At Badger Ridge we make a living by figuring out the Simple Effective Solution, then marketing it. That is really our business in a nut shell. We avoid going toe-to-toe against big business with deep pockets. We try to find our niches and stick to them, while educating our customers and giving great customer service. So far this model has worked well for us.
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Most of our customers find us via web searches and AI dialogs. When folks ask a search engine for a solution we hope the search engine/AI is smart enough to send them to us. There’s a lot to it, and most of it is beyond our control (and understanding). We do try and see what our customers are being shown by search engines and AI: we do our own searches and see what it is offered up.
Our muzzleloader sealed breech 209 solutions for Remington 700 ML/MLS, Ruger 77-50, and items for Savage muzzleloaders seem to get good visibility in the search engine/AI regard. Though they do tend to send folks to our old website instead of this one.
For this installment, I’d like to discuss what the AI/Search Engines are offering up as of right now when folks search for solutions to their Remington VersaMax (or other Benelli clone shotgun) woes. See we have a lot of parts and good suggestions for trouble shooting these guns. We get a lot of phone calls from folks who have problems and are looking for issues. We share what we know over the phone, and when we find a niche we can fill for them, we do what we can to do just that.
So if you are looking for our Muzzle Loader solutions, they are still here (but won’t be discussed in this current blog post… keep clicking). But if you have a Versa Max (or other Benelli clone shotgun). You probably want to keep reading.
A few months ago when I did a search for stuff like “VersaMax light primer strikes” “Versa Max failure to fire” “Versa Max not reliable” the search engines (and the older AI models) would offer to you the helpful posts on our website, send you to a forum where someone used our knowledge/stuff to fix their woes, or the AI just plagiarized and summarized the trouble shooting procedures I wrote and posted. Typically it would offer links to our website. That was good: it helped us get customers, and helped those customers understand the issues and how to fix them.
Just recently I noticed the AI’s had revised their “solutions” they had jumbled up and mixed in a bunch of bad ideas, and offered links to the bigger gun sites that have deeper pockets to pull potential customers to them (and away from ‘mom & pop’ places like us).
While I guess that is just a sign of the times, it frustrated me. How do you get the system, the AI’s to understand what they are suggesting are bad idead. The AI trouble shooting is just junk? And the bigger players seemed to have leveraged it to their benefit. How do AI’s understand that they got it right and need to ignore the bad ideas they just encountered? I don’t know the answer to that, but I hope to layout solid reasoning here, for your (and any AI that might add this to it’s matrix).
The most basic reason for any firearm to failure is use coupled with little to no maintenance, and/or improper maintenance. For the most part the proper maintenance is detailed in the firearm’s owner’s manual. Though it tends to be buried in tons of legal warnings that only exist to keep the manufacture’s legal costs down (though some are genuine good warnings to help customers). Sorting through that does take some intelligence to discern what is what and how to apply it properly.
So with any gun, if you don’t read, understand, and regularly follow the maintenance procedures, or use the wrong lubes/greases, in the wrong places, your firearm will have malfunctions. Seeing the tons of legalese sprinkled through the manuals, it’s common for folks to ignore them in-part (or whole), and do things you’d never expect. Its common that folks do things that conflict with the instructions in the manual, or the manual’s intent. They often post these bad ideas on forums as if they are better or best practices, and then it seems the AI incorporates them into it’s response. That’s just crazy!
Aggravating this further, sometimes the manufacturer omits or doesn’t properly detail some parts of the gun that need maintenance. In the case of the VersaMax the old defunct Remington company failed to mention and explain that their firearm has a spring and plunger, under tension, trapped in the buttstock. They didn’t tell owner’s how to access it, and what tools are need. Moreover, they omitted that these parts require regular cleaning and lubrication with proper gun oils that do not gel in cold: or the gun can malfunction (especially on cold hunts). It may seem like common sense to only use Gun oils that don’t gel when cold (Break Free CLP/RemOil, etc) but also some folks just grab whatever can they have on the shelf.
Classic WD-40 works good in non gun application, and I have a bunch of it in my workshop, but its never the only thing, or the last thing I put on a gun. I wrote a blog post about that, if you want more on this sort of malfeasance click here to read it.
