Remington 870

M

magnum777

New member
I have heard recently that the quality of the Remington 870 express and wingmaster shotguns have gone down in the last decade or so, that they tend d to rust and have other problems, cam anybody tell if this is true?
 
It is pretty humid here in GA. I've had several 870 Express and Wingmaster shotguns dating from the 1970's through the present. Never had any rusting issues with any of them. I gave one to my son, one to my daughter a few years back when they got married and moved out. These were 1990's era Express guns. I bought a 20ga youth model Express that I use to turkey hunt with 2 years ago. None have ever given me any issues.
 
The decline of Remington shotguns has been greatly exaggerated on the internet. The Express is a good deal, but it is not a Wingmaster. The surface finish on all the non-polished guns has improved greatly in the last few years, and all now come with a lifetime warranty.
 
Can't comment on the Wingmaster, but 2 out of the last 2 Express shotguns I've encountered had improperly-sized chambers that led to problems with extraction.
 
They do seem to go down in quality over time. I have an 870 from the early 80s that is the smoothest action I got for pumps. My other 870 was made in the mid 90s and is a little stiff. Probably just needs more working in.
I have a friend who I shoot skeet/trap with who bought a brand new 3 /12" 870 express and it was just bad. It wouldn't extract out the shells and had to use push rod to punch the shell out after each shot. He sent it back in and it STILL had the same issue when he got it back. Different common ammo brands too. Just like Fishbed mentioned, it was improperly sized chamber. They got it right on the 3rd time and works ok now. But just bad quality control on that gun...
 
I have seen Mossbergs, Novas, 870s, Winchesters, and even a BPS being beat on the ground to extract the new steel base hulls. 5 to 10 minutes with a drum brake wheel cylinder hone will solve the problem in all of them.
 
Almost ancient history now, the Spartan line. So, some Benelli and Beretta barrels are made in Turkey, and Mossbergs in Mexico. The Russians may not value appearance the way we do but they do build some tough guns.
 
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