I picked up an old Wingmaster the other day, it has a barrel code of AX - the gun is a bit of a mystery, it has a 20 inch barrel, marked Full, but the front bead looks as if it may have been a home hack job, the receiver has little blueing left, but there's no rust. The bolt appears to have been blued. Is it possible the barrel was originally longer, and are there any tell tales to indicate which of the possible production years it belongs to. The wood is in great shape, it's somewhat plain, with the short fore end and a black plastic grip cap. Other than that, the gun locks like a vault and the materials used are obviously excellent - even the mag follower was blued steel.
Help with an older Wingmaster
- Thread starter enefgee
- Start date
You never seen one my friend because remington never made them in 12ga.
To the Op sounds like a cut off job but to be 100% check the choke diameter at the end of the barrel. I would say there is none and straight bore
AX just tells you it was made March of 73 nothing more
Cheers
The Remington Date Codes are always stamped into the barrel's lower side, near the rear - just ahead of the receiver.
The first letter of the Code is the month of manufacture, followed by one or two letters which are the year of manufacture.
As noted above, for shotguns with removeable barrels, the code will be valid for the manufacture of the barrel; maybe for the receiver, as barrels do get switched around.
Month Codes: [first letter]
B - L - A - C - K - P - O - W - D - E - R - X
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12
Year:______Code: [second (and third * letters]
1950____*___ WW
1951____*___ XX
1952____*___ YY
1953____*___ ZZ
1954_______ A
1955_______ B
1956_______ C
1957_______ D
1958_______ E
1959_______ F
1960_______ G
1961_______ H
1962_______ J
1963_______ K
1964_______ L
1965_______ M
1966_______ N
1967_______ P
1968_______ R
1969_______ S
1970_______ T
1971_______ U
1972_______ W
1973_______ X
1974_______ Y
1975_______ Z
1976_______ I
1977_______ O
1978_______ Q
1979_______ V
1980_______ A
1981_______ B
1982_______ C
1983_______ D
1984_______ E
1985_______ F
1986_______ G
1987_______ H
1988_______ I
1989_______ J
1990_______ K
1991_______ L
1992_______ M
1993_______ N
1994_______ O
1995_______ P
1996_______ Q
1997_______ R
1998_______ S
1999_______ T
2000_______ U
2001_______ W
2002_______ X
As maybe seen, the year code letters duplicate; some knowledge of when the model was introduced should resolve the actual year of manufacture.
Seeing as how the previous owner has chopped the barrel down to coincide with a Youth or Ladies length, one option would be to set it up to be a proper Youth/Ladies gun. Have the butt trimmed to get an appropriate Length Of Pull for a shorter shooter, and they'll have themselves an ideal skeet/upland/decoyed waterfowl gun.
I just found some interesting information out - it seems the receiver and the barrel are a mis-match, the receiver serial number starts with "1" -(182###V) apparently if your receiver SN starts with a number, the receiver predates 1968. After 1968 all Wingmaster SN's start with a letter. That explains the difference in the remaining finish.
That is so common with wingmasters it is almost a norm.Back in the day prior to the screw in chokes most of us bought the gun and then a couple extra barrels to get various chokes and sold it with just one barrel normally the one we didnot use the most
I could sell a wingmaster right now with pretty much any fix choked barrel they made from cylinder to 34" trap and any one in between
Cheers
- Location
- East ontario
Call me when u want to sell it 
Call me when u want to sell it
You still gathering up those old things
Remember Remington is junk so I have been told here
You still gathering up those old things
Remember Remington is junk so I have been told here
Before this I'd only had Expresses and I might have been tempted to partially agree about the 'junk', this is a totally different animal.
That was just a joke for the beeman
Early Express 12ga were fine out of the box as are most of the small gauges. Later ones you may have to do some polishing or tweeking to but for what one pays for one they are still a good bang for the buck
Cheers
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