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Posted: 10/30/2012 11:07:52 PM EDT
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Have been working on this little project for several years now, have some progress, excited about it and wanted to share.
...and almost two years in I have a barrel! Problem (I don't really look at it as a problem, but my wife may) is that it came attached to a shotgun. All 1969 vintage Remington 870 Wingmaster and in pristine condition. So, I'll ditch the other 1969 receiver I have and build on this one. Barrel is on its way to GunCat for a little snip, snip at 21-inches. 
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Quoted:
I like the looks of your project. I have been wanting to do something similar. I have a couple questions. how do you date a receiver and Barrel? I think I have a similar era wingmaster but I'm not sure. where did you get the bayonet adapter? Thanks Thank you. The dating of the receiver and barrel are the easy part... you can call Remington at 800-243-9700 get through the different prompts on the phone and get to them where you can give them the SN and they'll tell you what year your Remington was built. I went from the know SN range of 870 Mark 1s to get an SN in there. The barrel date codes I got from The Remington Society of America's webpage (you can just google "remington barrel date codes"). They have some good info there. Barrel date doesn't always tell the whole story though as barrels might have been swapped around. I imagine to most folks it doesn't matter, but my blood is a bit OCD  .
The bayonet adapter... the thing of dreams (some may say wet-dreams) made of unobtanium. I've been on the hunt for a few years now and just this year have come across three. Two I was fortunate enough to buy and one "got away." I was able to pick up a two-piece Navy/Air Force unit with bead sight early in the year. IIRC it was $450 for the complete adapter and magazine tube. Money well spent!  . Got a second two-piece unit from a friend who had bought it off ePay about the same time I got my first one. I couldn't swing the extra cash at the time so he picked it up then decided he didn't want it and sold it to me for $300. Thats the one in the pic above. This adapter has no screws or sight on it and it has been my intention to find a vintage front sight and have it added - John Thomas has been contacted . This would make a "fake" rifle-sighted adapter for the Mark 1 project. A third "real" rifle-sighted adapter appeared on ePay a few months ago, I quit bidding at $700 and didn't win, don't tell my wife I bid that high. I figured if I had won I'd sell my second adapter to cover about half the cost of the "real" rifle-sighted one. I'm probably much better off this ways though as I'd not like taking a gun out with such expensive parts on it. In the end, I guess its something you really have to want to have and have a lot of patience in finding them. One of the guys here had mentioned he had not seen a "real" rifle-sighted adapter up for sale in about 10-years. Like everybody told me, they ARE out there, they WILL come up for sale from time-to-time, you just have to be ready to pounce ...and pay.
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I was looking for one of the bayonet adapters several years ago. Very difficult to find and when I did they were at a high cost. I was hoping things had changes and yours was a reproduction or something. No such luck.
Anyway Im about to pick up my third 870 and I think its a 60's model from the look of the stock set. It has the larger ribbed style forearm and uncheckered stock. It has a matted barrel on it also, Im not sure when they stopped offering that but Im guessing before the 70's. The barrel has already been cut on so Im looking forward to choppoing it a bit more and having some fun with it. |
Here is my MKI clone. It isn't correct, but it works and it was cheap. I bought the bayonet clamp sight unseen for $100. I gambled that it wasn't the older Choate clamp on bayonet lug, which it wasn't. The Wingmaster is actually has a blued finish which has been abused and pitted. Which makes it appear parkerized. The barrel is 20" instead of the correct 21". Lastly, it has a Police wood stock set that has been shortened to 12" LOP with a Limbsaver pad on the end. I am keeping my eye out for another Rem 870 Wingmaster to cut to the correct 21" and have it parkerized. In the mean time, this works for me.
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