Remington Society

It's an older Choate stock design. They actually still sell it; here's the page on their website.

I believe that fore-end is a Choate piece as well.

There are a couple ways to get a left-handed safety button on an 870. The easiest way is a simple drop-in left-hand safety button. If that's what your gun has, then all you need is a replacement right-hand switch, as Virginian said. But if you have a right-hand eject, left-hand-safety trigger plate,...

If you can't find one of those slug barrels, another option would be to shorten a different LH barrel and install rifle sights on it. There are a number of ways to put rifle sights on a plain or vent-rib barrel, ranging from easy clip-on or stick-on installs, to professional soldering.

I think the newer socket-head screw replaces the older flat-head screw. I'm not 100% sure on this, but Remington's site lists it as a common part for 870s and other rifles with the same sights. Remington's website sucks, and sometimes has incorrect parts info, so I would suggest calling their custom...

I believe I've heard 12 million mentioned in some Remington ads, though they may have been rounding up. Although, assuming they're selling new 870s at the same rate they have been over the past decade or so, they should at least be getting close to 12M by now. Anyway, as far as manufacture date goes...

Well, some of the other serial number prefixes ran for up to 6 years. Yeah, it's not ideal, and it'll get less precise the longer Remington uses this new serial number format, but it's still an indicator - good enough for putting a barrel date stamp in context, for example. But it's not just that. I...

It doesn't give much information, but it can at least be used as a date prefix, since it succeeded the "AB-" serial numbers.

M/870 LETTER PREFIX 1950 TO APPROX 1968:NO SERIAL NUMBER PREFIX 1968 TO PRESENT: LETTERS USED (IN SEQUENCE) S-68, T-74, V-78, W-84, X-90, A-91, B-94, C-97, D-01, AB-05 LETTER SUFFIX (DESIGNATES GAUGE) V 12 GA. (2 3/4”) M 12 GA. MAGNUM (3”) A 12 GA. “SUPER” MAGNUM (3 ½”) W 16 GA. ( 2 ¾” ) X 20 GA. “...

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Remington's system for those repair/service codes has changed over the decades. We're already on the third variant of the 870's serial number format.

Researcher wrote:The date code is either AR (A = March, R = 1968) or RP (R = November, P = 1967). I lean towards the A being the inspectors mark.

Wasn't the 878 only produced from 1959 - 1963? Or were those manufactured for other brands made during later years?

One of the letters could indicate a repair or some other factory service performed after the manufacture date.

I'm trying to collect enough information for a detailed guide to dating 870s, explaining how the serial number prefixes and barrel date stamps can be decoded to get an idea of a gun's age. One thing I'm still trying to work out is when Remington switched from serial numbers that began with "AB&...

Is yours the version with the 18.5" barrel, or the one with the 20" barrel?

The thing that really excites me about the V3 is that it doesn't have anything hanging out of the back of the receiver, which could open up a ton of options. If the V3 proves successful, I don't think it'll be long before either Remington or some aftermarket company comes out with an adapter to allo...

Generally, the problem caused by short-shucking is that the action bars don't come back far enough to move the shell latch, so the next shell isn't released from the magazine, and you end up closing the action and pulling the trigger on an empty chamber. Modding the carrier system won't do a thing t...