Wingmaster Wood

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klepper62

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Has anyone seen wood similar to this on a Remington 870 Wingmaster? All I know is it was my dad’s shotgun that I acquired. The markings on the barrel date it to December 1965. It was bought from Frank at Fonthill Gun and Sport in Ontario, and it is supposedly a custom made stock.
Note: In the pictures it has a 20" Express barrel on it

Any information would be appreciated. Thanks


 
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That looks like it's probably 870 TB or TC grade wood that left the factory in smooth configuration and was checkered afterwards or possibly done as a special order thru the Remington custom shop. I've honestly never seen that style of checkering on a regular production 870. When 3macs1 sees your post he may very well be able to shed some light on the matter and help you out...he knows Remington 870s pretty well! Here are a few pics of typical later production 870 Trap "TC" grade wood.

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Not custom to me in IMO, factory Remington. Just a real nice piece of vintage tiger wood that remington probally supplied on a early 60's ADL grade 870. They used many many different patterns of checkering back than prior to the common fleur de lis patterns we all know and love
Has been refinsihed at one time heavily on the stock and not so much on the forearm. Stock checkering one can see rounded edges and looks like finish in the checkering but definately not cut as sharply as original. Just compare the depth of the cuts to the forearm and you will feel and see a noticable difference. Butt area also looks like it was swelled a bit at the pad which is very common and was refitted. Think I can see the remains of the small crack lines in the pic
Regardless a nice piece of vintage wood for sure Congrats
Back in those days remington and winchester let out many production guns with some pretty nice looking wood.
Look at this set on one of my matched sets on 69 1100's. That was production run and look at the set from the same run 150 sets in the difference. Like night and day. I think they just grabbed what ever was there to keep the line running back then




Or how about this remington custom shop set that was on a 1100. Now that is woodie material for sure . :)
 
In the olden days, Remington and other manufacturers could afford to put higher end wood on their stuff. The cost of a blank like that would be prohibitive these days and seen only in the assorted cu$tom shop$.
One way to check it for being a factory stock is if the checkering is cut or pressed. Looks pressed in the pictures. That doesn't detract from the quality though. It's just the way it was and is done.
 
sunray said:
In the olden days, Remington and other manufacturers could afford to put higher end wood on their stuff. The cost of a blank like that would be prohibitive these days and seen only in the assorted cu$tom shop$.
One way to check it for being a factory stock is if the checkering is cut or pressed. Looks pressed in the pictures. That doesn't detract from the quality though. It's just the way it was and is done.
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Remington used different methods of checkering, it really just depends on the vintage of the gun and/or if it's regular production or custom shop. The OP's is hand cut checkering. Mine are machine cut for the MC stock and pressed for the straight.
 
VLT79 said:
Remington used different methods of checkering, it really just depends on the vintage of the gun and/or if it's regular production or custom shop. The OP's is hand cut checkering. Mine are machine cut for the MC stock and pressed for the straight.
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All were hand cut of that vintage shown that I can recall regardless if ADL, TX, TB, SA, SX etc etc. Yours are all the second generation of stocks are they not?? 69 and up

Might be wrong on the exact year but around that time they started to supply wingmasters with either walnut or mahogony since there was a shortage of walnut. was not until the mid 80's were they back to mainly walnut
 
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3macs1 said:
All were hand cut of that vintage shown that I can recall regardless if ADL, TX, TB, SA, SX etc etc. Yours are all the second generation of stocks are they not?? 69 and up
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Indeed. The MC wood is on a TC-Trap that was built in 1989. The other gun is actually a 1982 Ducks Ulimited "The Mississippi" edition (the only 870s to leave the factory with a 32" vent-rib) that someone swapped the wood on so I'm not sure how old it is.
 
VLT79 said:
Indeed. The MC wood is on a TC-Trap that was built in 1989. The other gun is actually a 1982 Ducks Ulimited "The Mississippi" edition (the only 870s to leave the factory with a 32" vent-rib) that someone swapped the wood on so I'm not sure how old it is.
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Yep in the end the op's stock is real nice but it doesn't add any resale value to the gun regardless of origin and if it was a collectors version the refinish could actually drop value which is not the case here.
Remington at the time put out some nice wood that if for sure but nothing compared to what winchester was installing on the superx1 during the mid 70's
Theirs was unreal especially on their miss fly way submission
SWEET or their DU version which I had the twin and sold for like 600 bucks 15 years ago. What an idiot I was


 
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They sure were little did we know when they came out in the mid 70's what they would prove to be. Remember the old man ordering in three new and didnot take long for the old 1100's to hit the shelf and start gathering dust.
Almost 40 years later and I don't care if it is one of the B semi's , remington etc etc the superx1 is still KING
Glad I only sold off 1/2 of them we had over the years and kept some good examples
Cheers

Sorry Op for going off track but I get excited when tiger wood is around and brings me back to a better time when I could buy ammo and guns at a candy store with nothing more than a smile and cash required
 
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It's not Remington custom shop wood and it's not factory checkering nor is that a factory rem pistol grip cap it may be off of a rem shotgun of some vintage and redone . it looks like a standard trap stock . Nicely done
 
struff55 said:
It's not Remington custom shop wood and it's not factory checkering nor is that a factory rem pistol grip cap it may be off of a rem shotgun of some vintage and redone . it looks like a standard trap stock . Nicely done
Click to expand...

That grip cap is identical to the two that where screwed onto my trap stocks (pictured further up) when they left the factory. It's also identical to a Remington made, oil rubbed, non-checkered trap stock I purchased from Numrich 3 years ago.
 
struff55 said:
It's not Remington custom shop wood and it's not factory checkering nor is that a factory rem pistol grip cap it may be off of a rem shotgun of some vintage and redone . it looks like a standard trap stock . Nicely done
Click to expand...

Normally I agree with you Struff but not this time. Yes I would bet the farm it is factory remington checking and one of two caps they used on these higher end early models
Same checkering on this 59 870 tc and same forearm cuts ( ignore the aftermarket butt and stock work and you can see by the gap the white spacer is missing on the 59 cap). My guess the cap is this one but hard to tell from his pics regardless it is early 870 factory set up but yes refinished for sure



 
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Wow..... Thanks for all the excellent comments!
Should I be shooting this thing or put it back up on the wall over the Anger Decoys?
I can post some better pictures in day or so if that would help better indentify this gun.
 
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