Dear Technoid,

Thanks for all the great shotgunning information you provide.

My question concerns a barrel modification I believe I first learned about at your site. The mod is supposed to throw ejected shells out of an 11-87/1100 more towards the ground at the shooter’s feet rather than in the next county, as a stock gun does. My goal is to make the empties easier to find when I can’t use a shell catcher.

Can you elaborate? If I’m on the right track here, do you know of a smith that will perform this mod?

Thanks Greg

Dear Greg,

Nothing easier. What you are referring to is the little deflector stud built into the barrel extension of the Remington trap barrels. Take a look inside a Remington trap barrel at the top of the part which extends to the rear in the area of the ejection port. Compare it to your current field, skeet or sporting clays barrel. You will note that the trap barrel has a little bump, smaller than a pencil eraser but bigger than a pencil lead, near the top inside of the very back part of the barrel. When the shell is being ejected, this bump or deflector, directs the shell downward instead of outward.

The deflector is designed for trap shooters so that you don’t pelt the guy next to you on the line with your ejects. Works great. The only problem is that every now and then it can contribute to a malfunction by jamming the shell. It is very seldom, so I wouldn’t worry about it. Trap shooters don’t care as they shoot only once, unless it’s doubles.

Your choices are:

1) go buy a trap barrel. Be aware that the trap barrels may well have a different rib than the barrel you are now using, or;

2 ) take your current barrel to a gunsmith and have him drill and solder in a deflector stud for you barrel. If he isn’t sure exactly where to place it, borrow a trap barrel for him to copy. Exact placement of the deflector stud is critical.

Any gunsmith should be able to perform this work. It’s the most basic stuff possible. Just get one that is familiar with Remington autos so he knows where to locate the stud.

I have always been surprised why Beretta trap autos never had this feature. It seems like such a good one for a trap shooter. Then again, most trap shooters with autos just use a T&S shell catcher and pick out the single shell so that there is no hunting around at all. I’m not really sure that reining in your Remington ejects from 15 feet to five feet will make all that much of a difference in labor saving.

By the way, if you Remington auto is throwing your ejects too much more than ten feet without a deflector, it might be time for you to replace the mainspring in the stock. Those things DO wear out after 10K rounds our so. As the spring wears out, the bolt comes back faster and faster, throwing the empties further and further away. This wouldn’t be a major deal except that as the bolt picks up speed, it starts to whack into the back of the receiver and also the action bar collar starts to hit the front of the receiver around the magazine tube. Not only does this increase recoil to you, but it will absolutely, positively beat the gun to death sooner or later. I have had two cracked 1100 receivers and one 1100 which blew the magazine tube off due to the beating that it took from a weak spring.

A new mainspring is cheap insurance and easy to install. I replace the mainsprings in all my gas autos at 10,000 rounds. You will be amazed at how much shorter the old spring that you take out is compared to the new one you put in.

Best regards,

Bruce Buck
The Technoid writing for Shotgun Report, LLC