When you say “shotgun” I’ll bet that most people will visualize the popular Remington 870. There are good reasons for that. Since its introduction in 1950, year after year, it’s been a best seller. It is now arguably the best-selling shotgun of all time. It configures easily for just about any task. Change out barrels, stocks and accessories and you can have an upland bird gun, a duck gun, a skeet gun, a trap gun, a riot gun, or a tactical defense gun. It’s simple. It looks good. It’s reliable. It’s easy to maintain. I’ve heard it said that one can never have too many Remington 870s. It’s that good.
Still, in spite of its immense popularity for over 60 years, few people actually know how the enduring design came to be. So here’s a little history. After World War II, Remington designers were working on a family of shotguns to offer the public. The first to hit the market was the 11-48 semiauto in 1948. It was decided that many of the parts of the 11-48 could also be applied to a pump-operated counterpart. Four Remington engineers were assigned the task of developing that pump gun. They were Ray Crittendon, Phillip Haskell, Ellis Hailston, and G.E. Pinckney.
These skilled men went to work with the 11-48 design as the core of the gun. They used the receiver, trigger housing group, and a number of other common parts. While the gun was a quality piece, it was also economical, first because it used many of the same parts as the 11-48, but also because most of the parts were easy to manufacture. The receiver, the bolt and the barrel were made of the finest steel. There were a number of stamped parts that were easy to make in the trigger housing group. The twin action bars were also stamped parts. Using two bars instead of one made for reliability, with no problems of twisting or binding inherent in a single-bar design. It was lighter than most shotguns, because the design team chose the 16-gauge receiver of the 11-48 to work with 12-gauge components. That also made the new gun a bit slimmer than the 11-48 12-gauge. The push-button trigger-blocking safety behind the trigger was carried over from the semiautomatic gun and a bolt-release lever forward of the trigger guard was incorporated into the trigger housing group. The bolt has a cammed locking block that fits into an extension on the barrel to lock these units together in the forward position.
Barrels could be easily interchanged without fitting by simply removing the magazine cap and slipping them on and off. The standard stock fit almost everybody. When the gun was announced in January 1950 as the model 870 “Wingmaster,” it became an immediate hit. The only alloy part was the non-stressed trigger housing, which was anodized to match the bluing on most of the steel parts. The older Remington Model 31 needed over 580 machining operations to produce it, while the 870 needed only about 150. These cost savings could be passed on to the customers, and the 870 was never a particularly expensive item. As a matter of interest, although there have been some cosmetic changes depending on the intended use of the various iterations of the gun, it has remained mechanically the same since its introduction. That’s a real tribute to its excellence.
The reliability of the 870 action is legendary. This fact has not been lost on police departments in the United States, and 870 riot guns can be found almost universally with them. It’s a rare police cruiser that doesn’t have one on board. The intimidating metallic “shuck-shuck” sound of a round being chambered is usually enough to settle any disagreement without a shot being fired. Officers who are trained with the gun are instructed to operate the action vigorously. As with most pump actions, not pulling the forearm all the way back (a “short stroke”) can induce a hangup. A round in the 870 can then jam halfway out of the magazine, back over the lifter. For this reason, many departments have modified the lifter with a central longitudinal slot. This enables pushing a jammed round back into the magazine with a key, a pen, or a knife, putting the gun back into action easily. Home defense guns can be modified similarly; it’s easy enough to do with a Dremel® or similar tool and a cutoff wheel. Current 12-gauge guns have a “Flexi-tab” lifter with a U-shaped slot that alleviates the problem.
Various configurations have been offered by the factory over the years. Almost standard among outdoor sportsmen are the 28-inch-barrel field models with a ventilated rib and a modified choke. In recent years, “Rem-choke” barrels have become available; these have interchangeable choke tubes which screw into the muzzle of the barrel. This arrangement allows selection of an open, improved, modified or full choke in just a few moments. Many older barrels were custom equipped with adjustable chokes and/or compensators such as the Cutts models.
Riot guns with shorter barrels (usually 18” or 20”) and with more mundane metal and stock finishes are considered ideal for police and home defense work. The 870 is easily adaptable to allow different stocks, barrels with rifle sights, extended magazines, extra ammo brackets, etc. Custom-configured “tactical” models are easy enough to put together for those interested in doing so. There are even forearms with built-in high intensity flashlights for use in the dark or low light environments. Aftermarket polymer stocks and folding or collapsible stocks are also available. Guns without shoulder stocks and using just pistol grips make for handiness in confined areas, but are not for the recoil-sensitive.
There are so many factory configurations that they are impossible to list in this short article. There are left-handed actions, a wide variety of stock materials, many different gauges and chamber lengths, youth models, sighted barrels, moisture resistant and camouflage finishes, and special guns made for competition such as skeet and trap.
The gun illustrated here is my old 12-gauge 870 TB trap model. It’s equipped with a 30” ribbed barrel featuring two "stack 'em" beads. By the standard Remington date code on the barrel, it was made in February of 1969. I've put thousands of rounds through it and it's still as good as new. If you’re wondering about the pieces of red and blue tape on the forearm, they were put there to distinguish my gun from all the others in the racks at the trap range – it seems almost everyone where I competed had one a lot like it. With practice and this fine gun, I was able to hit 50 straight pretty regularly before my interests wandered to other endeavors. The trap and skeet models typically had premium wood, finely figured and finished. This old gun is no exception. It’s a beautiful piece.
Over 10 million 870s have been built and sold from 1950 to 2010, and this shotgun shows no signs of any decline in popularity. Parts and accessories are available almost anywhere and on the internet. Sportsmen, police, the military, shooting competitors and those just wanting effective self protection all think the world of it. If you don’t have one, well – why not?
John
(c) JLM
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