Posted on November 19, 2009
Michael, thank you for the great photos and information about your Remington 870 Wingmaster.
From Michael:
Great Blog you’ve got here. I just thought I’d share with you and your
readers my 1979 870 Wingmaster. It has been retired from deer hunting
and is now currently performing home defense duties.
This 2 and 3/4″ chambered 870 originally came with wood furniture that
included a grooved “police” forend and a 21″ smoothbore
improved choke slug barrel with rifle sights. The original modifications
included a TacStar magazine extension giving a 7+1 loadout,
a Choate HighVis orange follower, a TacStar 6 round sidesaddle, a
magazine clamp mount “shoot me” light and a sling.
Great Blog you’ve got here. I just thought I’d share with you and your readers my 1979 870 Wingmaster. It has been retired from deer hunting and is now currently performing home defense duties.
Remington 1979 870 Wingmaster
This 2 and 3/4″ chambered 870 originally came with wood furniture that included a grooved “police” forend and a 21″ smoothbore improved choke slug barrel with rifle sights. The original modifications included a TacStar magazine extension giving a 7+1 loadout, a Choate HighVis orange follower, a TacStar 6 round sidesaddle, a magazine clamp mount “shoot me” light and a sling.
Choate HighVis Orange Follower
After some practical usage, the shortcomings became apparent. First it was too heavy with a full loadout and 6 in the sidesaddle for the wife to use and the full length stock and short forearm didn’t help either. I managed to find an used set of synthetic youth model stocks with a longer forend. The stock is 1 inch shorter than the original.
Youth Model Stock
Once the furniture was taken care of, I wanted to do something about the stock safety. I installed a Scattergun Technologies jumbo head safety after I did a litttle “mod” to it. I simply put some red enamel paint in the outside groove show it would “show red” when the safety was disengaged. The jumbo safety is a great mod, highly recommended!
Scattergun Technologies Jumbo Head Safety
Scattergun Technologies Jumbo Head Safety
Red Enamel Paint Safety
I still wanted a decent loadout so I kept the TacStar extension but I did ditch the sidesaddle – it has just proved to be too awkward. The Choate follower was also kept.
For house duty, I ditched sling but I did put the magazine clamp mount light back on. It is located on the left hand side rotated up so that it overlaps the forend and is lined up over the finger groove. I can just use the thumb of my support hand to activate. I’m still not sure if it is all that useful but we’ll see!
TacStar Magazine Extension and Light
The shorter stock makes this weapon much easier for my wife to handle as does the longer forend. The short stock doesn’t bother me at all, in fact I think I can mount the 870 faster. With the longer forend, she doesn’t have to “reach out” to grab it and I think it helps to guard against short stroking.
Remington 870 for Home Defense
So there you have it! Not very exotic compared to some of the other “tactical” rigs out there but, it works for us.
Great information and photos, Michael, thank you very much!
Like good red wine, they just get better as they age. Still sexy after 30 years of service, what a Gun!! … very nice. I really like the metamorphosis from hunting to home defence.
Regards,
Theodore
That’s quite a looker you got there. I painted my SGT oversize safety too, I don’t know why they don’t do it at the factory?
Take care, J.R.
Thanks for your comments Theodore and J.R. The Remmy is still a looker after all these years and still doing a great job for me. Yeah J.R., I kind of wondered why they don’t paint them at the factory.
Good idea about painting the safety, I will do this with my SGT oversize safety too.
Во – фактически идеальная комплектация.
Не хватает только радиатора ствола – и фонарь не слишком удачный.
Общий недостаток рем-870 в длинном цевье; для включения/выключения фонаря придётся очень сильно выносить руку вперёд; на неё будет приходиться весь вес передней части оружия, а это сильно утомляет.
Grossfater Muller, Вы для ваших комментариев!
what kind/brand forend is that? im looking for a longer forend. please help
It looks like a standard forend or a longer sport forend.
Hey alan!
It is an older (I believe) Remington synthetic youth model stock set. I bought it off Ebay used.
do those rifle sights on the barrel work good for homedefense??
Keith, thanks for your comment! If it is easier for you to aim with rifle sights it is good for homedefense. It depends on what you like and what you don’t like. The best advice I can give you is to try rifle, bead and ghost ring sights on the range and see what works best for you.
Vitaly.