870 Wingmaster Classic Trap?

[MinnesotaFats]

Can anyone here shed some light on the Wingmaster Classic Trap? Ive been looking for reviews and cant really turn up anything. Is the only difference between this and the standard Wingmaster the monte carlo stock, 30" barrel and mid bead? Is it worth $200+ over the standard Wingmaster? Anyone here have one? Im looking to retire my Belgian A-5 for a more dedicated informal clay gun and this shotgun looked mighty tempting. Any thoughts or opinions will be appreciated.

 

[Virginian]

The Classic Trap is designed to shoot high, as almost all actual trap shotguns are. If you are not going to shoot registered trap, I think you would be well served with a regular Wingmaster. The Wingmaster comes with a 28" LC barrel versus the 30" on the Trap version. Currently they are not showing a 30" Wingmaster being produced.

 

[Steve C]

The trap 870 usually has nicer wood and being a trap gun is set up for rising clay targets so the center of the shot pattern will be above the bead rather than centered on the bead.

To do this the stock has less drop and the rib is a bit higher. The stock should be a bit wider giving more area to absorb recoil and having less drop will give the shooter a more in line recoil push with less muzzle rise making the gun more pleasant and less punishing to shoot the round count one encounters in a trap meet.

 

[rule303]

Is it worth the extra $200? Yes, if you want a trap (as in regulation trap, not backyard clays) gun. Bear in mind, that is all it will be good for. Pumps are usually overlooked by trapshooters today in favor of O/U's, put lots of records were set with 870's and model 12's.

 

[MinnesotaFats]

So the design of this gun is strictly for trap and not suited for backyard clays? The standard Wingmaster is going to get better hits? It was said that it patterns high but isnt that a good thing even if it is just backyard clays? That way you dont have to cover the clay with the bead.

 

[Fleetman]

I think it would be perfectly fine for backyard clays and you have already identified how to shoot it....allow some space between the bead and the bird.

Most of them have awesome wood and the MC stock is, my opinion, very eye-appealing.

 

[rcmodel]

If the clay bird is always raising, as in trap, you want it to shoot high.
So you can lead it under it and still see it.

If it's always raising & then dropping, as in skeet, sporting clays, hunting, or hand thrown blue rock in the back yard?

You don't want it to shoot high.

You want it to shoot where you are looking so you can lead correctly depending on what direction (up or down) the target is going.
Like your A5.

I grew up hunting with a guys dad that used a Model 12 Trap gun for everything, and he compensated for it because thats all he ever shot.

None of the rest of us could hit anything with it, except raising trap targets.

rc

 

[MinnesotaFats]

Couldnt you still lead for a descending target by just always aiming under it? Seems to me that compensating like this would be a good thing (unless there was far too much space between bead and bird?), allowing you to always see the full bird/clay. I know my A-5 is very flat shooting so the bird is always covered by the bead, not giving me a full picture. I guess i dont know whats best.

 

[Virginian]

In as much as it seems you are determined to buy that gun and compensate or do whatever you have to, to hit with it, go ahead and buy it.

 

[MinnesotaFats]

^ not helpful. Theres a difference between compensation that helps you hit and compensating just because you want something and are trying to make it work.

 

[MinnesotaFats]

So the gun is only useful for targets on the rise. Ok. But the curiousity of the gun itself still stands being i cant seem to find any reviews and not a lot seem to own one.

 

[Fred Fuller]

There have been 870 Trap guns for decades, under various designations - 870 TA, TB and TC, later the Classic Trap. The late long time moderator here in Shotguns, Dave McC, used to shoot an 870 trap gun regularly. See http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=348530 for one old thread, there are more.

The trap guns have various features and generally better wood, different stocks and forearms, cut checkering etc. that made them more expensive than the run of the mill 870 pumps and at the same time narrowed their utility specifically to trap. Thus there are fewer of them running around out there, but at heart they are still 870s. However, a number of the trap guns, especially older ones, have pretty high round counts, and 870 receivers have been known to crack at 250,000 rounds or so.