Old Wingmaster --- new barrel?

selig

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A bubby wants to sell me an "old" Rem. Wingmaster 870 in 12 gauge. I don't want to shoot steel in it, my question is will a new barrel fit on a 50's action? If so, is it worth buying a new barrel if the old shotgun is in real nice shape?
 
A bubby wants to sell me an "old" Rem. Wingmaster 870 in 12 gauge. I don't want to shoot steel in it, my question is will a new barrel fit on a 50's action? If so, is it worth buying a new barrel if the old shotgun is in real nice shape?

Yes a new barrel will fit but you will have to modify the old receiver and have the ejector changed to shoot 3" and modify the mag tube ring to lock the barrel with the old style tube cap
 
Remington says that #1 and smaller steel shot can be used in fixed full choke 870 barrels. Opening up the choke (if it is full) will likely improve patterning.

The Express barrels are the only ones that do not have the ball detent; all others still have it. A new barrel will be a drop-in fit.
 
A bubby wants to sell me an "old" Rem. Wingmaster 870 in 12 gauge. I don't want to shoot steel in it, my question is will a new barrel fit on a 50's action? If so, is it worth buying a new barrel if the old shotgun is in real nice shape?

i got an old wingmaster too.They have such smooth action, I put a express barrel on it with screw in chokes. I cut the old barrel and put cantilever on to have a deer barrel
.Express works perfect. I do not recommend you use 3" shells in it though receiver was not designed for it. Besides 2 3/4 is enough to kill anything you want to eat.
my opinion
 
Remington says that #1 and smaller steel shot can be used in fixed full choke 870 barrels. Opening up the choke (if it is full) will likely improve patterning.

The Express barrels are the only ones that do not have the ball detent; all others still have it. A new barrel will be a drop-in fit.

Just a comment from what I have seen some express barrels do have the ball and spring, a few have just the ring drilled and most have nothing. When asked remington indicated during production sometimes the parts are interchanged pending what is in the bin for rings at the time and they use what ever on them. Also all matt finish police and tactical have them for sure.You are right 90% don't but some do seems to be more of the replacement ones. Also on the new replacement wingmaster barrels all are drilled but some don't have the ball and spring fitted. Those parts have to be bought seperate. I had to do that last year with a new wingmaster gloss barrel I ordered plus it came in 3 1/2" when only a 3" was ordered. Take care:)
 
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i got an old wingmaster too.They have such smooth action, I put a express barrel on it with screw in chokes. I cut the old barrel and put cantilever on to have a deer barrel
.Express works perfect. I do not recommend you use 3" shells in it though receiver was not designed for it. Besides 2 3/4 is enough to kill anything you want to eat.
my opinion

The 2 3/4" and 3" receivers are indentical parts just have to change the ejector and on some that doesn't even have to be done pending when the gun was made.
There was talk of a very early 2 3/4" receiver with a smaller loading slot but so far no one seems to have ever run into one in canada.
I have two wingmasters from the 50's and even those have the larger opening on the side and one I converted to 3" in about 20 minutes.
 
As others have noted, the fit of a new barrel will be fine (as long as it's not a "supermag", I think, but there's no reason why you'd buy one of those), and there is no need for 3" shells.

You may have an issue with keeping the magazine cap tight if the new barrel lacks a detent. If I were you, I wouldn't let that stop me, as simple solutions for that problem exist.
 
Just a comment from what I have seen some express barrels do have the ball and spring, a few have just the ring drilled and most have nothing. When asked remington indicated during production sometimes the parts are interchanged pending what is in the bin for rings at the time and they use what ever on them. Also all matt finish police and tactical have them for sure.You are right 90% don't but some do seems to be more of the replacement ones. Also on the new replacement wingmaster barrels all are drilled but some don't have the ball and spring fitted. Those parts have to be bought seperate. I had to do that last year with a new wingmaster gloss barrel I ordered plus it came in 3 1/2" when only a 3" was ordered. Take care:)

I guess that means that it's a roll of the dice, then. I bought an 870 barrel (20" Wingmaster, rifle sights, Rem Choke) a couple years ago that does have the ball detent. The lesson we can take away form this is that regardless of what barrel you get, make sure you understand what you have and that you have some way of retaining the endcap.
 
Remington says that #1 and smaller steel shot can be used in fixed full choke 870 barrels. Opening up the choke (if it is full) will likely improve patterning.

The Express barrels are the only ones that do not have the ball detent; all others still have it. A new barrel will be a drop-in fit.

Yup. I did this for years before I bought a new barrel.
After a long time you can see the shot lines in the choke, but.....who cares?
 
Just a comment from what I have seen some express barrels do have the ball and spring, a few have just the ring drilled and most have nothing. When asked remington indicated during production sometimes the parts are interchanged pending what is in the bin for rings at the time and they use what ever on them. Also all matt finish police and tactical have them for sure.You are right 90% don't but some do seems to be more of the replacement ones. Also on the new replacement wingmaster barrels all are drilled but some don't have the ball and spring fitted. Those parts have to be bought seperate. I had to do that last year with a new wingmaster gloss barrel I ordered plus it came in 3 1/2" when only a 3" was ordered. Take care:)

This kind of thing drives me nuts. Remington dropped the ball detent to save 50 cents or something?
 
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