the barrell on my 870 12 gage says i can only use 3 inch shells if i have a "magnum" receiver.  how do i know if my receiver is "magnum" or not?


-Spaceman

some of them (20ga also) have MAGNUM stamped in the receiver very big.  my 20ga barrel says i can use 3' also but i don't know if i would..a friend has a 870 lt wt magnum 20ga that is stamped magnum and our guns are identical except for the stamp...maybe someone else knows more about this?  i'm interested.

Get the serial number off your receiver and contact Remington, they can tell you for sure. ( I thought the magnum serial numbers had a M prefix or something)

I'm almost certain that all 870 Magnum receivers say "magnum" right on the receiver (left side). All of mine do, and I have three of them.

hmmm....

my serial number has an 'M' at the end of it....

i wonder what that means...

maybe ill swing by Remington's site.


 -Spaceman

I am pretty sure that an M in the serial # means magnum. I think most recent ones are magnum as there is no disadvantage in a pump to have the longer chamber.

On the other hand. Rem 1100's the older auto guns use the gas to operate the action and Magnum barrels have smaller gas ports to reduce the load on the action. In addition, I've heard the action spring in a magnum receiver is slightly stiffer? If you have a magnum barrel on an 1100 you can't shoot loads much smaller than high brass. You can use a non magnum barrel okay. You can't use a magnum barrel on a non magnum receiver and magnum loads unless you use steel shot loads. They must be softer.

The 11-87 Rems, eliminate the need for different ports as they have some kind of valve-ring that reacts differently to varying gas loads.

Confusing enough? Go to the Rem site. They have a pretty good FAQ page with commonly asked questions.

M4-AK

for anyone out there who wanted to know, here is what i found on Remington's site:


"The barrel and receiver design determines what can be shot from the Model 870. All barrels are clearly marked with chamber information located about half way down on the left-hand side, "side opposite ejection port". Receivers are marked with letters at the end of the serial number that determine ejection size."

The following is true for all Model 870 shotguns:
 

Serial Number Suffix  Gauge   Ejection
  V      12           2 3/4" Only
  M      12           2 3/4" or 3" Only
  A      12           2 3/4", 3", or 3 1/2"
  W      16           2 3/4" Only
  K, X   20           2 3/4" Only
  U,N    20           2 3/4" or 3" Only
  J      28           2 3/4" Only
  H     .410          2 1/2" or 3"




hope this helped.  Ole Rem has a pretty informative site by the way.

 -Spaceman