC
Member
Don't use WD40 for long term storage or protection of small intricate parts assemblies!! It can and does gel up and stops things from working. Short term as in hours or a couple days is better than nothing. But do NOT let a forearm sit in storage with WD40 in it. At some point it will cease to operate.
Steve
Steve
Kingcreek
Member
I coach a high school trap team and I have 2 870 loaners, a 12 and a 20g. They get a lot of use.
I drop and clean trigger groups after 2 or 3 seasons. Never had a malfunction and could probably go a lot longer.
I drop and clean trigger groups after 2 or 3 seasons. Never had a malfunction and could probably go a lot longer.
JamieC
Member
Weird, I still have a Remington 22 my father got me when I was 8, I'm 70 now, it still runs fine! It has been cleaned with the 'normal' stuff, Hoppes, etc. It has also been cleaned quite a bit with WD40. All my guns, I use WD40 as a cleaner, hose down everything, tooth brush, hose it down again, blow off with compressed air, oil and grease where needed. Hand guns, AR, shotty, they all work just fine. I've been a mechanic, machinist for my whole life. WD40 is just fine when used as intended.
