I figured i would make an update to this old thread, i am one of the posters mentioned in the other thread on shotgunworld forum. I know of four of these including the one that was owned by the op. A friend of mine has one, and I currently own 2 Remington Canada marked 870's and they are identical in every way except that one is a 28" mod and the others are 30" full. All four guns have 4 digit serial number with a V suffix, and all four are between 1200-1500 serial number range. Three of these guns i have physically handled and had a chance to disassemble them. Im not sure if many people here are familiar with very early 870 features, on top of the Remington Canada examples I also have a 1951 & 1955 Ilion made 870.
For the first few years of production Remington had some variations in design that changed through the years. A few of these changes include the lack of a removable steel plate between the butstock & receiver, this was later added to stop stocks from cracking. Very early guns also did not have a retaining pin the kept the locking block from falling out of the bolt when field stripped, it was a change that happened very early as the earlier design it was very easy to accidentally assemble the gun without the locking block. Another chance was the serialization of the barrels to the receiver, my 1951 has this, while my 1955 does not. At some point Remington also changed there method of bluing, at some point in the late 1950's it changed although i am not sure the exact year. The earlier bluing was a lighter colour and at least in my 1951,1955, 1948 made model 11, the bluing does not appear to be inside the receiver, is more of an exterior finish only. The later bluing method is a more commonly encounter nowadays which is an immersion bluing that is on the inside & outside as well as being a noticeably darker almost black colour.
Now i say all that as all three of the Remington Canada marked guns i have looked at, all of which have very low serial numbers, all have later style features. They all have the steel plate between the stock & receiver, they all have the retained locking block in the bolt, none have serialized barrels, and all are the later, darker immersion type bluing. Now i don't know if these guns were simply assembled & finished in Canada with US made parts or any more of the manufacturing was done in Canada, will likely never know. But what i am fairly certain of is that the Canadian made/assemble guns have there own serial number range.
If anyone else out there has seen one or owns one would love to see if they are any different than the examples i have seen. I can post pictures of the guns I have as well as the differences between the older US made guns if anybody wants to see the differences for themselves.
