Ridiculous Wood

[Doublegun]

I have been a fan of Wingmasters since my dad gave me a 20 ga LW for Christmas in 1973 and I have owned them in all gauges at one time or another. Recently I bought a 28 ga LW with what is by far the most ridiculous piece of wood I have ever seen on an 870 and perhaps as fine as any as I have ever seen on any Remington firearm. I bought the gun from the original owner who told me the wood is original.

[ForumAdmin]

What year is it, oldest I could find like new was 57, sure is pretty...

[Doublegun]

It was made in 1973. Remington started producing 870’s in 28ga in 1969. The previous owner bought the gun for his wife in 1973. She didn’t care for it so it was relighted to his safe until this spring.

[Wulfman]

It's not that unusual to find really nicely figured stocks on "standard" grade firearms. I have a 1971 700 ADL in 7 mm Rem Mag that has a beautifully figured stock.....and, a 1980 700 BDL in 7mm Exp. Rem with some exceptional wood. Back in those days, there weren't any synthetic stocks......they were all wood......so the odds were a little better to find one like that.
It all depended on what someone grabbed out of which bin to assemble whichever firearm they were working on at that point in time.


Den

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[Doublegun]

That is pretty much what Remington told me, as well. Just hard to believe that wood of this grade would even be in the same bin as that for regular production guns. I have had a number of 870's and 1100's and I have never seen wood like this. I also have a 700 Mountain Rifle in 7x57 that has REALLY plain wood, but that's what I would expect from a Remington production gun. I absolutely love the way the profile of that stock otherwise I would think very seriously about having it restocked.

[tudurgs]

Another reason why exceptional wood showed up on standard guns was when Remington Directors (and maybe top employees?) ordered standzrd guns. They would show up with great wood which often had a blemish or flaw in it, and was judged not good enough to be put on high grade guns butecause of the flaw, but too good to be thrown away. My Dad was a director and we ended up with several of those stocks

[Researcher]

I don't think I'm having a senior moment, but I seem to recall there was a period of time that the .410-bore and 28-gauge Model 870s and Model 1100s came with Mahogany stocks and forearms.

[tudurgs]

Dave - You are right. They offered a series of "Lightweight" guns, which were stocked in mahogany

[Virginian]

Too long ago to remember the details now, but I believe there was a shortage of walnut that led to a lot of the mahogany usage on production guns in addition to the "lightweight" guns advertised with the mahogany.

[tudurgs]

Remember the apparent shortage of walnut which led Browning into the saltwood disaster in the late 60's?