Rob62
Member
In keeping with the old saying that even a blind pig will find an acorn on occasion, I finally found my acorn.
Actually my acorn was a Remington 870 Wingmaster 12ga that was in poor to fair cosmetic condition.
This tale started with me making an unexpected stop at a local Pawn Shop actually looking for a cheap 870. I've been wanting another one to play around with for a while now and had a few bucks in my pockets that she who must be obeyed didn't know about
Anyway I walked in the shop and saw very few long guns on the wall. Less than a dozen for sure. There was one 870 sitting on the shelf. After waiting for the counter person to finish with some other customers I asked him to take it down so I could look at it. It had a barrel that was cut down somewhere in the 27" range. No front bead was installed.
Since I wanted an 18" barreled gun anyway, no problem. At first I thought the $125 sticker was a mistake. Even in the condition this gun was in, around here the sticker should have read somewhere around $180.
I couldn't resist asking if that was the best that he could do in a cash sale and as expected the clerk said that $125 was it, but that was out the door. He'd pick up the tax.
So home it went with me. The first thing I noticed about this gun was the extremely beautiful walnut stock set on it. There was a tremendous amount of grain and figure in both the butt stock and fore end. I ended up trading this set for a OEM factory synthetic set with a fellow forum member. I think this was a good deal for both of us.
After a few hours cleaning, cutting down the barrel to 18.5", and sanding the minor (no pits) surface rust out this gun was ready for re bluing. It took a few coats of cold blue, but this gun now looks pretty good for a "beater" general duty SG.
I've yet to install a bead and have contacted a local gunsmith to see how much he would charge to silver solder a ramp and bead on the barrel. As many of you know with a barrel this short one really needs the ramp under the bead in order for the gun not to shoot to low.
So that’s it. I’ve finally arrived. After reading many posts about all the great deals some of you have gotten I’ve finally found mine.
Regards,
Rob
Actually my acorn was a Remington 870 Wingmaster 12ga that was in poor to fair cosmetic condition.
This tale started with me making an unexpected stop at a local Pawn Shop actually looking for a cheap 870. I've been wanting another one to play around with for a while now and had a few bucks in my pockets that she who must be obeyed didn't know about
Anyway I walked in the shop and saw very few long guns on the wall. Less than a dozen for sure. There was one 870 sitting on the shelf. After waiting for the counter person to finish with some other customers I asked him to take it down so I could look at it. It had a barrel that was cut down somewhere in the 27" range. No front bead was installed.
Since I wanted an 18" barreled gun anyway, no problem. At first I thought the $125 sticker was a mistake. Even in the condition this gun was in, around here the sticker should have read somewhere around $180.
I couldn't resist asking if that was the best that he could do in a cash sale and as expected the clerk said that $125 was it, but that was out the door. He'd pick up the tax.
So home it went with me. The first thing I noticed about this gun was the extremely beautiful walnut stock set on it. There was a tremendous amount of grain and figure in both the butt stock and fore end. I ended up trading this set for a OEM factory synthetic set with a fellow forum member. I think this was a good deal for both of us.
After a few hours cleaning, cutting down the barrel to 18.5", and sanding the minor (no pits) surface rust out this gun was ready for re bluing. It took a few coats of cold blue, but this gun now looks pretty good for a "beater" general duty SG.
I've yet to install a bead and have contacted a local gunsmith to see how much he would charge to silver solder a ramp and bead on the barrel. As many of you know with a barrel this short one really needs the ramp under the bead in order for the gun not to shoot to low.
So that’s it. I’ve finally arrived. After reading many posts about all the great deals some of you have gotten I’ve finally found mine.
Regards,
Rob
