Remington 870 Shotgun

A step by step video on how to clean and disassemble your Remington 870 shotgun.

Recommended Gun Cleaning Supplies for Your Gun Cleaning Kit

Step One - Make Sure Your Gun is Empty

First thing’s first. Let’s make sure there isn’t any shells in the chamber as well as the magazine tube. We don’t need any mishaps.

Step Two - Disassemble Your Remington 870

1. We’ll start the break down by first taking off the magazine cap at the end of the mag tube. It simply unscrews. You may hear some clicking, don’t worry you’re not stripping the threads, it’s supposed to sound that way.

Place the cap to the side.

2. Now you can now slide the barrel off the receiver of the shotgun.

3. We’re going to remove the forearm assembly next. Turn the shotgun upside down. Look inside for a two tabs, one on each side.

You’ll want to press those in as you work the forearm assembly away from the receiver. You will need to press those tabs one at a time as you wiggle the forearm assembly forward.

As that slides out, your bolt and bolt carrier will come with it. Place everything to the side for now.

4. Next up is the trigger assembly. You’ll want to make sure the safety is on before taking the trigger assembly off.

Use a small punch and tap out the two pins that hold the trigger assembly in place.

You can take that out now, or if you’re ADD like me, remove the magazine spring first. Honestly, the order doesn’t matter here.

5. To remove the magazine spring, twist the magazine spring retainer 90 degrees counter-clockwise. You can now remove the retainer and spring.

Now, find a parts tray that you can use to keep all the small parts of your firearm in.

This is a great place to scrub all the gun’s parts without making a mess of your gun cleaning mat, while also allowing these parts to lay there and soak in some CLP.

Put your bolt and bolt assembly in the tray.

7. If you haven’t taken out the trigger assembly yet, do that now by simply pulling it out from the receiver. Place it in the parts tray to be cleaned as well.

Step Three - Cleaning Your Remington 870

1. Now give everything in your tray a healthy dose of CLP. This isn’t the time to be cheap.

2. If your trigger assembly hasn’t been cleaned in a while or looks like it is really fouled up, you’ll want to clean behind the hammer as well.

To release the hammer, push down on it and take it off safe and press the trigger. Now you’ll want to slowly release the hammer.

Give that exposed are a spray with your CLP. Now leave the parts in the tray to sit in the CLP.

Give the inside of the receiver a few squirts.

And a little on the forearm rails.

And of course you’ll want to spray some down both ends of the bore.

Check the magazine tub and make sure that it isn’t too gunked up.

Give the spring a few squirts of CLP as well.

We’ll pull out our other gun cleaning supplies while we let the CLP do its magic.

A set of brush and picks is a must.

Long stemmed gun cleaning swabs as well.

A bore cleaning kit in your 870’s gauge. We’re using a 12 gauge in this example so of course that’s what we’ll use.

And last, a rugged gun cleaning cloth to wipe down all surfaces.

3. Now take a gun cleaning brush and give all the parts a good scrubbing.

The trigger assembly has a lot of little parts so take your time here. If your gun cleaning brush has a small end, all the better. Use it to get to all those small remote areas.

Get all the faces of the bolt carrier.

Then the bolt itself. There’s lots of little areas to hit on this as well so take your time.

Be sure to pay special attention to the extractor. If you’re having problems ejecting shells, this being gummed up could easily be why.

4. It may be necessary to use a pick as well to get crusted on gunk. Scrape anything off that the brush can’t.

Picks that are brass tipped are nice as they are strong enough to clear contaminants away but won’t scratch your gun.

Scrub everything inside the receiver.

Then clean the barrel extension.

5. Get some long stemmed cotton swabs and get to work on the bolt. You’ll be amazed at what comes out to there after it has been sitting in some CLP for a while.

On to the trigger assembly. Again, this is an area with a lot of moving parts, so make sure you work over everything.

6. Once done, you can now push the hammer back to re-cock it.

The long stem gun cleaning swabs also work great inside the receiver. They will let you get to areas your gun cleaning cloth won’t.

7. Now we’ll take a durable gun cleaning cloth and wipe every surface we can get to down.

Start with the spring. Twisting it helps get all the coils.

Wipe down the rails of the forearm assembly.

8. Then you can get to all the parts in the tray. We won’t bore you by showing you how to wipe down every surface. You get the picture.

Now get both the interior and exterior of the gun.

You’re trying to clear out the remaining carbon and other contaminants that will cause unnecessary wear and tear on your gun.

9. The final step of cleaning will be to pull a bore cleaning kit through the shotgun’s bore. A bore cleaning kit is similar to a bore snake, but better. I has a full brush that is detachable giving you more versatility.

Grab the correct gauge for your shotgun. Drop the weight through the bore on the breech end of the barrel.

Pull it on through. Expect it to be tight, this is what allows the bore cleaning kit to do its works.

Step Four - Lubricating Your Remington 870

Once you’re done with that, we’re going to squirt everything down with a little CLP to keep it well lubricated.

This will help prevent premature wear and tear on your firearms. The beauty of using CLP over a conventional gun oil is that it also cleans your gun while you’re not.  Just by being in contact, it will pull carbon out of the metal while being stored in your safe.

Ok, now that I’m done waxing poetic about CLP, let put your  shotgun back together.

Step Five - Reassembling Your Remington 870

1. First let’s re-install the trigger assembly. Push the front end in first.

The idea is to line up the corresponding holes on the receiver with the holes on the trigger assembly.

We’ll start with the front pin first once its hole is lined up. Give it a few taps with your mallet to seat it.

Now insert the back pin. A tap or so and it should be set.

2. Next, insert the bolt carrier on the forearm rail. Line up the notches.

Grab the bolt and seat that on the bolt carrier.

3. Now grab the whole forearm assembly and we’re going to slide that back over the magazine tube.

It’s helpful to keep the forearm rail pinched in your hand as sometimes they’ll spread apart and dump out the bolt and bolt carrier.

Slide the assembly in until the receiver tabs stop progress. These are the same two tabs you pressed in order to remove the forearm assembly.

Reach in and press those tabs while gently pushing the forearm assembly into the receiver.

Cycle the pump all the way to the rear by pressing down the action release. Then push it about half way forward so that you can easily re-install the barrel.

4. Slide the barrel guide ring over the magazine tube while keeping an eye that the barrel extension slides into the receiver.

5. Slide the spring assembly back into the magazine tube.

Place the spring retainer on the end of the spring assembly and press it in.

Grab something, in this case we’re using a choke tube wrench to push the spring retainer in the tube.

Now twist it 90 degrees clockwise.

7. Replace the the magazine cap.

Cycle the action a few times. It should glide easily.

And there you have it. A cleaned and lubricated Remington 870 shotgun.