Big Green
It was about 1978 when my sister came to me and told me of a friend whose grandfather had just passed away. He had apparently had two guns, and his family wasn’t sure what to do with them. They were said to be old, and nobody in the family wanted them; my sister’s friend remembered the little brother of a friend of hers liked to hunt, so she asked my sister if I’d be interested in having those guns.
I was, of course, so I rode forthwith with my sister to her friend’s grandfather’s house, where they were packing up and disposing of the various lares and penates of the old man’s life. The guns were nothing special: an old Mossberg bolt-action .22 rifle and an odd bottom-ejection pump shotgun, marked as a Remington Model 10. I thanked the family and took them home.
With a bit of research, I discovered that the Model 10 was Big Green’s first manufactured pump shotgun. It had the bad fortune to come out when the Browning-designed 1897 Winchester was dominating the pump gun market, and two years before the introduction of the Perfect Repeater, the famous Winchester Model 12. The Remington was clunky and finicky about ammo, and in time, I traded it away for something else in one of those Complicated Gun Deals, the details of which I forget.
See Related: Sunday Gun Day Vol. II Ep. XII - John Browning's 'Other' Shotgun
A few years after the Model 10 came out, John Browning turned his attention to Remington and designed for them another bottom-ejection pump shotgun, the Model 17, which later morphed into the famous Ithaca Model 37. That gun then became the model for the side-ejecting Remington Model 31 pump gun, known as the “Ball Bearing Pump,” but the Model 31 had a lot of screwy little parts, and manufacturing it required a lot of patient hand-fitting, which drove up the price, making it hard to compete with the more famous and well-known Winchester ’97 and Model 12 shotguns.
But then, in 1950, Remington finally got it right, introducing a pump shotgun that would become immortal – the Remington 870.
The Gun
Like the Model 31 before it, the new 870 had a tubular magazine under the barrel and a bottom-loading, side ejection receiver. Unlike the Model 31, it had a simple, rugged design that was ideal for mass production.
The timing of the new gun was also fortuitous. 1950, we might note, was only five years after the end of World War 2. Plenty of returning soldiers, sailors, Marines, and aircrews still had some money to spend, and the United States was entering into a period of gentle prosperity. This was a perfect environment into which to release a solid, reliable, and affordable pump shotgun.
See Related: Sunday Gun Day Vol. II Ep. XVIII - the First Pump Shotgun Was NOT a Winchester
The initial guns did have one flaw: If a shooter put a shell in the magazine but did not press it all the way home, the shell latch in the receiver would not engage, resulting in a jam-up when the shell popped back into the receiver under the bolt. Removing a shell stuck like this usually involved disassembling the gun. But around 1980 – inexplicably, it took Remington around 30 years to address this issue – Big Green redesigned the carrier to allow the action to be opened with a shell on the carrier, allowing the shooter to clear the jam.
Initially – like most shotguns of the time – the 870 was offered with fixed chokes and was available in 28, 20, 16, and 12 gauge and .410 bore in a variety of trims, including trap and skeet guns and magnum versions. In 1986, Remington started offering the RemChoke system on the 870 and its semi-automatic sister, the 1100. And, in 1996, Big Green brought out the 870 Express, a budget version that had a matte finish and a hardwood stock, usually birch, rather than the traditional walnut.
The 870 in field trim was aptly called the “Wingmaster,” and if a good bird gun is what you’re looking for, you can hardly do better. Remington also sold the 870 in what they called the “FieldMaster Deer” trim, with a 20” slug barrel with rifle sights.
No matter what the trim, the 870 was and is a hit. In 2009, the 10 millionth 870 came off the line, and the gun is still for sale today.
The Users
The simple, rugged 870 quickly got taken up not only by hunters and target shooters but also by military and police departments around the world. Remington made the gun available with extended magazines holding up to nine rounds; and unlike the 870’s primary competitor in this market, the Mossberg 500, the 870’s magazine capacity could be increased just by screwing an extension onto the magazine tube.
Military and police forces that used the 870 came from as disparate places as Australia, Belgium, Canada, Finland, Hong Kong, Israel, Malaysia, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and many more.
As It Stands Today
There have now been over 13 million Remington 870 shotguns built. The company describes the gun:
A receiver machined from an 8 ½ - pound billet of steel might not be the easiest way to build a shotgun, but the end result is well worth the extra effort. No other pump shotgun can match the Model 870's sleek classical lines, ultimate strength and smooth, effortless operation. This remarkable shotgun has been around for more than half a century, and has become the best-selling shotgun of any type in history.
Its legendary reliability is the heart of its popularity, as evidenced by the more than 13 million outdoorsmen, law enforcement officers, competitive shooters and home defenders who have chosen the never-say-die pump gun since its introduction in 1950. That same reliability has made the Model 870 one of the most adaptable shotgun designs ever, and the best-selling shotgun of all time.
One can hardly add anything to that. The steel receiver is an attractive feature to those of us who aren’t overly enamored of aluminum guns, although my ancient Mossberg 500 pump guns have held up very well over the decades, aluminum and all. But a steel receiver gives on that kind of confidence we older guys normally associate with the Model 12 – and that’s a comparison the folks at Remington should be happy to make. I’ve often said that any young engineer playing with a new design for a pump shotgun would do well to ask himself, “How will this measure up against the Model 12?” In the case of the 870, I’d say, “Pretty darn well.”
Incidentally, the Chinese government-controlled entity Norinco makes an unlicensed copy of the 870. I have not had the chance to examine one of these guns, but based on my assessment of other Norinco products, I suspect their copy of the 870 would make a fine boat anchor or tent pole.
Next year will see the 75th anniversary of the immortal 870. It would not be in the least bit surprising to see it still in production in another 75 years.
