Remington 870 Special Field Edition

T

TACKLEMAN24

New member
I aquired this beatiful shotgun about 6 months ago and do not do this type of shooting very often. I mainly shoot buckshot out of shotguns and alot of pistol and rifle shooting. This shotgun has the straight "ENGLISH" style stock and has the short magazine tube and short barrel making this an excelent choice for upland hunting and trap/ skeet. I know these are fairly rare as they had a limited production length. Also, if you call remington about another barrel they you are SOL however I had a Hastings barrel made using a regular Hastings 870 barrel and they relocated the mounting ring to the propper spot as this has the short mag tube and a standard 870 barrel put on will have the mounting ring a couple inches out due to the fact that a regular 870 has the longer mag tube. Anyways, long story short I have a new Hastings rifled deer barrel along with the standard vent rib barrel. I can easily leave this sit and only use it once or twice over the next 5 years or someone who does upland hunting or trap and skeet can make me an offer. I prefer trading over outright selling but will sell outright in needed. I am always looking to add a new pistol or rifle to my collection. I am fairly open on what pistols, could use a new 357mag or just about any automatic. I am in need of AR15 parts, mostly another Rifle upper either 16 or 20 in. I am also usually interested in just about any bolt action or semi auto.
 
I have one that I got as my first shotgun in 1992. Those are some sweet shooting little 870s. If I am not mistaken they started production of those in 1984, and ended in 1993 or 1994.
 
This is a 12GA, sorry thought I had that in there. Also, these did start production in 1984 but my info I have is they stopped production in 1988 or 89 but I could be wrong. These are excelent shotguns for hunting.
 
just looked it up, introduced in 1984, was discontinued in 1990. I went back and checked, I got mine for my birthday in Feb of 1991, right after they were discontinued. I've seen these guns, in good shape, go for up to $1000 in 12 ga.
 
They are in the 1994 catalog that I have sitting right here in front of me. They were made that year with a new 23" barrel. All the previous years were 21" barrels. The first 1984 and 1985 had fixed chokes, then they got Rem Chokes in 1986 or 1987. I have had quite a few pass through my hands over the years. The 20ga version has something of a cult following among some grouse hunters. And deservedly so, they are great guns.

As to value, the 20ga guns bring more money than the 12's, usually around $450 or so. They rarely last long on the market. A couple of weeks ago some person bid over $800 for a 20ga on Gunbroker. Even though the gun was new with the box and all paper work I still thought that price was insane. The highest I have ever paid for an in box, all paper work, unfired Special Field was $525. And I thought that was high.

I do really kick myself for not bidding past $655 about a year or so ago on one that had phenomenal wood. I had three 20ga at the time and thought I really shouldn't get another. But I wish I would have just bought it and sold a couple others. I am always, it seems, looking for another just right 20ga.

12ga go for considerably less. I bought a 1994, 12ga in almost new condition, with the desirable 23" barrel last year for $375. If I sold it I think I would hope to get $400 at best. I am not looking for another 12ga, but I am interested in hearing more about that barrel.

Does it have sights or a scope mount?

Did Hastings relocate the barrel ring or did someone else do that? I would like to do something similar for a 20ga.

I look around and see if I have anything to offer in trade if you would consider trading for just the barrel.
 
The Hastings barrel was special ordered, my understanding was they had done some in the past for the special field barrel. My understanding on the process is the took a raw barrel blank and cut it to length for the special field edition then machined the area where the barrel lug goes in the propper location for the shorter mag tube that is on the sppecial field. The whole process took a few months from the time I ordered it till I recieved it. As far as the value goes, I guess it differs depending on location. I am in OH and there is not alot of upland hunters here and as a result there is not alot of fine upland style shotguns here. As a result the few high end or rare upland style shotguns that come up for sale here go quite high because of how hard it is to find a high quality shotgun like this. In the last year or so I have seen 2 of these at local gun shows. 1 was a 12GA & the other was a 20GA, the 12 went for $800 and the 20 was $750 and neither of these came with a deer barrel. I spent close to $400 for the deer barrel alone although I am not expecting to get most of that back. Whether I get rid of this or not is not a big deal to me as I can easily let it sit with my other firearms but figured someone might enjoy this fine firearm more than I do.
 
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