saw new 870 yesterday

[farmbif]

I saw a new Remington 870 at buds gun shop yesterday, 12 gauge, it came with a cantilever slug barrel on it. the fit and finish was good. it wasn't a gloss blue like wingmaster but a kind of rough dull finish like parkerized, and the stock and fore end were also a satin finish walnut, nothing fancy but good old walnut. $570 in the box.
it operated smooth just like my old 870. from what I saw it leads me to believe the new owners of Remington shotgun factory put the old workers back to doing what they do best.

[Teddy (punchie)]

I saw one all black and not my cup of tea. I like wood.

[TNsailorman]

I am glad to hear Remington is returning to the older days. They once made really fine shotguns and rifles. I know, I have owned a bunch over the years and never had to reject one for lack of accurracy or workmanship. james

[hoodat]

Back in the day, the 870 Wingmaster was the shotgun that made Mossburg and the newer Winchesters seem like cheap crap. Most of us thought that anything with a aluminum receiver was "inferior".

I've had five different 870's over the years and loved them all -- except for the Model 870 Special Field. It had a straight butt-stock that looked really cool, but I couldn't get my face low enough on it to shoot it well. Every shot was like taking a punch to the cheekbone. Those guns were kinda rare, so I got good value when I traded it off.

I've got one of the newer, (maybe ten year old) in 20 ga., with the rougher finish and 21" barrel. It's got a nice laminated walnut stock, vent rib, and I love it. jd

[Moleman-]

Got a fieldmaster grade 870 for my son when they came out in 2021. The serial number on his is in the 700's. It's similar to my late 80's 870 express, only it's made nicer except for the plastic trigger group which I hate. Haven't seen one of the new wingmasters yet. The new 870 has a lot of MIM parts v/s my older 870. I haven't taken apart a 20ga I got for the kids right before Reminton went under to see how much MIM parts are inside, but I bet it's similar to the new models. Two hunting seasons down and no issues. His on top, my well worn 870 on the bottom. I replaced the stock on mine 20 years back or so because the deet we used during dove season melted the finish on the stock and would make it gummy. Black plastic stock has been trouble free.

[Johnch]

I saw a "New" 870 a few months ago
It looked to have been made with parts from the scrap bin

I also saw a "new" 870 last week
The one last week had good fitting stock and forearm

I have several 20+ year old 870's
I will keep shooting the old ones

John

[megasupermagnum]

I saw a "New" 870 a few months ago
It looked to have been made with parts from the scrap bin

I also saw a "new" 870 last week
The one last week had good fitting stock and forearm

I have several 20+ year old 870's
I will keep shooting the old ones

John

That's the way Remington has always been with their base model guns like the 870 express, and the various cheaper 700 models like the 788 and 783. It wasn't until 2007 when all of their guns turned into trash. You can knock the new Rem Arms 870 fieldmaster all you want, it's not worse than a 2007-2019 Remington 870 of any type. Will the new Wingmaster 870 be as good as the old Wingmasters? I don't know, but I suspect they will be.

[Mr Peabody]

Will the new ones interchange parts with the old ones?

[376Steyr]

New Remington (AKA RemArms) shows the Wingmaster, with a blued finish, on their joke of a website, but I think they are only producing the Fieldmaster. The Fieldmaster has the rough black finish. Has anyone seen a new blued firearm come out of RemArms since they restarted production? My theory is that the craftsmen who could do the polishing needed for a decent blue job are long gone, and I suspect the old bluing tanks have been scrapped.

[Moleman-]

Will the new ones interchange parts with the old ones?

I swapped around the bolt, trigger group, action bar/slide, barrel ect between the 1980's and the 2021 870's and they all interchanged. I don't know if small parts interchange, but they look like they do.

[Mr Peabody]

Thanks Moleman

[kycrawler]

New Remington (AKA RemArms) shows the Wingmaster, with a blued finish, on their joke of a website, but I think they are only producing the Fieldmaster. The Fieldmaster has the rough black finish. Has anyone seen a new blued firearm come out of RemArms since they restarted production? My theory is that the craftsmen who could do the polishing needed for a decent blue job are long gone, and I suspect the old bluing tanks have been scrapped.
New wingmasters exist. I got one in at the shop last week.

[Thundarstick]

New wingmasters exist. I got one in at the shop last week.

What's your impression, especially to the Wingmaster in its hey day?

[pworley1]

I think I will just keep my old ones.

[Bigslug]

Will the new ones interchange parts with the old ones?

Depends on what you mean by "new" and "old".

Some of the parts inside the new plastic trigger housings will not interchange with those in the old/Police aluminum ones, but the trigger groups themselves can be swapped into any receiver.

Bolts and forend tubes can be interchanged, but some of the REALLY old forend tubes need a period-correct or modified slide to lay on top of the new action bars.

The magazine and barrel retaining nut are where your problems begin. The very first Express models were just rough-finish versions of old/Police with a spring steel mag spring retainer at the front end of the tube, a spring loaded detent staked into the front/left of the barrel retaining ring, and dimples to engage with that detent on the rear facing O.D. of the barrel retaining nut.

What's come to be known as the Express magazine assembly gets rid of the detent, stamps two dimples in the front end of the mag tube to engage on a plastic combination mag spring retainer/ratchet for a different style barrel retaining nut.

