Tanaka M870 Shotgun
 

I've read really poor reviews of this shotgun in terms of its reliability (pins falling, poor internal construction, wobble, detaching barrel from receiver, etc...)

Is there anyone out there that does not have any issues with theirs? Or is it inevitable that having a Tanaka M870 = imminent failure. :D

Also, where can we buy reinforced parts? I tried searching on Redwolf's site, but nothing came up.

There are two tiny short pins that hold the front barrel/loading tube onto the receiver. They quickly fall out. I remachined new pins that were a tighter fit and crazy glued them into place. They've held up very well.

Many internal parts are pot metal. The one I received had both the hammer face and the knocker transfer bar mangled/broken. You can get steel parts...but I redid the ones I had. I filled the hammer face with steel epoxy, redrilled a hole and epoxied back in the steel pin. It's held up well so far. I milled the transfer bar out of aluminum plate (didn't take long it's a simple piece)...it's worked well so far also.

The two plugs that go into the top of the receiver from the inside to hold the barrel stub are retarded. I'd replace them with tapped screws, glue them in or leave them out. I left them out and there's no wobble if the two short receiver pins are solid.

So yes...a stock one will probably fail immenently. But they can be repaired fairly easily with a little work.

I think the Airsoft Surgeon upgrade parts are only included/made for the complete custom shottys that they sell.

only issue i ever had with the construction of mine was a pin retaining the mag tube falling out, but like he said its easy enough to replace with any other pin. Otherwise I had no issues. Always seemed solid as a rock. I do wish the mag tube was welded on like real remingtons, but oh well.

now functionality, thats another issue.. I'd buy it if you love showing it off to friends and the sound of a racking action ejecting a casing, but to me it was absolutely tactically ineffective and impractical. The airsoft surgeon conversion shells were very unreliable.. Think of it as your Porsche, you keep it in the garage and only drive it once in a while, but still appreciate having it. We're talking like 997 GT2 Porsche, not like some Boxter S. It is your very nice gun you take out to enjoy on rare occasion, as using the GT2 day to day would be impossible.

Unless you have access to a machine shop and you know what you are doing I would stay away from the Tanaka Works M870.

The real steel 870 is awesome, takedown is easy and the parts are steel awesomeness

Tanaka complicated the takedown and did a poor job for the installation of the inner barrel, if it's not aligned properly you will have a jam.

To remove the barrel you got to use tiny hex screws to remove two screws and there's another two on the sides of the receiver for the piece that holds the magazine tube, you lose those well the thing won't stay in place.

As for the internals, you can actually use a real steel trigger group you'll just need a 'thicker' face for the hammer.

The two vital parts that need to be custom made are the bolt and slide block.

I got my old one back after a year n a half and a piece of the slide block piece had broken off, without it it wouldn't push down on the carrier lever so it'd push a shell up to be loaded.

As for the bolt there are two little levers inside that whereas in real steel its one solid piece inside the bolt, those are made of pot metal and I don't know why they made the bolt itself plastic, probably so they could easilly drill holes for the ejector pin to stay in.

On real steel the ejector pin is screwed into the receiver whereas for the Tanaka it's into the bolt.

I got my Tanaka M870 today. Two questions:

-> I noticed that there is some wobble to the fixed stock, it's not too noticeable until you grab it and wiggle it. Is this how they all are?

-> I noticed that the front foregrip has some wobble to it as well, is this how real ones are too? Or did I get a defective one?

You can tighten the screw for the stock, they probably didn't tighten it enough.

The front foregrip wobbles on all airsoft shotguns, I think you can replace it with a real set of rails from the real shotguns.

K thanks.

Got my tanaka in yesterday,

Boy i should of listened to everyone here.

The bolt is the most retarded thing in this gun, mostly plastic, waiting to brake. I reinforced the hole thing with steel epoxy.

The barrel had a 2 inch wobble in to it. Took it all apart. The loading part of the barrel is made out of cheap plastic. Very easy to brake and hard to take apart. that to has been reinforced with steel epoxy.

The 2 pines at the bottom of the receiver are to small. I taped 2 screws instead and lock tight the hole thing.

After about 10 hours of work there is no more wobble in the barrel.

for the racking handle its an easy fix. You just need to tighten the tube that holds the thing onto the brackets.

Over all. Its really not worth the money.

There are no replacement parts for the bolt, and the only thing that will work is RS trigger groups. It may work for a year or for 2 days but will eventually brake again.

if you have the funds I suggest you take a look at the Tanaka or Maruzen based 870 that have been reworked by Clarence Lai it's near bulletproof but it is not cheap either

agree. but how to get it incountry is an other thing.

shells for the tanaka
 

so i have been shopping around for tanaka stock shells but i learned they are discontinued.

i have also been trying to order the aisoft surgeon magnum shells but without any luck, are they discontinued as well. or does anyone have ideas on where to find them.

thanks

Scratch the Maruzen 870. The shell elevator is cast of crappy pot metal and there aren't any good replacement parts that are more robust. Borked shell elevator is a common critical failure on the Maruzen shell loaders. Also, I found that the shells started to drop pellets as they aged. Loose pellets in the magazine tube find their way into the trigger and loading mechanism which causes some nasty jams that aren't addressable on the field.

What about the Remington M870 from 007 airsoft? Looks to be of better quality