saw new 870 yesterday

[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!