The new detent-free barrels won't work with the old guns unless you come up with a way to keep the barrel nut from working loose, and you can't put a magazine extension onto the new guns because the shells won't pass forward of the dimples.

My understanding is that RemArms is still using the Express style mag parts for the commercial side and still making the old format of parts for the Police guns. I sincerely hope I'm wrong and they get away from that cheap ***. Used to be the only concern you had for buying 870 parts was to order for the right gauge and finish. The Express mag parts are Hellspawn that cause a lot of confusion.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Couple years back I picked up a really old but excellent 870 for $349. My research showed it was from near the start of production. Had thoughts of making a riot gun out of it. Gifted it to a family member instead.

[Shawlerbrook]

Here’s hope that Remington can return to it’s perch as a maker of good quality hunting rifles and shotguns. Here in Central NYS, as kids we all drooled over tge Remington catalogue when it came out each year.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Got a fieldmaster grade 870 for my son when they came out in 2021. The serial number on his is in the 700's. It's similar to my late 80's 870 express, only it's made nicer except for the plastic trigger group which I hate. Haven't seen one of the new wingmasters yet. The new 870 has a lot of MIM parts v/s my older 870. I haven't taken apart a 20ga I got for the kids right before Reminton went under to see how much MIM parts are inside, but I bet it's similar to the new models. Two hunting seasons down and no issues. His on top, my well worn 870 on the bottom. I replaced the stock on mine 20 years back or so because the deet we used during dove season melted the finish on the stock and would make it gummy. Black plastic stock has been trouble free.

Secret with MIM parts is the same as boutique particle knife steel. Attention to detail, particularly the heat treat. MIM parts are fine as long as they are quality.

[HiVelocity]

I still have an old police 870 "trade-in" with a RemChoke 20" VR barrel in 12ga; I love these older shotguns.

Mine still has the original wood with "character" flaws in the stock............lol!

HV

[TNsailorman]

I bought an excellent condition 870 Wingmaster with nice wood and in 12 gauge 3" magnum about 15 or so years ago. I think I paid $240.00 and shipping of about $20.00 for it. I had a 30" 12 gauge 3" barrel (no rib) and I promptly cut to 19". I drill and tapped the barrel 1/2 inch behind the muzzle and put a radium sight on the front bead sight on it to be able to see the sight in the dark. The sight was only guaranteed to glow for 10 years but it is still going strong. It sits within arms reach at the head of my bed. One of my grandsons will get it. I have a 26" light contour barrel for it that I have shot skeet with and it works slick as a ribbon and I had no trouble on doubles with it. If my lead was right, it powdered targets. Have I said that I like 870's, the older ones that is, james

[LeonardC]

When I had to switch for RH to LH long guns one of the first things I bought was a LH Wingmaster. The rib was off centered, so back to the factory it went and was repaired/replaced. I bought a couple of extra barrels for it over the years, but had the original barrel cut shorter and PolyChoked. It has been a sweet shooting shotgun for me, not that I'm much of a shotgunner. I wish I'd picked up a LH slug barrel for it. Maybe the new folks will produce a batch.

Remington got sued over the metal in their 870 barrels. They recalled some and offered some kind of deal to owners to resolve the issue. Some barrels were sold pretty cheap rather than go through the red tape.

[Legion489]

Got 5 870s, love 'em, including a 1964 D series! I told a big Rem collector I knew I had it and would sell it to him reasonably, and he called me a liar! "THERE WERE NO 1964 D GUNS! YOU LIE!" Then he checked, there was just a HAND FULL of 870s serial numbered with a D in the last few days of the year, and this was one! The guy was peeved that I wouldn't sell it to him after he called me a liar, but that ticked me off.

One guy brought in a 870 with no stock, no nothing and covered in pig droppings. He was a farmer and had it leaning on the hog lot fence and when he remembered it, it wasn't there. When he cleaned the hog lot he found it. We literally boiled the snot out of it, and pulled it out and it worked! A year in manure and left outside and it was fine! Fed, fired, ejected! We put new wood on it, all new springs (the ones in it still worked, but figured it was cheap insurance since it was all torn down). Wire wheeled it and it looked pretty decent, so we blued it and it looked pretty good!

The Wing Masters parts were all doubled polished inside and out, and Mossburg was making the 500 cheap, and cheaper, and cheaper, until about the 1975-1976 time frame when the Mossburg guns were JUNK! But people still bought them because they were soooo much cheaper than the 870s. A bunch of us bought NIB Mossburg 500s from a local store on sale cheap, and the guy told me they were getting rid of them because they were junk. I just figured he wanted to sell me a 870, or something for more money. ALL of the Moss. 500s we bought were typical Mossburg junk! The trigger mech parts broke CONSTANTLY! The factory would fix them if you sent it back, but the next box of shells and it would break parts again, over and over, and over, and... Sold it to a guy who wanted it, and was in a gun store and a guy brought an 870 in and wanted to sell it. "I want a $125 for it!" Looked new and was a slightly older model. The guy behind the counter said "$100 and THAT'S IT!" "I want $125!" "NO!", so the guy walked out and I followed and said, "You want a $125 for it?" "Yup!" "I'll buy it!" Turned out it was the 1964 D series the Rem collector told me didn't exist! Still got it and it still works fine! Also have a police model, Wing Master, the lower end 870 (the parts were only polished ONCE on the inside, sandblasted on the outside). NEVER had a 870 fail me!