Year remington switched from fixed chokes to tubes?

[GreenMTNLife]

Hey all,
This is my first post. Been lurkin for a couple days reading through all the 101 threads. Found them hugely helpful Dave. Im gettin ready to pick up my first shotgun. Waterfowl is gonna be my focus, with a lil bit of Upland and trap shooting mixed in. I've pretty well decided that a used Wingmaster 12ga would be a my best bet. But because I'm looking for a versatile gun I think I'm gonna look for one with a changeable choke system. To get an idea of the age range of guns I'll be lookin at I was wondering what year remington made the switch from fixed chokes.

Also any VTer's around these parts? Got a good shop you'd reccomend?

thanks for your help.

 

[PJR]

According to the Remington Society of America choke tubes were first introduced in the Wingmaster in 1986.

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

 

[Fred Fuller]

Welcome to THR!

Remington still hasn't completely made the switch to RemChokes in all its barrels, though tubes are factory standard on most new production field guns these days. Just look for choke tubes in the guns you are shopping among, since barrels on modern Remington repeaters are such a mix-and-match proposition, it's entirely possible the gun you buy won't have its original barrel still mounted anyway, if you buy used. By the same token, there's nothing to keep you from swapping barrels if you get a great buy on a gun with no choke tubes.

And fixed chokes can be underestimated- swapping loads will often have an effect on patterns. That's how shotgunners got by for so long using the one-gun/one-barrel approach for everything.

Happy shopping,

lpl/nc

 

[ilmonster]

What Lee said. I recently picked up a 870 WM with a 26" barrel made in 1977 per Remington, but it has a Rem choked vent rib barrel that had to have been added later. Wouldn't know it if I didn't see the remingtonsociety.com link though!

 

[Jorg Nysgerrig]

I got an 870 Sportsman (precursor to the Express) in 1986 with a fixed choke. By 1988 the Express had tubes.

 

[GreenMTNLife]

thanks guys, hopefully I''ll track a nice WM down soon.