I had a few hours to myself between appointments. The logical place to go was Cabelas, close by and I hadn't checked out the bargain bin for a while. Nothing of interest in the bin so I wandered over to the gun counter. I admired the renovated display, and beside it I notice a sign, "Used, $350 or less". Now that fits my budget, and I spied a few guns of interest. 10/22, 10/17, 410 Mossberg pumps and an old 870 Wingmaster. The barrel was park'd, the action was gloss, and it had a recoil pad, I believe it should have been a plain plastic butt plate, and the price seemed reasonable!!!!
I looked it over, it came with a smooth bore Imp/Cyl barrel with adjustable sights. The barrel config is not something I normally use, but I figured that I could get at least one and a half for it, even on a slow CGN day, if I decided to sell. I had a decent full choke barrel at home, surplus until today. When my safe became a bit cluttered I sold off all but a couple or 3 and the odd barrel of my 870 collection.
Took the beast home, did a quick clean and check over, removed the plug and fixed up the spring. Someone had clipped a few coils off, without leveling the cut end. I them put it back together with my barrel. I grabbed 5 shells and they all went bang, with about a 15" pattern at 25 yards, perfect skunk pattern.
The salesman told me it was a new gun, that a customer had a issue with, and that it had been returned to the factory, to be fixed/refurbished. The barrel was new-ish (barrel code WP and a 97) and it had a funky front sight ??? But the receiver IMO is not from this century, and old girl definitely was from before the 870 Express era. The receiver SN prefix "T" dates it as between 1974 and 1978. The blued lifter seems odd, but Mr Google says the blued ones were phased in circa 1976. Not a new Remington.
Here's a picture, with my hunting barrel installed and the Express barrel below.
I looked it over, it came with a smooth bore Imp/Cyl barrel with adjustable sights. The barrel config is not something I normally use, but I figured that I could get at least one and a half for it, even on a slow CGN day, if I decided to sell. I had a decent full choke barrel at home, surplus until today. When my safe became a bit cluttered I sold off all but a couple or 3 and the odd barrel of my 870 collection.
Took the beast home, did a quick clean and check over, removed the plug and fixed up the spring. Someone had clipped a few coils off, without leveling the cut end. I them put it back together with my barrel. I grabbed 5 shells and they all went bang, with about a 15" pattern at 25 yards, perfect skunk pattern.
The salesman told me it was a new gun, that a customer had a issue with, and that it had been returned to the factory, to be fixed/refurbished. The barrel was new-ish (barrel code WP and a 97) and it had a funky front sight ??? But the receiver IMO is not from this century, and old girl definitely was from before the 870 Express era. The receiver SN prefix "T" dates it as between 1974 and 1978. The blued lifter seems odd, but Mr Google says the blued ones were phased in circa 1976. Not a new Remington.
Here's a picture, with my hunting barrel installed and the Express barrel below.
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