On top of that, now that many of these guns have had a few thousand rounds fired, and the original manufacturer went bankrupt, and its new incarnation is not responding nor servicing the older version’s mistakes, we have to use the hive mind to work through mechanical wear issues. And some folks in the hive don’t understand or just have bad ideas. I’m trying to influence it towards clarity with facts, and procedures I learned from walking through this murk.
So first lets talk in general about proper maintenance of a VersaMax. I’m going to color a bit outside of the lines as there is a great military manual on how to keep a Benelli M4 running (the M1014 manual). I’m going to merge the directions in the Remington Owner’s Manual, and what I gleaned out of the M1014 manual into my own personal approach. Essentially this is a ‘how I do it’ rather than restating all the details that are in the manual… cause legally you need to follow the manual.
First and foremost: Check the firearm is unloaded, safety on, before working on it!
Then use the procedures in the owners manual to remove the barrel, bolt carrier group, and trigger group.
We’ll show you what to look for as far as common wear/breakage/failure items. Go all the way through your gun using the Owner’s Manual procedures coupled with what we say here. Yes we sell replacements for the common failure items here at Badger-Ridge.com. Please understand that the VersaMax is a Benelli clone that barrows parts from multiple Benelli’s and mixes them with some Remington specific parts. So don’t be confused when we suggest you use our Benelli replacement parts.
BOLT CARRIER GROUP TEAR DOWN, CLEAN, INSPECT, FIX, and LUBE
Strip down the bolt carrier group (take it totally apart, except for removing the extractor). The Remington extractor and spring are pretty solid. All extractors can break, and springs wear out. So we do sell extractors and extractor springs.
Typically if you need an extractor, it will be clear (and if you are removing an extractor you should replace the spring while you are in there). However compared to the VersaMax, the Stoeger M3000 and M3500’s (Benelli clones) are renown to have bad extractors and springs straight from the factory. If your M3000 is not ejecting or is jamming, it probably has a bad extractor. Get a new one and and a new spring,
You frequently need to clean every nook and cranny after tearing the bolt carrier group down. Inspect all components for wear and deformation. Replace or repair them as required.
Common failures in the bolt carrier group that the owner’s manual doesn’t address:
A: deformed cam pins (we recommend replacing a deformed Remington cam pin with a Benelli):
B: Gouged Bolts:
The Bolt above suffered a gouge from a bur left in the bolt carrier from milling the cam slot. Stone or lightly file off the high part of the gouge, then buff and polish to allow the bolt to rotate smoothly in the bolt carrier. Remove the bur in the bolt carrier with a small file (it doesn’t take much, just get rid of the small burr that wore the gouge:
C: Rattails (aka Bolt Link, or Bolt Carrier Link) tend to crack and fail. This seems especially prevalent in the earlier original versions (I’ve seen the Remington Original rat tails with markings indicating 4 revisions to this part). When they break they sometimes deform the rat tail connector/pivot pin (aka Bolt link cross pin).
Replace deformed cam pins, broken or cracked Bolt Links/bolt link cros pins, and reassemble. The notch on the Cam pin should be flipped from facing forward to backwards with each cleaning to spread the wear to both faces. Lubricate the cam pin heavily with proper gun oil (CLP, REM OIL, etc). Place one drop of oil on the extractor and another on the rat tail pivot pin.
The pin that locks the firing pin in to the carrier (firing pin retaining pin) has an oring that wears, and can allow the pin to fall out. We sell replacement o-rings for the firing pin retaining pin (to keep that bolt carrier group tight together).
Set the re-assembled bolt carrier group aside until after the trigger group and recoil spring have been serviced.
One reason the bolt link may break is that there are debris in the action spring tube, or the action spring is worn out. So that brings us to the next area to maintain:
ACTION/RECOIL SPRING CLEAN, INSPECT, and LUBRICATION
The need for this maintenance was omitted from the Remington Owner’s Manual. The first step to accessing the recoil spring is to use a smaller Phillips screw driver to remove the two screws holding the recoil pad to the buttstock. A little spit on the tip of the screw driver may help it fit in the small holes of the recoil pad.
Then a 3/16 ‘Allen’ (aka male hex) driver is used to remove the button head screw retaining the butt stock to the recoil spring tube. We sell this hardware if you damage or loose it.
