Magazine follower and spring removal

[cedarhillsupply]

Forgive me if this topic has been flogged to death on this site, but I just encountered my first malfunctioning model 81. It fails to feed from the magazine ( factory ammo for testing, of course) after manually chambering a round. In order to check for the most often quoted problem ( mag spring in backwards), I have removed the trigger plate and magazine box. How does one coax the follower and spring out of the box?
BTW, for those of you who set up at gun shows my "I want to buy your Remington Model 8 and 81" sign on my tables has brought in three in the last year.

[Johnhalf]

Hi Cedar. We love questions!
You can the check to see if the spring is correct or not visually (although if your mag is a dirty as this one you should clean it anyway).
Here is the incorrect placement;

spring backwards edit.jpg (52.81 KiB) Viewed 9548 times

note that one of the folds is against the follower.
It should look like this;

follower correct spring sm.jpg (72.52 KiB) Viewed 9548 times

where one of the ends of the spring is against the bend in the follower.

[Johnhalf]

to remove the follower take a look at how it is retained

retention edit.jpg (58.3 KiB) Viewed 9547 times

to free it depress and tip to one side or the other until there is space to release the follower past the retention:

depress n tip edit.jpg (45.14 KiB) Viewed 9547 times

Be careful as the whole mess will launch itself if you let it.

When reassembling put the spring so that the ends face the back (wide side toward rear);

wide toward back sm.jpg (59.74 KiB) Viewed 9547 times

[Johnhalf]

continued....
Then hook the follower over the other end of the spring
and use the follower to press it back into the magazine

follower spr install sm.jpg (61.18 KiB) Viewed 9547 times

Add a little angle so the follower can clear the retaining "dents" and the allow the follower to straighten then release it gently to rest against the retainers. Be sure to keep the tab on the rear of the follower centered in its slot. Viola! (which is spell checks version of Voila!)

final sm.jpg (105.55 KiB) Viewed 9547 times

[Johnhalf]

If you still have the problem don't forget the gunsmithing manual available for download on the main page. Page 12 has some other common causes of your problem.
http://thegreatmodel8.remingtonsociety. ... liment.pdf
Good luck!

[cedarhillsupply]

John,
thank you very much for taking the time to answer in such detail. Following your instructions, I discovered the spring was in backwards and badly kinked on one leg. Replaced it with one from a parts gun. Ran three rounds through it at the house, fed and functioned just fine.

[Johnhalf]

You are most welcome. Glad everything worked out. I am very jealous though. My neighbors might have a problem if I tried testing my rifles at home!

[cedarhillsupply]

My dream for my retirement years was a house with a range and a shop building. We are very fortunate to have been able to do that here in Southern NM, where we can shoot nearly every day of the year.

[Adam Lee]

+1 on your write-up with pics, John. Doing the mag spring and follower my first Model 8 was interesting - there were some well-chosen adjectives tossed about at the time, if I recall!

Adam