New barrel for old 870?

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g-manz35

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I have an older 870 wingmaster with a fixed choke and would like to buy a barrel with removable chokes for it. Did these recievers change at some point or do the new barrels fit on my 40 year old wingmaster? Is there some way to tell? I read that if you have a magnum reciever you can shoot 3". How can I tell if I have a magnum reciever?

Edit: OK I guess I got lazy. A quick search showed that your serial number must end with M. Mine has a V so I guess mine is a 2 3/4" only. So I guess the only question I have is where is the best place to get a barrel with removable chokes for my 870? I would like a regular 28" barrel. Also would like a barrel that comes with a turkey choke.

Thanks. George
 
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A 12ga uses the same frame size, early 20ga guns used a larger frame than current manufactured guns.

A new 3" barrel will work on your 2¾" receiver, but only with 2¾" or shorter shells.
 
Any gunshop can get them in.

Express barrels will work on a Wingmaster, which is good because they are cheaper, however you will have to also buy an Express magazine cap to go with it. They use a different locking system.

When you order a new barrel it comes with a modified choke. Therers dozens, if not hundreds of other chokes to choose from. Again, any gun shop can those for you.
 
A new barrel costs about $240.00

A new Remington Express 870 in 3-inch is $359.00

You can get a Maverick 3-inch shotgun for $229.00 from Cabela's Canada.
 
MD said:
A new barrel costs about $240.00

A new Remington Express 870 in 3-inch is $359.00

You can get a Maverick 3-inch shotgun for $229.00 from Cabela's Canada.
Click to expand...

Your right a new barrel is not cost effective. UnfortunatelyI've filled my cabinat up with ugly guns already. I'm thinking a new Wingmaster would look pretty good in there right now. The one thing I would need with a new shotgun is interchangable chokes. I really want a turkey choke for calling coyotes.

G
 
I know what you mean. I've gotta get rid of some ugly guns that never see the light of day too.
 
I recently did the same thing. I had an old 2 3/4" Wingmaster with 28" fixed full choke barrel kicking around, useless. It was much easier to get a workable duckgun just by buying a new 870 Supermagnum with 26" vented rib barrel than to try and rework the old 870.

However, I could not just abandon the old 870. I felt guilty it was just sitting in the safe, unused, and unlikely to ever be used. So I refinished the old wood stock which now looks A+. The barrel would have to be changed. So I just looked around online, and found a new Wingmaster 20" rifle-sighted 3" smoothbore barrel with rem-choke. It was fairly cheap too, $179 from WSS. Now my old Wingmaster is a smooth operating deer gun/bear defence gun/tactical zombie gun.

Yes, because my old receiver is 2 3/4", not 3", I should only cylce 2 3/4" shells. For the record, you can load and shoot 3" shells, but they have difficulty ejecting, since the ejector is set up to kick out 2 3/4" shells. Most decent gunsmith ought to be able to swap out the 2 3/4" ejector for a 3" ejector for under $100 just by popping out two rivets. That will allow you to use 3" loads. And yes, it's safe.
 
MD said:
A new barrel costs about $240.00

A new Remington Express 870 in 3-inch is $359.00

You can get a Maverick 3-inch shotgun for $229.00 from Cabela's Canada.
Click to expand...

Considering his old Wingmaster is a much superiour firearm to either of those, I think the better option is to buy a new barrel.

As an aside, I bought my wife a gorgeous old Wingmaster at a gun show a few years ago. Found a brand new in box 28" Express barrel equipped with Remchokes for $100 on the EE.

$300 for the gun and $100 for the barrel gave her a a far superiour firearm to anything in that price range.
 
Bought my Wingmaster when I was 16. Bought it off my english teacher for $225. He brought it to school one day when I drove in. We when out after scool he pulled it out of his trunk, I gave him the cash and drove home with it. Nowdays the cops would be called! That was only 23 years ago. Anyway I shot the crap out of it and all the blueing is wearing off, but the wood looks pretty good. I'm just tired of using 2 3/4" shells. I also got the choke bored out to modified so I could shoot lead, but now it sprays buckshot all over ther place. So now I'm thinking I need something else and have been looking at the new Stoeger 3500. It would fit the bill alright, but I really wouldn't mind a nice wood stock 870 Wingmaster. The new camo guns look ugly to me. I might just have to try reblueing my old Wingmaster and buying a new ugly gun to kill things with. Haven't made up my mind yet. Why did we have to go away from lead? OH ya all the bottom feeders dying from lead poisoning!

G
 
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