Questions about a Dupong era 870.

[Cyanide_357]

I recently purchased a new (but old stock) Remington 870 Magnum (blued) w/ a 20" police cylinder barrel. Order Number 5020.

http://www.gunbroker.com/auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=70019361

The questions I have are:

1: Is this considered an 870 police? It really isn't important to me, but would be nice. The thing that throws me off is the tag shown around the trigger guard lists the model as "Model 870 Police).

2: Should I be concerned with anything regarding the old Dupont guns? Particularly the barrel? I recently became aware of the class action lawsuit against Remington/Dupont regarding the thin barrels which ultimately resulted in Remington making changes in the steel and wall thickness.

3: Any other comments or specifics about this gun you might want to add?

Regards,

Cyanide

 

[dfariswheel]

Before the Express was introduced, Remington Police guns were simply Wingmasters with a less polished blue job, oil finished stocks, the short police-length forearm, and no checkering.
Often, these police guns even had the Wingmaster name stamped on them.

It was only after the Express was introduced and Remington began offering more options on police guns that they began to put a specific Police stamp on the guns to positively ID a Police model.

If the gun has a short police length forearm, a plain oil finished stock with no checkering and a more satin finish blue job, it's probably a genuine earlier Police gun.
You can contact Remington and give them the serial number. They can tell you for sure if it left the factory as a Police model.
Unfortunately, since it's easy to switch wood and barrels on the 870, and a hang tag is easy to attach, that's about the only way to be 100% sure.

The famous Remington barrel lawsuit was a prime example of predatory lawyers "hiring" plaintiffs, then shaking a company down.
The owners for whom the lawsuit was supposedly for got a few dollars, the lawyers collected millions in fees.

The truth is, there was nothing wrong with the barrels, and as long as you didn't plug the bore and try to fire a shell the barrels didn't "explode".
Remington's owners of the time simply made the decision to settle out of court as the least troublesome option.
In fact, this is what the lawyers in class action suits really want.
If they have to present to a real jury, there's a good chance they'll get tossed out on their butts.
However, if they can find a weak-willed company that takes the "easy" way out, they can collect big money in what is basically a legal shake-down scheme.

The 870 barrels "strangely" had no problems from 1950 to the mid-1980's until these lawyers "discovered" a problem.
Remington settled out of court, then to avoid more trouble beefed the barrels up slightly.
Remington lost a lot of money, gun owners collected a few dollars, and had to pay out more for new guns to pay for the barrel change and the lawsuit fees.
A few lawyers became wealthy, payed some of the money to Democrat politicians to make sure the tort system wasn't changed to stifle the money train, and used the rest to launch more class action lawsuits against other victims.