I posted this in the shotgun forum, but haven't gotten any replies. I thought I'd ask it here too and widen the possible readership.
I've got an 11-87 Special Purpose, which is the normal one (not the 3 1/2" magnum), with a 26" barrel. It's exactly as it came from the factory - no mods or anything. Recently, I disassembled, cleaned and oiled it, and reassembled it according to the manual (which I've done before without a problem). This time, when I fed some 3" turkey shells into the magazine and cycled it manually, it locked open about 75-80% of the time, as though on an empty magazine. In other words, it only seems to properly cycle a new shell from the magazine into the chamber and close the bolt about 20-25% of the time. The rest of the time, I have to manually close the bolt on another shell by pressing the release button.
I also should mention that some of the grains of white buffer trickles out of several of my turkey shells. I know that these guns need to keep basically free of this type of stuff, but I wouldn't think a few grains in an otherwise clean and properly oiled action would stop it from cycling. I haven't had a chance to shoot it and see if it's any different, but I will soon. Does anyone have any thoughts about why it would be acting up like this? Is it possible that it doesn't cycle "normally" by hand (always operating the bolt by hand, like when you unload the magazine), but only with live-fire?