Henry Rifle Forums

our almost 50 year old Remington 11-87 12 ga is my favorite shotgun .... while I have several other shotguns, it is the one I reach reach for every time .... while shooting trap this summer it has failed to eject an empty casing 3 or 4 times out of every 100 or so rounds .... while that doesn't sound like much I'm concerned because the 11-87 has never experienced such failures .... my first thought was something had to be wrong with the ejector .... there is a gunsmith near Conroe, TX who has worked on several of our family's firearms .... I've come to trust him and decided to give him a call and ask him to replace the ejector when we get down there in January .... he listened to my concerns and told me that with so few failures, the ejector probably isn't the problem .... rather he recommended checking the ports in the barrel where muzzle blast is channeled to operate the action .... he suspected that over the years carbon has built up and is restricting the air flow .... after speaking with him I checked and do believe he is right .... he recommended lightly reaming the ports in much the same manner one reams the ports in gas welding .... I followed his directions and won't know for sure until the next time we take it to a trap range .... in addition, I took a close look at the ports cut into the 11-87's barrel and could easily see a carbon buildup in each of them .... in a call to Mag-na-port I told them them about it and the fellow I spoke to said that such a buildup is normal with the ports in such heavily used firearms .... he recommended the overnight soaking of the ported end of the barrel in mineral spirits .... he said doing so will soften the carbon and allow it to be removed with a pipe cleaner or Q-tip .... as an alternative to mineral spirits he said to soak the ports with WD40 numerous times over a couple of day and I can get rid of it the say way .... it appears that this Old Dog and still learn a few new tricks ..

400 rounds fired since the cleaning mentioned above .... ZERO failure to eject or any other issues .... in fact, she cycles extremely smoothly

Always nice to hear an old reliable gets what it needs to keep being old reliable. Nice work.

JEBar wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 10, 2020 8:46 pm

he recommended lightly reaming the ports in much the same manner one reams the ports in gas welding

in answer to a PM, I didn't have a Torch Tip Cleaner Set .... I do have several drill bit sets .... it was pretty easy to find a small bit that was just a little smaller than the port's opening .... rotating the bit against the inside of the ports with my finger tips quickly removed the hard carbon buildup .... based on past history, I don't believe doing this will be required very often

Wipe Out Tactical Advantage is supposed to be pretty good for removing carbon. I have a friend who really likes it so I ordered some also.

JEBar wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 25, 2020 8:19 pm

JEBar wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 10, 2020 8:46 pm

he recommended lightly reaming the ports in much the same manner one reams the ports in gas welding

in answer to a PM, I didn't have a Torch Tip Cleaner Set .... I do have several drill bit sets .... it was pretty easy to find a small bit that was just a little smaller than the port's opening .... rotating the bit against the inside of the ports with my finger tips quickly removed the hard carbon buildup .... based on past history, I don't believe doing this will be required very often

Jim, yeah, I've done that to my Mossberg 930. Really works and simple to do. A small amount of Kroil to help loosen that carbon up is helpful also. Glad you got your 11-87 working again.

not doing a better job of cleaning the carbon out of those two ports all along the way allowed the buildup and eventually its hardening .... I'm now making a point of running a Ballistol coated pipe cleaner through them every time I clean the shotgun .... my hope is, by doing so there will never be another such buildup

Yes, I use a 50/50 mix of Hoppes #9 and Kroil on a pipe cleaner when I clean my auto. Keeping those gas ports clean is key.