Advice required.

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horse_men

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Hi all,
I have a bit of a dilema and can't decide what to do. I've got an 870 wingmaster magnum that I really like. I would like to keep it but I can't see spending a pile of money on getting it altered for steel shot. I am thinking about just picking up a new barrel for it for waterfowl hunting and then cutting the original barrel down to 18.5 or 20 inches for slugs or other short barrelled uses.

Or I could trade it on an express combo and get both barrels, but then I don't want to trade the wingmaster action off to go to an express.

I know that i could switch to tungsten loads but at almost $3.00 a shot it wouldn't take long to justify just buying a whole new shotgun.

Is there any easy way to tell if the barrel I have is safe for steel shot? I don't think it is as it has a fixed full choke.

What would you guys recommend?
 
I use BB Steel for geese. You might be able to get away with #2, but I use those for ducks. My advice is to buy a new barrel with threaded choke tubes. Simple and easy fix.
 
I used an unaltered full choked 30" on my 1100 and used steel shot with no problems at all. Hunted that way for 2 years.

Your milage may vary, but if your planning on cutting the barrel eventually anyway, I'd just shoot some steel and monitor the end of the barrel for damage. Again, I'm sure some people on here will call me retarded for even suggesting it, but my full choked barrel never showed even the smallest sign of damage.
 
Thanks so far guys, Canucklehead, what size shot were you using? I know that the smaller shot size is not as much of an issue but wouldn't using BB size put more stress on the full choke and forcing cone? I am sure that there is a whole bunch of recreational hunters that use steel shot in their guns and have not had any issues. I just don't want to be the 1/100 that has the end of my barrel split open. While I am not overly concerned it just would bother me if I knew I was doing something that has the possibility of being unsafe.
 
Take the barrel into a smith and have him open the choke up to modified. Then you should be good to go with steel no problems. Its a lot cheaper than any other options so far. Steel will give you good patterns from a mod choke too.
 
horse_men said:
I know that i could switch to tungsten loads but at almost $3.00 a shot it wouldn't take long to justify just buying a whole new shotgun.
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You said it best yourself, hourse_men - just buy yourself a second gun. :D Then you can have a selection of styles (say a pump & an U/O, or a pump and an autoloader). There's no shame in having a selection of tools to choose from.

If your conscience bothers you, go back to calculating the savings off tungsten matrix (which isn't as much as you may think - steel's pricey, too.)

SS
 
horse_men said:
Thanks so far guys, Canucklehead, what size shot were you using?
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I always used #4 or #2, with the majority being #4. I'm sure I put a bunch of BB through it as well (geese), but it definately wasn't a major diet of them.

As mentioned though, the cheapest option is probably getting choke opened up to modified. Should cost less than $50 at a smith. Modified usually gets me the best patterns when using steel.

Have fun and stay safe!
 
Does anyone know of a local smith that would open up the choke for me? I called one yesterday and he told me there was only one guy that did it in Canada (Yeah right!!) and that between opening of the choke and the forcing cone it would cost $350.00. Wolf's here in Edmonton is closed for holidays until the beginning of August.
 
Haha $350? You could buy a new shotgun for that price!!!! What a crock! Opening a choke will take the dude 10 minutes with a reamer.

Not sure where to get it done in Edmonton area, but I definately would NOT go to that guy!

Also, forcing cone would be nice, but not required, in my opinion.
 
you can get a whole new barrel with multiple chokes from russels/wsl for about 330 - or so it says in the catalogue- if you write remington and give them your serial number, they will tell you if there's any problems with steel in yoiur wingmaster- i did this with my 1100 dated 1975 and they said no problems as long as i stayed below 2 steel or 4 steel, i forget which- official factory letter too, as a followup in the mail a few weeks later
 
you can get a whole new barrel with multiple chokes from russels/wsl for about 330 - or so it says in the catalogue- if you write remington and give them your serial number, they will tell you if there's any problems with steel in yoiur wingmaster- i did this with my 1100 dated 1975 and they said no problems as long as i stayed below 2 steel or 4 steel, i forget which- official factory letter too, as a followup in the mail a few weeks later
 
Don't shoot steel in a full choke.

Get a smith to open it up to modified. I think it cost $40 or $50.

That's what I did to my 1957 Wingmaster for waterfowl hunting.
 
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