Remington 870 Brushmaster

[deercop]

Adopted a new member to the family yesterday. I had found it at a pawnshop Saturday, examined it, and had a real hard time putting it down. I was doing what I normally do, asking myself "Do I really need another gun? Will I get $xxx use out of it, or will it sit in the back of the safe?" After pondering over it for several days, and putting it into the perspective of "This is what a new Express model would cost, but this is soooo much better made", I went back and bought it.

1978 Remington 870 Wingmaster "Brushmaster", 20" bbl w/ rifle sights, improved cylinder (all info gained from Remington's CS). I would rate it at about 98%, I think it was just stored away and hardly used, very little wear marks on the normal areas, only a couple of slight scuffs on the exterior finish. It also came with a spare 30" full choke barrel, DV code (made in 1979?), but the barrel has a completely different finish, kind of a plain-jane gray color.

I'm pretty familiar with LE/Police model 870's, but frankly, this was the first time I've ever heard of the name "Brushmaster". I would welcome any comments regarding the Brushmaster model, as well as any thoughts on the spare barrel.

 

[deercop]

Here's a couple pics of the "spare" barrel.

 

[foghornl]

Nice shotgun, with a few "Character Marks' on it...

Now, buy a railroad car full of ammo, and see if you can wear it out. I'll wager you can't.

 

[bofe954]

No info on that model, but I have the police set up exactly the same (with a mag extension though). I deer hunt with it and plan to take some self defense type classes with it. I really like the size, sights, choke. It's small/short enough to be handy but long enough to get velocity out of slugs and some distance between the sights.

 

[Fred Fuller]

Good catch- congratulations!

Kuhnhausen's timeline on page 12 of his 870/1100/11-87 shop manual says the 870 Brushmaster was introduced in 1962, with a 20" slug barrel, rifle type sights and a rubber recoil pad. Unfortunately there is no more information in that source, and the Remington Society's site contradicts this:

1961
Remington introduced the Model 870 AP "Brushmaster" shotgun introduced with 20" slug barrel, recoil pad and rifle sights ($109.70). It replaced the Model 870 RSS.

And in 1969 came a 20 gauge version: Remington also introduced a 20 gauge Model 870 Brushmaster Deer Gun in Standard or Deluxe versions

- http://www.remingtonsociety.com/rsa/journals/870

That's all I see with a quick look around... hth,

lpl/nc

 

[Dave McCracken]

Congrats. The Brushmaster was an attempt to gain marketshare from Ithaca's Deerslayer 37, which was popular at the time.

Dual usage, obviously. While it's a good venison acquisition tool, it also comes in handy when things go bump in the night.

If you got all that for the price of an Express, Huzzah!!

Now go shoot it.

Lots....

 

[PJR]

The 30" barrel looks like is from an older Remington SPS. It was a parkerized version of the 870 Wingmaster that came before the Express. It was the same gun as the Wingmaster except for the parkerized finished. The one I had was a very good gun that came with a synthetic stock.

 

[IDriveB5]

Very nice! I have my express set up the same way now, except with remchokes. Hoping itll throw a nice pattern for turkeys.

 

[riverdog]

Cool. I have my '82 vintage Wingmaster set up with the same barrel. It makes a very good "bump in the night" gun.