Remington 870 ejector spring replacement

The Remington 870 is a fantastic shotgun. While it is smooth cycling and durable, the gun does suffer from the downside of having the ejector, ejector spring and shell-stops staked in place. This means a little work is necessary to swap out some of these parts. In this post, we’ll look at how you can replace the ejector on a Remington 870.

Why replace the ejector spring? If the ejector spring is damaged or bent, it will need to be replaced. If you want to convert an older gun from 2 3/4″ shells to 3″, the ejector will need to be replaced since they are a different size.

Before we get to work, take a few minutes to read the following disclaimer:

The contents of Rifleshooter.com are produced for informational purposes only and should be performed by competent gunsmiths only. Rifleshooter.com and its authors, do not assume any responsibility, directly or indirectly for the safety of the readers attempting to follow any instructions or perform any of the tasks shown, or the use or misuse of any information contained herein, on this website.

For this project I ordered the following from Brownells:

To access the ejector on the 870, the gun needs to be cleared and the barrel, bolt and slide assembly removed. The ejector itself is a thin piece of spring steel that is retained by a small rivet (you can see it in the center of the image above). The rivet passes through the receiver. Best practice is to preserve the rivet by reducing the diameter of the stake, remove the ejector spring, install the new ejector and stake it in place. This preserves the original rivet and mitigates the need to refinish the receiver.

To cut the top off of the rivet, Brownells sells a specialized tool, an ejector rivet cutter (above). This tool removes the metal that gets peened over during its installation. It is driven in either a drill press, milling machine or hand drill. This tool can be purchased as a stand alone item, or as part of a kit with the staking tool.

In the image above you’ll see the rivet has been cut down by the tool and the staking is now removed. The ejector can simply be lifted out of place with a pair of pliers.

The old ejector in this Remington 870 was designed to work only with 2 3/4″ shells (top). The new ejector (bottom) is designed to work with both 2 3/4″ and 3″ shells. You’ll note the newer ejector is longer and the protrusion that actually engages the shell is located further to the rear of the receiver.

To replace the ejector, a staking tool (above) is used to hold it in place.

The staking tool is simply held on top of the rivet and driven with a hammer. The new ejector is now installed!

You can purchase the tools you need for this job from Brownells.