omegaman said:
Just changed the magazine spring and follower on my 930 SPX. I installed the Nordic EXT-SPRING-12-45 ($7.95) with their Red Hard Coat follower ($18.95). Ordered online Thursday and kit arrived Saturday!
The factory follower was less than great, and the magazine spring had deformed when it escaped the tube when I broke the gun down for initial cleaning.
A lot has been written about spring length on this and other boards. I get the theory about having the spring as long as possible, yet not being so long that it won't compress enough to allow all Seven 2 3/4" shells to load.
The prevailing word is to cut the spring about a foot to sixteen-inches longer than the end of the installed magazine extension. This is only the first of several cuts to the spring length.
The new Red Nordic follower was as slick in the tube as a greased piston, and the new spring was fed into the tube and secured with the extension with a snug fit.
Next, following the manufacturer's instructions, load the seven shells into the magazine tube. Likely you won't be able to get the last shell to fit. The spring is just too long. Unload the shells, and remove the extension and spring again. Cut 3-coils off and re-assemble. Try the seven shells again. Can you get all seven shells loaded ? If not, repeat the spring trim,
cutting 3-coils at a time until you can get all seven shells to load past the shell stop, plus about an 1/8 to 1/4-inch further compressable travel.
I used needle-nose pliers to cut the spring, and curl the trimmed ends inward slightly. Make sense?
The now shortened Nordic magazine spring is much shorter than the factory spring and is much easier to install.
Now waiting for the GG&G HK-style rear sling mount and a Specter 1-2 point sling to arrive.This just never ends!
So what was the final length of your magazine spring? I use the NC spring and follower and mine is cut to 25 inches but it's old so it's probably compressed a bit. I ordered NC and Wolff springs to do a comparison between the two. I get the impression that the Nordic spring is stronger based on the length I've cut those to and how long people have their Wolff springs cut. I've read people cutting their Wolff springs to 28" and still getting 7 in the magazine but I doubt I'd get 7 in the tube with a NC spring that long. We'll see.
Derbarbarian said:
Hey guy's so I got my 930 SPX out to clean it, still have yet to fire it, I couldn't quite remember how many it held, so I loaded it up with 12ga dummy rounds, I found it only held 4, plus one in the Chamber. I dug out the box and it clearly says 7+1, I took the end off of the magazine tube and there's nothing in there preventing it from being loaded up, I know some older shotguns had a dowel in the tubular magazine to prevent you from loading more than 3 or 4 shells. So I'm sorry for the "nooby" question, but to get it to hold the full 7+1 do I just need to replace the spring? the tube extends all for the full length of the barrel so it should be able to hold 7..
My two biggest problems I had with the 930 when I first bought it were the follower and spring. The follower felt like it tilted while loaded the first round, the spring was weak and it never felt smooth. The Nordic Components spring and follower I replaced them with have performed very well. Did you bend or damage the spring in some way? I had mine out for cleaning once, stepped on the spring and it wouldn't load into the magazine extension. I just had to replace the spring and it went back to normal. Make sure that your handguard is seated properly and that your extension is tightened down all the way. If you're still having issues, try replacing the spring and follower. I suggest the Nordic Components follower for resolving issues like this because the length of it doesn't allow it to tilt or get caught on the joint between the magazine and extension. It's only 1 3/16" long so there's no reason why it should be decreasing your magazine capacity. With an 18" shotgun, you'll have a bit less than 19" of total space in the magazine and fully loaded with 2 3/4" shells (2 1/4" unfired), you'll have 3" for the spring at the end of the tube. A hollow 1 3/16" long follower won't affect that.
