[brockgl]

I was with my Dad at the Indianapolis Gun Show this weekend, and he bought a used (pretty old) Remington 870 Wingmaster 12ga. We took it home and cleaned it inside and out, and it shined up real nicely. But I noticed some things that I wanted to ask on here about to get some expert advice... =) The first thing isn't a problem, it is just different than my newer Wingmaster, and so I was wondering about it. On my Wingmaster, when I screw off the cap that holds on the barrel there is a plastic insert in the magazine tube that you can push in, turn, and remove. It allows you to remove the magazine spring and the follower. On this older Wingmaster there is not a plastic insert. Instead there is a metal piece that looks like it may be permanent. It has some slots (3 to be exact) on the sides, that look like there may be a tool to remove it, but I don't have the tool and was wondering if this piece is indeed permanent. Second, on the inside of the action area when we had removed all of the inerds (the trigger assembly, the firing pin assembly, etc...) one of the flexible arms fell out. It looks like the little welded dot has broken off. The arm I am talking about is the arm that you push in the be able to remove the pump assembly when you first disassemble it. Is this a real problem? Should we try to weld it back on, or (since it seems to function perfectly once we reassemble it) should we just leave it alone? We do put it back in the gun upon reassembly, however instead of being attached to the wall of the gun, it is just sitting in its little groove.

Thanks in advance!