MachIVshooter
Member
Since this seems to be a popular thread subject lately, and since I stumbled across another example of this firearm yesterday and snagged it, I thought I'd talk about what I personally consider to still be one of the best values among pump guns.
Nope, you can't order it from Buds or Grabagun. And you'll likely not score a great deal on GA or GB with their inflated pricing. Armslist? Maybe. Most likely place? Your LGS's used rack!
It'll be familiar to some here, but probably not to many of those asking what a good cheap shotgun is. It's a Browning designed gun that hasn't been made since before some of our parents were even born. It's a critter that would cost too much to manufacture today, easily exceeding the price of the 870 or 500 by double.
So what am I talking about? The Stevens 520 & 521, also sold as the Ward's Western Field model 30 and the Sears Ranger. There's lots of info out there on them, so I'm not gonna go into a history lesson, just talk a little about why I think they're such a great value.
For one, they can often be found in good condition well under $200, putting them below the price of pretty much any new production cheapie-even the Chinese imports. Why they're so cheap I've no idea, but there were many made and they just never really gathered the following that some other pumps like the Winchester 97, Remington 17 & 31 or Ithaca 37 did. But beyond price, they are well designed and fantastically machined. They're a take-down shotgun, done by unscrewing the captive magazine tube and simply sliding the barrel & mag assembly out the bottom of the receiver, with a pause to disconnect the actuator bar after the assembly has dropped a little.
The receivers are one of the more impressive features of these old guns. These are not cast, injection molded or otherwise produced by forming metal. They are completely machined, as far as I can tell from a solid billet. They look nice, generally have excellent fit & finish, and are very durable.
One of the things that holds a lot of old shotguns back from being more popular in contemporary use is the fixed choke barrels that are fitted to the gun. In many cases, the barrels are very thin, requiring thin wall choke tubes, and even then sometimes it's a no-go. The 520? Different story altogether, with plenty of meat to ream & thread for Remchoke or Winchester/Mossberg/Browning pattern tubes.
Now, between the billet steel receivers and thicker walled barrels, you're probably thinking these things are tanks. On the contrary, they're a pretty nice weight for field use, the 12 ga models coming in around 7.5 lbs, depending on barrel length, and the 20 gauge about a pound lighter. That puts them in exactly the same class as your typical 870 or 500.
No, they won't take 3" mags or readily accept most accessories, but I would venture that most people buying budget shotguns aren't loading them up with add-ons that cost 2 or more times what the base gun did anyway, and 2-3/4" shells outsell 3" by orders of magnitude, including buck & slug loads, so it seems that despite most modern guns having that capability, people tend to just run lower cost and more available 2-3/4" loads. The 520 is also one of the few guns I've found that will feed mini shells with any degree of reliability.
At the end of the day, you might be able to find one of these neat old guns, have the barrel chopped & threaded for chokes and install a more modern front sight for less than the price of a cylinder bore, aluminum receiver Maverick 88.
This is the one I found for $100 yesterday:
I promptly cut the 30" full choke barrel down to 24", reamed & threaded for Winchester/Mossberg chokes, touched up bluing and put a fiber optic front bead on it.
The two empty holes on the driver side of the receiver are from someone having installed a Williams 5D peep sight on it. I guess a turkey hunter or someone in a shotgun-only deer hanting state. I pulled that for some future use (some value just in that thing), chamfered the ragged tapped holes and touched up the bluing. Perhaps I'll find a purpose for them, or maybe I'll just put some flush slotted screws in.
Nope, you can't order it from Buds or Grabagun. And you'll likely not score a great deal on GA or GB with their inflated pricing. Armslist? Maybe. Most likely place? Your LGS's used rack!
It'll be familiar to some here, but probably not to many of those asking what a good cheap shotgun is. It's a Browning designed gun that hasn't been made since before some of our parents were even born. It's a critter that would cost too much to manufacture today, easily exceeding the price of the 870 or 500 by double.
So what am I talking about? The Stevens 520 & 521, also sold as the Ward's Western Field model 30 and the Sears Ranger. There's lots of info out there on them, so I'm not gonna go into a history lesson, just talk a little about why I think they're such a great value.
For one, they can often be found in good condition well under $200, putting them below the price of pretty much any new production cheapie-even the Chinese imports. Why they're so cheap I've no idea, but there were many made and they just never really gathered the following that some other pumps like the Winchester 97, Remington 17 & 31 or Ithaca 37 did. But beyond price, they are well designed and fantastically machined. They're a take-down shotgun, done by unscrewing the captive magazine tube and simply sliding the barrel & mag assembly out the bottom of the receiver, with a pause to disconnect the actuator bar after the assembly has dropped a little.
The receivers are one of the more impressive features of these old guns. These are not cast, injection molded or otherwise produced by forming metal. They are completely machined, as far as I can tell from a solid billet. They look nice, generally have excellent fit & finish, and are very durable.
One of the things that holds a lot of old shotguns back from being more popular in contemporary use is the fixed choke barrels that are fitted to the gun. In many cases, the barrels are very thin, requiring thin wall choke tubes, and even then sometimes it's a no-go. The 520? Different story altogether, with plenty of meat to ream & thread for Remchoke or Winchester/Mossberg/Browning pattern tubes.
Now, between the billet steel receivers and thicker walled barrels, you're probably thinking these things are tanks. On the contrary, they're a pretty nice weight for field use, the 12 ga models coming in around 7.5 lbs, depending on barrel length, and the 20 gauge about a pound lighter. That puts them in exactly the same class as your typical 870 or 500.
No, they won't take 3" mags or readily accept most accessories, but I would venture that most people buying budget shotguns aren't loading them up with add-ons that cost 2 or more times what the base gun did anyway, and 2-3/4" shells outsell 3" by orders of magnitude, including buck & slug loads, so it seems that despite most modern guns having that capability, people tend to just run lower cost and more available 2-3/4" loads. The 520 is also one of the few guns I've found that will feed mini shells with any degree of reliability.
At the end of the day, you might be able to find one of these neat old guns, have the barrel chopped & threaded for chokes and install a more modern front sight for less than the price of a cylinder bore, aluminum receiver Maverick 88.
This is the one I found for $100 yesterday:
I promptly cut the 30" full choke barrel down to 24", reamed & threaded for Winchester/Mossberg chokes, touched up bluing and put a fiber optic front bead on it.
The two empty holes on the driver side of the receiver are from someone having installed a Williams 5D peep sight on it. I guess a turkey hunter or someone in a shotgun-only deer hanting state. I pulled that for some future use (some value just in that thing), chamfered the ragged tapped holes and touched up the bluing. Perhaps I'll find a purpose for them, or maybe I'll just put some flush slotted screws in.
