Well the Gods of shooting decided to be fickle and my firing pin broke on my Remington 870.  

So how do you get the firing pin retaining pin out?  Just use a punch, a hammer, and a couple of good whacks?  

with a punch from the top. it's a tapered pin and only goes back in from the bottom and the smaller end of the pin goes in first. if it's never been taken out before it can take a couple of really good wacks to get in moving . have it over a pin block or off the edge of a board.  

I am curious to know how many rounds (estimate) the 870 has total when the firing pin broke. Just want to know when Im in for a new one.

Quoted: I am curious to know how many rounds (estimate) the 870 has total when the firing pin broke. Just want to know when Im in for a new one.

No clue.  It is a Police trade-in from at least the early 70's, so it could be 1,000, 10,000, or even 100,000 rounds.  I actually think I goofed on reassembling the gun and cuased the pin to snap- long story, but suffice to say it was late, I was tired, and I should have just left it until the next morning.  A $6 lesson learned.

Quoted: I am curious to know how many rounds (estimate) the 870 has total when the firing pin broke. Just want to know when Im in for a new one.

Well, I've owned atleast 7 or 8 870s over about a 30 year span, and after many, MANY thousands of rounds, I've yet to see one break - on mine or any other 870.... I don't think I'd worry about it much, if I were you - I'd say this breakage was a freak occurrance...



  - georgestrings

Got it replaced with a couple of well placed whacks with a hammer and by using the front half of the broken pin as a punch.  I fgiured that was the best way to get back at that bastard part for breaking, make it work one more time to replace itself!

I have 60,000 round threw a 1100, and with the exception of the O-ring, everything in the rifle is stock.

I guess the key to the longevity of this shotgun is that I break it down to parts once a year, give it a full cleaning and lubing.  After countless years of doing this, The only real trouble areas of the shotgun are the inner mag tube walls, and the inner tube walls for the recoil spring.  I guess is you don't second your shotgun as a boat paddle, chances are you will be less likely to find rust/pitting in these areas. Note: may not be the best plan to shove wet shells in the shotgun as I often do when hunting out of pits.

Best guess on the FP is that it just had a stress fractor from the start, and let go.