Well this was dumb

[Garys]

I bought a used Remington 870 20 gauge yesterday. Today I decided to strip, clean, and lubricate the shotgun. It's older, so I went a big deeper into cleaning than I usually would. Part of that involved removing the extractor, plunger, and spring.

That was no problem. I got them part, cleaned then, cleaned the pocket they go into. Then dumbness struck, hard. I dropped the plunger in THEN I realized that I hadn't put the spring in first.

Of course now the plunger won't come out. I've tried, CLP, oil, Teflon lube, detergent, CRC, and WD40 in an effort to make everything slippery enough to get the plunger out. I even rigged up my shop vac to see if I could suck the plunger out. All to no avail. Right now it's in my freezer in hopes that the parts will contract enough to allow me to get the plunger out.

After that, I'm out of ideas. I don't want to buy a new bolt, because even a stripped one is going to cost around $40.00.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[headednorth]

Magnet?

 

[Garys]

Yeah, I tried that too. Forgot to mention it. I'd think that something would work, but so far nothing. I'm starting to wonder if I could get it out with a small Dremel drill. It would ruin the plunger, but might not damage the bolt itself. With my luck that stupid plunger is made of stainless steel.

Magnet?

 

[Mountain]

Magazine plunger? Possibly magnet as mentioned above.

Not sure if freezing will do it. Perhaps heat the tube? Assuming magazine plunger...

Edit- OK, bolt plunger and stainless...

 

[jtnf]

OP - I can provide ridiculously strong magnets (think 10,000 gauss in a 5/16" square Nd-YiB 3/16" thick.)
You may have more success with a really strong magnet.
I'll be near Stoughton tomorrow AM. PM me if you want to hook up I'll give you a few.

 

[Garys]

I don't know if it's stainless, I'm just guessing it might be since that's how my luck is going.

Magazine plunger? Possibly magnet as mentioned above.

Not sure if freezing will do it. Perhaps heat the tube? Assuming magazine plunger...

Edit- OK, bolt plunger and stainless...

 

[headednorth]

Dab of super glue on the end of a brad. Slide it in to wherever the plunger is, push it against and hold for a second or two, pull out and then separate? TBH, I have no idea how the bolt of an 870 is constructed, so Im just throwing out ideas, but I may be just taking up bandwidth...

 

[radioman]

Tap the bolt on a hard surface? How about a photo or two?

 

[W.E.C]

Blow dry off all the lube ,it's makin the plunger stick , capalary action stuff yada.

put the bolt in a vice point the plunger hole down , smack the bolt with a non marring dead blow hammer.
Eta:
id take it out of the freezer , cause all the metal will contract equally, and I don't think heating up the bolt with a torch is a good idea.

 

[Garys]

SUCCESS!!

Putting the bolt in the freezer for two hours, taking it out, putting it on a hard rubber block (made from a hockey puck) and pounding on it with a brass hammer. About five minutes of that and the plunger moved up almost enough to grab. Then it fell on the floor (not on purpose) and the plunger popped out. Then another five minutes groping around under the work bench and I found it.

It's all reassembled now. Amazingly, I didn't launch the plunger or extractor across the room.

I swear, if there was a Three Stooges movie with gun smithing in it, I'd be the star.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. Special thanks to jtnf for the offer of the super magnets.

- - - Updated - - -

I took a WAG that the bolt body and plunger were made of different metals and the rates of contraction might be different. OTOH, putting it in the freezer might have dried up the lube enough. Either way, it's fixed and I don't feel quite as dumb as I did.

Blow dry off all the lube ,it's makin the plunger stick , capalary action stuff yada.

put the bolt in a vice point the plunger hole down , smack the bolt with a non marring dead blow hammer.
Eta:
id take it out of the freezer , cause all the metal will contract equally, and I don't think heating up the bolt with a torch is a good idea.

 

[jtnf]

SUCCESS!!

Putting the bolt in the freezer for two hours, taking it out, putting it on a hard rubber block (made from a hockey puck) and pounding on it with a brass hammer. About five minutes of that and the plunger moved up almost enough to grab. Then it fell on the floor (not on purpose) and the plunger popped out. Then another five minutes groping around under the work bench and I found it.

It's all reassembled now. Amazingly, I didn't launch the plunger or extractor across the room.

I swear, if there was a Three Stooges movie with gun smithing in it, I'd be the star.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. Special thanks to jtnf for the offer of the super magnets.

- - - Updated - - -

I took a WAG that the bolt body and plunger were made of different metals and the rates of contraction might be different. OTOH, putting it in the freezer might have dried up the lube enough. Either way, it's fixed and I don't feel quite as dumb as I did.

 

[Garys]

Yeah, about like that.

 

[EddieCoyle]

Yeah, about like that.

Definitely a Shemp.

 

[KMM696]

SUCCESS!!

Putting the bolt in the freezer for two hours, taking it out, putting it on a hard rubber block (made from a hockey puck) and pounding on it with a brass hammer. About five minutes of that and the plunger moved up almost enough to grab. Then it fell on the floor (not on purpose) and the plunger popped out. Then another five minutes groping around under the work bench and I found it.

It's all reassembled now. Amazingly, I didn't launch the plunger or extractor across the room.

I swear, if there was a Three Stooges movie with gun smithing in it, I'd be the star.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. Special thanks to jtnf for the offer of the super magnets.

- - - Updated - - -

I took a WAG that the bolt body and plunger were made of different metals and the rates of contraction might be different. OTOH, putting it in the freezer might have dried up the lube enough. Either way, it's fixed and I don't feel quite as dumb as I did.

Well done - if the Three Stooges don't have any apprentice openings, try this guy: