870 Mag Spring Retainer: Necessary?

[frontlander]

Howdy. I took the barrel off of my new-to-me Gunsite 870 the other day for a good cleaning. When I unscrewed the mag cap, the mag spring launched itself out of the mag tube. Not knowing the 870 system, I just assumed this was normal. I just bought my wife an 870 Youth Express 20 gauge and noticed it has a spring-type retainer to hold the spring in place. Do I need to get one of these for my 12 gauge? It seems to be working fine without it and it does make it quicker to swab out the mag tube. BTW, I went from having 0 870s in this household to 3 in less than 3 weeks (a friend gave me his 3.5" Express Super Mag). They are indeed addictive.

[MiniZ]

The spring retainer is not a necessity. It is nice for the fact that it does keep you from launching the spring, and possibly the cap though.

[Badger Arms]

Not necessary but it is nice to have for some uses. If you use the gun often, all that is necessary for cleaning is taking the barrel off and removing the bolt and carrier. Taking the magazine spring out is unnecessary. It just saves you a step on takedown and reassembly. I've got a little ziplock with two retainers in it from my guns. I don't prefer to have ANYTHING on ANY GUN that isn't necessary.

[Clemson]

The retainer is a safety item needed to keep a strong spring from becoming a missile. They are cheap. Order one from Brownells, install it, and forget it. Sooner or later you will either hurt yourself with that spring, break something when it comes out, or (very likely) kink the spring getting it back into the magazine. The retainer will stop all that from happening.

[labgrade]

That mag spring retainer is there (likely) from a liability standpoint & maybe, a convenience, if that.

That retainer is just like a safety in that it should (may) prevent the spring from launching & causing an "eye-out" or similar. If you depend on it & it fails = lose an eye = who ya gonna call ... ?

Just assume that it won't work & treat it accordingly. That said, I toss mine.

Any time I remove the mag cap, I point it in a safe direction, unscrew slowly enough & "catch" the spring with the mag cap (& the palm of my hand) as I'm removing same.

Even if in place, the retainer is still under spring tension & when prying out with screwdriver, you've still got that "missle thing" possibility, no?

Personally, I'll use the cap that "catches" it better & sooner.

[frontlander]

I've noticed that my mag cap is of the kind that is supposed to engage the the plastic mag spring retainer that is found on the new style Expresses. But my gun has the hole for the detent ball and spring like the old style. Why would this be missing on my gun? Is it necesarry to remove the detent ball and spring when installing a mag extension? Perhaps the previous owner had an extension on the gun and took it off prior to sale.

[9mmMike]

I threw mine in the parts bin. I put factory extended mags on my 870's.
One is using the factory length spring. It sure is easy to load compared to the one with the Wilson spring and it has never failed to feed.
In my opinion there is no need for the retainer and no need for those hi-po springs in an 870.
Mike

[Dave McC]

Front, leave the detent alone. Extensions work with them.

That mag spring retainer has no effect on reliability. It's for safety and convenience.

BTW, I measured some factory mag springs a while back just for kicks. I forget the lengths, but springs that functioned perfectly had 7" differences in length.

[9mmMike]

I posted some stuff on spring lengths a while ago. It should show up in a search for 870 springs. It was scintillating stuff as I recall.
Mike