I rescued an old wingmaster from a dusty pawn shop rack yesterday. It's beat to hell, finish almost gone, and speckled with very light pitting. It's not that bad, it's almost smooth to the touch, but someone obviously cleaned it up with a wire brush.  The pump isn't loose at all and everything cycles surprisingly smooth. Other than cosmetics, I think it's in good shape.

I was trying to date it, and the barrel code puts it at '97, '68, or '24. It has the older style round corn cob fore grip with the deeper cuts, which as far as I can tell means it's fairly old. Some of my reading suggests they were phased out on the wingmasters in the early '60s, so was my gun probably made in 1924?  The stock is just plain, no engravings.

Does anyone have much experience with parkerizing over light pitting?  I'm thinking about doing the remington steal with Wilson, but not sure how the parkerizing will look. There is some very light rust in the chamber as well, not sure if Wilson will take care of that. I will also need to polish the bolt and lifter.

I'm definitely going to restore the wood furniture.  Any advice on stripping and refinishing it?  I've got some sanding to do, but most of the blemishes on the wood aren't deep.

There are some spots in the barrel. Should I just toss it and get a new 18.5" parkerized barrel?

It's my first shotgun project. After playing around with some Mosins, I thought I'd give it a shot.

68" didn't start making 870 till the 51

If you are going to park it, you will need to put it in the blast cabinet that should take care of any light pitting.

I've done a few 1919A4s and 870's, cleaned up good in the blast cabinet.

How about some pics so we can see the start point.

The more I look at it, I'm not sure it's pitting.  It's kind of rough to the touch, but it looks like it may all be on the surface.

Sorry for the crappy pics, it's the best I can do.

I've seen worse. LOL.


Try to steam out any dents in the wood  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMEZSDPFzf4

Use a chemical stripper on the wood, with stiff bristle plastic brushes, 0000 steel wool, bronze wool if you can find it, fine bristle bronze brushes, and sand as little as possible. Cheap plastic tubs are great to put stocks in while the stripper is working....not that kind of stripper .

I'd clean up and refinish the current barrel to match and still get a new shorter barrel. For my 870's I have a long barrel with interchangeable chokes and a short slug barrel with rifle sights and another 18" barrel with a bead.

Send that to Wilson for their Special. They'll convert it to 3" shells, cut the barrel to any length you desire, parkerize the gun and install the Flex Tab. All for about $200 or so.

Nice gun. I would leave largely as is, without changing furniture or parking.

I would love to find a 'project' C&R 870 with the corncob-style forend. Too bad this one isn't C&R or I would make you an offer on it!

Don't park it unless you really want a parked 870.

Cold blue is more work, but way prettier.