A Christmas Surprise! An old remmy wingmaster!

Merry Christmas y'all!

Just thought I'd share, my wife finished taking her firearm safety course (required for licensing in Canada), and on account of such her dad brought a family heirloom to pass on to our family, it'll belong to one of my kids someday down the road, a keeper. He can't shoot the thing anymore after having a lot of issues with his shoulder and having had his elbow completely reconstructed.

An absolute classic piece of history and hardware, an old Remington 870 wingmaster! Just lovely and a delight to hold, rack, and fire. 2 3/4 inch chamber as per its vintage, nothing wrong with that. Has lots of scuffs, scratches, and character marks indicative of its lifetime of real field and farm use in their family (it was his dads before it was his, a generational piece at this point). But amazingly not even a hint of rust or notable bluing loss. They really made these things to higher standard back in the day I believe, built to last forever.

A bonus picture: my wife put these SPAM socks in my stocking and I intend to wear them underneath formal attire sometime

Merry Christmas!
That's a great story about the 870. I was given a 870 wingmaster in 20 gauge for Christmas when I was about 14 to replace my single shot Winchester.
Unfortunately I ran into hard times and had to sell it. The shop said they would hold it for a couple weeks for me to buy back from them but lied and sold it.
I was very upset about it for years but have moved on realizing that it was my fault.
Sorry about the sad story. lol
Great gun, cherish the tradition he passed down.

That shotgun has a hundreds of untold stories, very nice

birddog 68 said:

Merry Christmas!
That's a great story about the 870. I was given a 870 wingmaster in 20 gauge for Christmas when I was about 14 to replace my single shot Winchester.
Unfortunately I ran into hard times and had to sell it. The shop said they would hold it for a couple weeks for me to buy back from them but lied and sold it.
I was very upset about it for years but have moved on realizing that it was my fault.
Sorry about the sad story. lol
Great gun, cherish the tradition he passed down.

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Hey man I think most of us have stories like that too. I have two!

An old and beautiful butter smooth Winchester 1300 pump (I think) that my dad gave me as a teenager. Was young and very stupid and thought I needed a 3 and a half chamber and sold that thing to buy a modern gun. I kick myself everything I think about that now.

An old Winchester 88 lever gun in 308 that I inherited from a deceased uncle. I'm sad not to still have it but don't actually feel guilt about it, that was right after we had our first or second kid, things were very very tight, and I needed to keep the lights on and my family fed more than I needed to have a bunch of different rifles, I listed a few of them, that's the one that sold. I do actually know the fella that had it, and may try to get it back someday.

Never should have sold my old SKS rifle either, I've heard it said half-jokingly that the SKS is the official rifle of Saskatchewan . Sold it for 200 bucks, thought I made out like a bandit cuz I paid 180 and sent a crate of ammo through it before selling. In hindsight, never should have sold it!!!!! Russian not Chinese, matching serial numbers, bayonet and other accoutrements all intact and original. Ugh. Regrets!!!!!

Love those old 870's. I've owned 3, and my first was many decades ago, and it has seen all types of hunting and shooting situations, lots of wear, bluing loss, on its second barrel after a duck hunting incident caused a bulge just ahead of the fixed choke, but it's action is slick as wet glass.

Tons of memories........

I could be wrong but as best I can tell by the serial number on the receiver and the letter markings on the barrel it appears this particular wingmaster was made in May of 1972.