Can I pigtail this?

[goredsus]

Swapping out a bunch of plugs and the last plug I came to today had three sets of black and three sets of white wires. 
 
Can I pigtail the two remaining white wires together and connect them to the one post on the new plug while doing the same for the black wires (pigtail the two blacks together and connect to them their post)?
 
This is the first plug after a GFCI plug that I have also replaced.  Logic tells me that I can do this but I wanted to make sure.  The breaker is going to remain off until I know for sure that what I want to do won’t cause any issues.
 
Thanks.

[Robert Adams]

Yes you can pigtail the wires on that one outlet together then to it but why. Any time you can avoid a pigtail you do.

[blackhat]

Personally, I would cut 2 pieces of wire about 8" long and nut all 4 blacks and all 4 whites together and push them to the back of the box with the pigtails out to connect the receptacle. Easier than trying to seat and square a receptacle with a half dozen wires connected to it.

[Roly]

Personally, I would cut 2 pieces of wire about 8" long and nut all 4 blacks and all 4 whites together and push them to the back of the box with the pigtails out to connect the receptacle. Easier than trying to seat and square a receptacle with a half dozen wires connected to it.

Yep.   Roly    Also suggest side wiring if that is available.  The push ins  may be a problem if heavy current is invovled.

[Phil Thien]

Personally, I would cut 2 pieces of wire about 8" long and nut all 4 blacks and all 4 whites together and push them to the back of the box with the pigtails out to connect the receptacle. Easier than trying to seat and square a receptacle with a half dozen wires connected to it.

The way I'm looking at the pic, it would appear there are two circuits, and two duplex receptacles.

I agree w/ your advice of adding pigtails but think there are going to be three black and three white, not four.  That separate receptacle should stay as-is.

[goredsus]

Let me try to clarify this a little bit...the white plug is a new plug to replace the ivory colored plug.  When I swap out plugs, I move them one wire at a time to make sure I keep the wiring the same on the new plug (trying to keep the line and the load the same). 

I swapped the first set of black and white wires (I'll call them the "top" wires) and then realized that instead of one white and one black at the bottom of the old plug, I had two black and two white wires.  The new plug has screws and not the push-in and only two screws on each side.

My main concern with this centers around the fact that I want to make sure that this plug continues to work as a GFCI plug and the plugs behind it in the GFCI chain still work that way.

Thanks.

[TDKPE]

My main concern with this centers around the fact that I want to make sure that this plug continues to work as a GFCI plug and the plugs behind it in the GFCI chain still work that way.

I'm confused - neither of those duplex receptacles are GFCI.  If it (or they) is(are) downstream from a GFCI device of some sort (breaker or receptacle), then it(they) will still function as before.

Oh, and those receptacles are back-stab types. I'd replace with back-wired (screw clamps, not spring clamps) or side-wired. The cheap back-stabs aren't very robust with load cycling especially, worse with high current devices.

[blackhat]

Phil, its a single circuit and a single duplex receptacle, in the picture he's halfway through the swap of ivory for white.  3 existing blacks/whites plus a pigtail is 4 wires in each nut.

Tom, the GFCI is a receptacle ahead of this one and his new receptacle is side clamping.

OP, if you do it the way I suggested and the GFCI plug is truly first in line and properly connected, all the remaining plugs will be GFCI protected as well.

[Phil Thien]

Thanks for the clarification on that guys.

So there were six conductors going to the original receptacle? Ugh!

[goredsus]

Thanks Blackhat, I'll do as you suggested.

And yes, it was an UGLY looking setup with six wires coming into the original receptacle...not what I wanted or expected to see when I opened it up.

Thanks again everyone.