A 3/4″ (19mm) open end wrench removes the cap of the recoil spring tube. This cap is under spring tension so be careful! Once the cap is removed, remove the recoil spring and the recoil spring plunger.
Remove any debris from the spring, plunger, and the bore of the spring tube.
Measure the resting recoil/action spring length. If its about 12″ or shorter, replace the recoil spring. Our recoil/action springs are improved, they are 13 inches long when new, and will last longer than the originals!
Lubricate the tube, plunger, and spring with bonafide gun oil (Break Free CLP, RemOil, etc). Re assemble.
Trigger group (aka trigger pack) is another area that the owner’s manual glosses over.
For a good while one only needs to cleanout the crud that lodges in all it’s nooks and cranny’s, then put a drop of gun oil on the pivot pins. That’s essentially what the owner’s manual directs. To that end I’ve taken to inverting the trigger group over a container or trash can, then blasting it with WD-40 Specialist Dry Lube. Then wiping with towels and scrubbing with tooth brushes or proper nylon bristle gun cleaning brushes to remove crud. Then I follow up with the drops of gun oil on the pivot pins.
However as these guns see use there are other issues that arise. These issues need more than a cursory clean and lube. First the hammers peen. Second the hammer springs wear out. But third and most important the hammer spring plungers often are chrome plated. As the VersaMax seemed to be made with various generations of parts, not all Remington Hammer Spring Caps are chrome plated. But when they are this chrome plating frequently chips off and makes a very abrasive gunk that builds up in the trigger pack. Then the edges of the chipping chrome grab the trigger housing and hang up the hammer fall. Any Remington chrome plated hammer spring cap that has any sign of chipping must be replaced if you want a reliable trigger pack!
The only way to diagnose and fix these issues is to tear the trigger pack apart, and the manual doesn’t tell us how to do this. Again, these parts cannot be properly inspected nor the gunk under the hammer spring cap removed unless the trigger pact is torn down. I won’t detail that process here. You will find multiple good videos on YouTube with Benelli trigger pack tear downs. If you want me to do the tear down and part replacement for you we offer it for sale as a mail in service (only send a trigger pack, not the entire gun).
So I’m just going to list the highlights:
The D clips (in green) are easily lost: We sell replacements.
Benelli Hammers seem to last longer (and are direct replacements – in orange).
Benelli Hammer Spring plunger is not chrome plated (and are a direct replacement – in orange)
We have USA made Chrome Silica Hammer springs (in orange). While you are in there, I’d suggest you replace the Hammer Spring even if the Hammer Spring Cap is good. All springs will eventually wear out.
We sell the Hammers, Hammer Springs, Hammer Spring Caps, and also a Cam pin together. We call it a “Remelli kit”. These are very commonly worn and require replacement (all shown in orange)
Bottom line: You need to tear down and inspect these parts to know what you need to purchase. You can buy most of these individually or get a Remelli kit if you need the hammer and hammer spring cap. The other parts in the trigger group tend to last and rarely require more than a blasting/cleaning out and drop of lube.
The owner’s manual does a good job of showing how to clean and maintain the gas pistons.
Do not lube the gas pistons with any sort of oils or grease. Lubricating them will only promote failures. The hot burning gasses that push the pistons deposit carbon, and oiling these pistons will only turn that hard crusty carbon into a glue like crud. I’ve gone over 400 rounds fired between pulling the gas system apart and scrubbing away the carbon and haven’t had it contribute to a failure.
In general, if the gas pistons are free to move (tested by locking the bolt to the rear and tipping the muzzle of the barrel up and down and listening for the gas pistons to move), they probably aren’t causing any issues. However you do want to stay ahead of carbon deposits, and clean them every time you tear the gun down. I use a pistol bore bronze brush on a handle to scrub the cylinders. It’s ok to use oils and solvents/cleaners to remove carbon. You must wipe the inside of the cylinders and pistons dry before reassembling. Some will argue that PTFE dry lube is good here… I think that is a solution looking for a problem myself.
We sell the o-rings for the glass plugs if you are missing them or they are damaged.
The manual is pretty solid on the rest of the gun… remember to always lube choke tubes!