Hello everyone, I have a question which I hope someone can assist me with. I have an Remington 1187 police with rifled sites and was thinking of having a picatinny rail installed on the top of the receiver for a red dot. Just a thought and really not a big deal if not. My concern is the top of the receiver has a slight channel machined into it from the factory which I assume aid’s in picking up the sites. I have seen this channel on other non police models as well and I believe it’s common. Anyone have experience adding a rail overtop of this channel. Non of the commercially available 1187 rails account for this channel or appeared to be machined for it and I really don’t want to use an external one which attaches using the trigger pins as I use ammo cards and have Velcro on the left side. Thank you in advance for any assistance.

Are you referring to the flat section on top of this receiver? If so, most 1187, (and 1100 & 870) optic bases will straddle the flat area and contact the receiver on each side of the flat. That is a common feature on most Remington shotguns across those model #s.

Yes correct that flat section. Straddling this flat cause a gap between the pic rail and the top of the receive. Also upon inspection of the rail I bought it only contacts the receiver a small amount on either side due to the flat. I’m surprised one of these manufacturers doesn’t machine a pic rail to fit into the flat slot.

Over the years the depth and width of that flat has varied on Remington guns. Probably tough for a manufacture to match it.

A curved base (underneath) will contact the receiver on each side much like a V block.