I hope the group has some thoughts on this subject and appreciate the help

I have a Remington 870 POLICE MAGNUM pump shotgun which eats anything you put through it, Buck, bean bag, ounce and a quarter slug etc. This shotgun I am not worried about.

The question;

The Remington 870 2-3/4 shells, 12 gauge WINGMASTER (currently with a vent rib) 1984 made "V" series serial number. Will this receiver comfortably stand up to buck and slug rounds? Not planning on shooting thousands of rounds through it, say 100 rounds? a year. And the barrel can be swapped to an 18" barrel for shooting.

What are the thoughts on the WINGMASTER holding up and safety issues with the "duty ammo" VS bird/game shot?

Pretty sure it's exactly the same steel receiver, just prettier on the Wingmaster.

They are practically the same gun with the same receiver. No difference.

That being said, an early 80's Wingmaster should not be used for defensive purposes until the 40 year old springs have been replaced and the flexitab has been installed.

I would NOT run an old stock 40 year old Wingmaster for defensive use without some armory upgrades.

Refresh the springs and add the Flexitab. I might opt for an oversized safety.

I have a similar Wingmaster and a couple of 870Ps.

I've done a ton of research and other than furniture and finish, plus some easily exchanged forged v MIM parts, such as the extractor, everything is identical.

There's not much different in an 870P, because a department can order either wood or synth furniture, plastic or metal trigger housing, forged extractor and Remington will sell the department what it wants and then stamp 870P on it.

The Express has a shit finish that's rust prone but an 18" barrel on it is the same barrel on an 18" 870P.

Where is the flexitab available? I can find lots of info about it, but no one selling it.

This is the first I have heard of the flexitab. I bought an older 870 with an 18" slug barrel at a local gunshow. I suppose it will be for second line duty now.
Good info.

OZ

urbanwarrior, your Wingmaster is good to go, no concerns with regard to durability.

Those recommending the Flexitab kit are correct. Without a Flexitab carrier installed, if, when loading a shell, you fail to get it past the shell latch and it lands on the carrier, you'll need to partially disassemble your Wingmaster to get that shell out of there. Been there, done that. I've got a 1979 Wingmaster and early on, I dealt with this malfunction.

Mas Ayoob has demonstrated a forced cycle technique in such a circumstance, by slamming the buttstock on the ground while pushing back on the slide handle.

Ayoob discusses this malfunction and its remedy (though, he notes, the technique is not always effective) in StressFire II: Advanced Combat Shotgun - ppg 150-152

He strongly advises against (for obvious reasons) an alternate technique of using a key or the blade of a knife(!) to try to push the stuck shell off the lifter and into the magazine tube.

Remington incorporated the Flexitab system into all 870s made after 1986. With a Flexitab carrier, a solid yank on the slide handle should get you back in business.

I'd like to point out that Flexitab system or no, Remington or no, this type of misfeed is a reason why pump shotguns are perhaps bad choices for home defense for inexperienced shooters. Imagine trying to hurriedly load a magazine tube under stress and you can see how this malfunction can occur.

Slightly OT, but the old police 870’s were quite desirable two to three years ago. The new plain vanilla 870, the Express, is selling for around 400 bucks around here. If I wanted a defensive Remmy, that’s the way I’d go.

The 870 Wingmaster was my very first weapon purchase.
I bought it in Highschool in the 70's to shoot trap with and hunting (I know there are better shotguns today for sport shooting, but a HS kid doesn't have unlimited funds).
It has worked flawlessly ever since ~ so YES, you are GTG with it.

I didn’t hear about the ‘Flexitab’, until now.

I have an older Wingmaster. I was selling a muzzleloader years ago, $300 level. The buyer asked if I’d take the 870 instead, said yes. It’s at least 80’s vintage, maybe older.

My niece got a 60’s 20 ga Wingmaster from a relative that passed. I had the gun to bring to her, very minty. I made sure all was cleaned & lightly lubed. She’s not a big shooter, I asked her to treat it well.

I’ll do research for later on the flexitab, that gun kinda in medium storage for now.

