I have been plauged by an ongoing malfunction with my 870 12ga. I have traced it down to the carrier failing to come up all the way all of the time. probably 75% of the time, things go right, but the rest of the time i have to slide the bolt back and slide it up again in order to chamber the round. i have found that when it binds, all i have to do is just give the carrier the slightest nudge and the shell will go (its not the most time efficient way to fix it, but i shows the problem well) any ideas guys?

carrier dog wear or bolt slide wear,the oval cut in the bolt slide is what the carrier dog reacts to.given the parts availability,i would suggest replacing the two,its just more cost effective than tring to find out exactly which one is at fault.i hate just replacing parts if i don't have to but on these it comes down to cost and time.

The gun is fairly new, but if thats what it takes, i am willing to try. where would i get the parts and is it i a DIY or should i take it to the smith

also, there appears to be a spring that that holds the pin in the reciver that goes through the carrier. there is a slot for a spring on both sides, but there is only one, is this normal?

from the factory they have one "d" clip per side.with all of the remington parts we get from the factory,there is allways 1 or 2 in the batch that does not work.also check that the carrier spring and plunger are clean and nothing is binding that little piece of enginering trouble.it is a simple thing to do,not much of a headache.