Is there any way to drill out the gas holes (in the barrel) to make my 11-87 more reliable with a 20" barrel?  It works fine with the 24" barrel, but when I switch to the lighter one, it doesn't cycle with the lighter loads...

Yes, but it is something that a gunsmith probably should do. I have one welded shut and the other slightly expanded to use regular #7birdshot/trap type loads and it cycles perfectly.

Has anyone done this themselves?

don't try to do this.  
your gun is made to run "heavy dove" to 3" full bore slugs.
its a great gun and will run for many years.

if you want to shoot light 2.75" shells i would buy a used 1100 for $300.00.
 

Quoted: don't try to do this.   your gun is made to run "heavy dove" to 3" full bore slugs. its a great gun and will run for many years. if you want to shoot light 2.75" shells i would buy a used 1100 for $300.00.

I don't think so.  All 3" 11-87 field models (not slug guns) are designed to work with light field and target loads all the way to 3" magnums.

I've never seen one working properly that could not reliably cycle 2 3/4" 2 3/4 dram loads.  Mine even shoots 7/8 oz 2 1/2 deam loads without a hitch.

Quoted: 11-87s aren't "reliable" under any circumstances.

+1

Go Benelli.  Gas systems are for suckers.

So.  Is it possible to just "open" the gas ports on my 20" barrel?  I have two barrels and I don't mind drilling on one.  

Thoughts?  (BTW, the 'get a benelli' answers aren't helping--I had one, it had the same problem.)

Quoted: 11-87s aren't "reliable" under any circumstances.

pretty much but how old is the O ring ?
they are the cause of 95% of 1100/11-87 problems
the other 5% is guys that take them apart and lose parts
many many gunsmiths would be out of bussiness if it was not for the 1100 series

the short barrel could be  causing  lack of port pressure  just like a short barrel AR
i have seen guys open remington p[orts but they were genrally trying to get them to run with mega light  reloads

It's brand new.

Quoted: 11-87s aren't "reliable" under any circumstances.

Funny, I've never had a problem with my 11/87 Police with a 18" barrel and 2 3/4 shells.

My dad bought his 1100 back in 1974 and has had no problems ever.

I've had my 1100 since 1992 and again no problems that were not ammo related

I have a fair amount of experience with 11-87's, I had a Premier that I eventually dumped and kept one of the 'Sporting Clay's' models.

It's quite common to have to drill out the ports, be aware that doing so in an effort to make it reliably cycle light target loads WILL render it unwise to use with heavy slugs/buckshot or other heavy hunting loads.

Ostensibly the 11-87 is designed to work with everything due to it's self-regulating springloaded extra ports. I never found it to work that well. Note, I put around 10-15K of light (2-3/4 or 3 dram) target loads through my Premier and it HAD to have the ports opened up. The Sporting Clays is specifially designed for target loads and it ALSO had to have the ports slightly opened up to be reliable. Yes, the gas rings AND the O-rings were in perfect order.

The process is simple, take a drill bit SLIGHTLY larger than the current port size and by HAND twirl it in the port to remove a tiny bit of metal. Take the gun out and shoot it for a couple of boxes. If it's still not reliable, use a larger size drill bit. But go SLOW, it's much too easy to take off too much.

As someone said, the short barrels are generally intended for heavy loads, buckshot, slugs, turkey loads..as a result they have small ports so as to limit the flow of high pressure gas, light loads don't generate nearly as much pressure so you have to open things up to get enough gas to work the action. The short barrels I've seen did NOT have the extra pressure compensation ports of the regular 11-87 barrels. Once you've drilled these things out, make damn sure you don't shoot heavy loads or you'd beat the crap out of your action, likely breaking something expensive to fix. May even want to take a diamond marker and permanantly engrave something like 'FOR LIGHT LOADS ONLY' on the barrel

Quoted: 11-87s aren't "reliable" under any circumstances.

bull shit.

I've got one that I've had since 88.   It has NEVER, EVER, EVER had a glitch, hitch, or hic-up.   I've shot light trap loads along with everything else.  It is my duck/bird gun, and is as reliable as a shotgun gets.

On 11-87's some of the shorter barrels are not pressure compensated. That means that they are pretty much set up to handle heavy loads, specifically 3". The dedicated Turky models are set up this way. Some of the shorter barrels are set up this way as well.

As for reliability, I have had mine since 1988 and it has never missed a beat. I have shot it in temps. as low as -20. All it did was turn white from all the frost and ice on it.

As to the 11-87's reliability. My experience was that fed heavy field loads they'd cycle just great, the 2-3/4-3 dram loads would generally fail to cycle after the gun had been through a couple of rounds of skeet or such. Those of you with 100% reliable '87's, never, ever sell them, you have a prize.

My friends and I used them in competitions (Chevy Sportsmans Team Challenge) where you didn't get a chance to call for a second bird, so we did what we had to, to make them work. We found also that they broke gas rings pretty often, anywhere from 300 shells to 3000 shells one or both of the rings would break. (The newer design gas rings may be better, don't know) This was on guns that were properly cleaned and not abused.

I've personally had to replace 5-6 gas rings, NO 'O-rings' , the recoil spring T-bar thingy and an extractor.

At any rate, it's your gun, open the ports up as you need. Just test often and go up in VERY small increments. If you dont' have a complete selection of drill bits in the range you need, I strongly suggest you invest in some, literally a difference of a couple of thousanths in port size is very noticible.

Both my 11-87 Police and 11-87 SPS cycle 1oz #8 skeet loads just peachy.

I shot a 3-gun fun run with the 11-87P {18"} then proceeded to shoot 5 rounds of skeet with some light handloads.

Not one glitch...didn't even change out the IC choke between events...

This means NOTHING in the grand scheme of things, but enough of these meaningless anecdotes piled up in one direction might start what is known as a trend.

FWIW, I've never seen an 11-87 hiccup in any shooting.

Quoted: Quoted: 11-87s aren't "reliable" under any circumstances.   bull shit. I've got one that I've had since 88.   It has NEVER, EVER, EVER had a glitch, hitch, or hic-up.   I've shot light trap loads along with everything else.  It is my duck/bird gun, and is as reliable as a shotgun gets.

Ditto. No problems. And taken a lot of pheasants with it.

I've seen an 1100 Special, 1100, and an 11-87 all running side by side on a youth trap range, I've had 1000's of rounds through all the guns as a Range Officer.

The 11-87, would run smooth as silk with trap loads (2-3/4) until about 25 rounds in when it would get dirty has heck and the bolt would not blow back far enough to eject the spent casings. Changed the rings, now it would work til about 40 rounds were through it after a good cleaning and then it would foul right up again.

The others, I never had a problem with.