Everything I am posting is based on Info from when Remington was in Illion,NY. I can't comment on current production Remingtons.

BlUF: A wingmaster receiver can do buck and slug. I purcahsed a trade in wingmaster from summit gunbroker around a decade ago, had the ejector repaired, swapped in a flex tab (never needed it) and added a 18" barrel. It's done buck and slug, to include handloads for me ever since. Granted I don't shoot it a ton, it kicks like a 12 gauge.

The Wingmaster and Police magnum receivers (3") would start on the same production line. The receivers that would go on to become Police models, would be inspected and then subjected to 11 or so processes. Remington had a memo outlining the process that made its way around the internets. I had a copy, but it's buried on an old hard drive somewhere.

Over the years MIM parts and plastic trigger guards made their way into production. Some folks swear oat those parts, some folks swear by them. THe older police and wingmasters had forged extractors.

We had issued 870s while I was in the USCG, slugs and buck only. All of them were stamped wingmaster.

When we went to the 14” barrel 870s they came from the factory roll marked USCG (serial #) no “wingmaster”

The only issues we ever had were when a shell latch came free due to bad staking or a user having a shell get under the carrier. And the fix is like Para discussed if in the field (mortaring it) or disassembly in a training environment.

Thank you everybody for the great and informative info on the 870 receiver question. I feel comfortable moving forward with my next project of using the Wingmaster for a SBS. Some may ask why not use the Police Magnum for the SBS. Good question but one ATF cant seem to get past with their "rules" which deserves it's own thread. Will keep all posted on the project and keep the good info coming.

Thanks

quote:

Originally posted by cheeze:
Where is the flexitab available? I can find lots of info about it, but no one selling it.

Well, Remington has swapped hands many times now and parts seem to be unavailable. I have bought gently used guns and scavenged parts to make what I want. Sucks, but if I’m rebuilding a 1978 Wingmaster into a front line defensive weapon, it gets new parts and new springs.

A bird gun or plinker, who cares, but a defensive use firearm should be well maintained and with the latest upgrades (flexitab) that can save your life in a jam.

Used this old Wingmaster back in the day for training and test slug and buck patterns and performance. Never an issue and still a HD protector.

I have never heard of the Remington Flexitab.
I just looked at my 870 Magnum that I looked up to be made in 1987.
It does indeed have the Flexitab stuff.

There's an option that I'm surprised no one has mentioned, and that's the Temington Steel package from Wilson.

For $200, iirc, they will take your 870, update the parts and parkerize it. It would give the Flexi tab as part of their work.

I have a beautiful 60’s vintage hi polish blue winger that does not have the flexitab. It’s a hunting and skeet gun only. With fleur de lis glossy wood and a mag limiter left in the tube full time. If it jams and I have to tear it down during a round of skeet or wrecks a pheasant hunt my life isn’t greatly affected.

My SBS 14” and other 18” home defense 870’s have been upgraded with better springs and followers and forged internal parts as noted. Metal vs synthetic trigger guards I don’t get worked about. Either are ok with me.

It’s alleged the police models got some extra attention back in the day at the Ilion NY plant. Who knows if true.

I have had that happen on my 870. Looks like I bought it in 1964 and it is a TC model. It only has to happen once, lesson learned.

I guess it has been shot so much that the pins in the receiver are showing looseness.

We tested Tom Rosters goose loads when I lived in Santa Barbara. You could get newspaper rolls for $.50 and use as a pattern board for testing loads. The newspaper would change out the paper roll when it got to a certain level. These rolls were 60 inches wide.

The hard part was getting the shot pattern in the center of the paper at long distance since every shotgun points different but sight beads helped.

Tom Roster tested hundreds of loads and he found out that anything over 1 3/8 ounces was a waste due to the deformed shot leaving the pattern. We tested these loads out to 80 yards.

At the time Tom was adding flour to the load but now you can get poly. The flour would cause a dangerous condition if it absorbed any moisture.

https://gf.nd.gov/hunting/nontoxic-shot-lethality