Serial number marked on 870 Wingmaster barrel

[benniesdad]

I recently acquired an older 870 Wingmaster Magnum. The barrel dates it to 1972 and it has what appears to be a serial number on it. The number is 5 51xxx. I posted a question about this barrel on Trapshooters.com and one of the posters stated that:

"I have an 1100 barrel that has almost the exact dimensions as yours. It came with an 1100 Trap model that was a demo gun from the Remington tent at the 1971 Spring Grand in Phoenix. It too has the serial number from the gun stamped into it. According to the reps from Remington there it was an evaluation gun from the Remington testing shop."

The barrel itself is a 3” magnum barrel with vent rib with target bead which I have never seen on a field barrel from this time period. The bore itself measures .745 with 38 thousands of choke.

Can anyone confirm that this serial number indicates that it was an evaluation gun or test barrel?

[Virginian]

Does the serial number on the barrel match the gun? If so, the receiver isn't from 1972 without a prefix. Since the barrels are so easily changed, it could be anything unless you know you bought it from Remington, in which case the number may very well have been for tracking/testing/evaluation purposes. They did do a lot of that. Remington did not start putting 3" chambers in all barrels, field and target, until much later. I don't remember much hoopla about overbored barrels back that far, but I bet it is a very good shooter if the wads seal good. I couldn't get consistent performance over .742" myself.
Be interested to see if anyone else can provide any more input.

[benniesdad]

The serial number on the barrel does not match the serial number on the receiver. The previous owner also purchased the gun used, and this barrel came with it. It is a 30 inch 3 inch magnum full choke barrel with vent rib. The receiver is marked magnum so that increases the chances even more that this was the original configuration of the gun as originally purchased since people were not as magnum crazy in the 70's as the later years. The markings on the receiver and fleur-de-lis wood all indicate a receiver from the same general (1972) time period as the barrel. If it were a police barrel or something I could understand how an additional serial number could have been added later, but a long field barrel is a real mystery.

I have had several Remington barrels in the past that were well over .729, but this one is probably the largest. I bought this as a project gun to fix up to shoot sporting clays with choke tubes, but not sure I want to touch the barrel at this point. Have only test fired it so far, but weather permitting am headed to break some targets with it this weekend. Have a feeling it is going to be a real shooter on trap targets, so I might just wait on another barrel to come along.

Would be interested if anyone might have any other ideas.

[Virginian]

Well, if nothing else, in my opinion you got one of the best Wingmasters with the chrome follower. I had a '74 I sold in a moment of blinding stupidity, and went thru 5 more until I got the '76 I currently have, which will have to be close enough. If you like the feel of that barrel, I would consider choke tubes with a quality installation. Much cheaper than a replacement Light Contour barrel, and i have not seen any negatives to choke tubes when done right.