870 Wingmaster

[Rob228]

I've currently got a bid in on a 1970's vintage Wingmaster. I just looked in the safe and realized this will be my 4th 870. Currently have another Wingmaster of about the same vintage, a youth model 20 gauge that was my very first when I was around 11 or 12 that saw weekly use at the skeet range for 10 years and another 20 gauge lightweight special field that I got when my daughter was born (it will be her first shotgun). I've got a Beretta A400 that I use for Trap, but maybe it is because it was the first shotgun I ever owned, I always look for used 870s.

I also just realized that I'll have 9 twelve gauge barrels if I win this auction. Variety is the spice of life....

 

[eastbank]

one of my favorite small game shotguns is a 20 ga 870 remington 2-3/4" early light weight with two barrels, along with a browning 20 ga upland special.

 

[Seedy Character]

You are never wrong with an 870. Old Wingmaster will last you forever.

Quick scan
12 Ga Riot 2 3/4, next magazine
12 Ga Mag
16 Ga 1st model
20 Ga
.410

Started son on a 20ga Magnum, cut barrel to 23" and threaded for choke tubes; switched buttstock for shorter stock, when he was 9. Had full size buttstock for when he grew.

Same 870 is now teaching 4th grandson.

 

[kymasabe]

Loved my old Wingmaster, never should have sold it.
I bought it used, had adjustable stock on it, set it up for me, and shot trap, 250 rounds, about 40 Thursdays a year, for over 5 years, plus skeet, sporting clays, turkey shoots, and hunting. I put over 50,000 shells thru that gun and it never failed, never broke, never needed parts.
I never should have sold it.
I hated the safety location and the bolt release. I bought a Mossberg 500 after I moved, thinking it was an improvement, but the thing shoulders differently, unnaturally, and I can't hit a damn thing with the Mossy.

 

[WyMark]

Sold my 12g Wingmaster when I needed the money and then couldn't afford to replace it, so bought an 870 Express instead. That was 30 years ago and I still want the Wingmaster back.

 

[stinkeypete]

I predict that the classic American pump shotguns (Wingmaster, Ithaca Model 30, and Mossberg 500) will soon be as sought after as the fine American double barrels.

 

[stuckinthe60s]

first 870 was a 34" trap vr. sold it when I transferred states while in the navy.

 

[MarkCO]

I bought a Rem 870 Express when I was 20, so it is 34 years old. Shot Trap, 3Gun, upland birds, waterfowl, Sporting Clays, even an Elk at 80 yards with a slug with it. I shoot a few rounds of Trap with it every year. But it mostly stays in the shotgun rack as the anchor.

 

[jrsgunbooks]

I bought a 1954 Wingmaster with the factory adjustable dial- a-choke (yeah its ugly) when I picked it up from the pawnshop it was spray-painted with rattle cans of black and green paint to give it a "camo" finish. It looked awful and I was able to get it really cheap. About $70.

When I got it home I carefully cleaned it top to bottom and was able to save about 60% of the bluing an the walnut stock was gorgeous underneath. I used it for years for plinking, informal clay shooting or just blasting holes in water jugs. I took it to the gun show last month on a lark and was offered $600 for it.

 

[old roper]

I have Wingmaster and 870 Express also these.

https://lsbauctions.com/2721/factor...del-1100-skeet-shotguns-410-bore-28-gauge-ga/

 

[Geezerbiker]

I have one about that old. It has a 30" barrel and a full choke. It throws a pattern like a baseball...

I took it skeet shooting once. I hit most of the time but when I hit dead on, the clay pigeon would turn to black dust...

Tony

 

[ChasHam]

I had a 20 ga. Wingmaster that I foolishly sold many years back and got to missing it recently. All I could afford was a 20 ga. Express and picked one up.

Of course it's not as pretty- and the action is not as slick/smooth as I remember the Wingmaster was. But I haven't shot it much yet and maybe it will improve with use and age.

 

[bamaranger]

graduation gift

Bought an 870 as a college graduation gift, to myself in 1980. It was a magnum, with great honkin' 30" ribbed barrel, cause Ben Rodgers Lee, the turkey guru from AL, said that's what one needed. One season lugging that sewer pipe around, even as a young guy, convinced me Lee was probably not walking very far!

No choke tubes in those days, so I paid way too much for a vent rib 26" full choke barrel, and later a 26" IC. Even later, I was given a Rem Choke rifle sighted 20" barrel, screwed in a Rem Super Full turkey choke, and the old 870 has been a dedicated turkey gun ever since.

That gun has been shot enough over the years that I had to replace the "carrier/shell lifter" (?) as a riveted part came loose and needed replaced. Also had a shell latch come loose, needing to be re-staked. The nice walnut stocks are off, replaced with synthetic. The bluing at the receiver junction is gone by years of handling at trail carry while hunting. All in all a good, reliable shotgun and my only shotgun for a very long time, though that has changed. A tad heavy too me these days, all steel and an optic, but it went gobbler chasing 28 mornings this year, and killed 4!

 

[Virginian]

Shell latches do not have to be restaked. I Superglued one over 10 years ago and it is still going strong. I will never stake another one, and I have the staking tool.

 

[polychoke]

My first firearm was a 16 ga. Wingmaster 28", purchased new in 1974 from the gun rack in back of a pharmacy in Lansing, Michigan. A few trades later I bought a first generation 870 Special Purpose deer gun in 12 ga. Both were fine shotguns.

 

[ammo.crafter]

870

Have a Wingmaster Premier in 12ga light contour 28" barrel that looks and functions just as good today then it did 20 years ago.

Best pump ever made.

 

[Lima Oscar 7]

As I near the end of the 50th decade, I am what some consider an old school Arkansas flooded timber Duck hunter. There is a counter culture of old schoolers who roam the green timber with plain Jane Remington 870 Express 20 gauges. The only Mods are an extended choke and a gun sling. There is a balance and feel to the all steel 870 that cannot be achieved with shotguns that cost five times the price. They are not as quick on follow up shots but they work. I take the Express models down to the pins and soak the metal components in Break-Free CLP spray repeatedly until they are saturated. Then the water beads up like carnuba wax. I still have a semi-auto shotgun but no collection is complete without some sort of 870.

 

[RayGee]

I was gifted my uncle's 1962 12g WingMaster upon his passing in 1990. He bought it new at Abercrombie & Fitch in NYC. He had a PolyChoke installed (actually works pretty good) and the safety reversed for his left hand.

It was the first firearm that I ever shot and every time I even just look at it, I smile and remember his love and wise council.

Regards --------------

 

[Lima Oscar 7]

Wow! What history and look at how far our society has regressed from that point in time.

 

[Seedy Character]

Lima "They are not as quick on follow up shots but they work."

I went to an event, late '80's, Dan Carlisle was doing some exhibition shooting and speaking. He had just returned from the Olympics, where he had won in Trap.

He shot a Mossberg 500. I asked him why he didn't shoot a semi-auto? His answer, " they cycle to slow for me. I can work a pump. I have been shooting THIS gun over 25 years. I works for me."

There was a shooting station set up, 5 falling steel plates on electronic timer. I shot my 20ga 1100. 3.4 seconds. I was feeling pretty good. Done it with my 870 12ga. 2.6 seconds. I was amazed. Carlisle walks up. 1.6 seconds. 5 shots with a 12ga Mossy 500.