So a long time ago when I was 18 I bought a Remington 870 Wingmaster made in 1974 ( I did not know its age at the time) for $200 and it was the first gun I had ever bought. It is an old gun and needed some love but still ran and is one of the smoothest shot guns I have ever used. Remember this is from back when Remington knew how to make a shotgun.
Well it has been some years and late last year I decided it was time. The first fix was the barrel originally a 28 inch full choke barrel. I had no need for it when I was younger, so I had a shady person on the internet cut it down to 18.5 inches. They even put a vent rib bead on the front even though there is no rib so that sight lasted about 2 shots... Anyways I needed to fix this so I picked up a new 26 inch vint-rib barrel from Remington. Yes I know Remington's fit and finish have gone way down hill over the last few years but that did not concern me as the barrel was not going to stay the way it was.
After sandblasting the parkerization off the barrel I had to solve some of the blueing issues on the receiver and mag tube. The blueing was still pretty good, but the gun was well used and the blueing was showing its age. I did the simplest thing I could, and found a blueing company. I had them reblue the receiver to a high polish and blue the barrel to match.
So while the barrel and receiver were off getting blued. I had to work on the last thing to complete the puzzle. In my young and dumb days I replaced the wood for a Hogue over molded stock and forend. To make things worse I sold the wood furniture online for like $50. Big mistake because finding vintage furniture is not the hard, but swallowing the price for it is not. The wood I found is around the same age and shows some age, but is in very good condition.
Everything is now put together and she is gorgeous. (pay no attention to the make shift work shop.
The blue matches perfectly on the new
and old barrel. I'm so happy how it turned out and I feel it was well worth the time and money to bring it back to glory. Even more of a plus is the newer barrel has screw in chokes so I can use this for what ever I want. Look out SKS Boards skeet shooting championship.
