Dave McCracken
Moderator In Memoriam
Remington's recent Quality Control, or lack of same, has often been decried here, including by Yr Humble Scrivener. Non concentric barrels, similar choke tubes, mismarked choke tubes and heavier trigger pulls are the main sources of dis-satisfaction.
So, I recently got an early Birfday present, after I told my wondeful family what they were getting me.
It's a brand new, 30" Remchoked Light Contour barrel for an 870, of course.
I wanted a Remchoked barrel so I could swap chokes for Skeet, 5 stand and for hunting.
And I wanted a long barrel so I could use it to best advantage at trap. Also, my hunting buds have put up with Frankenstein's bunty and loud barrel too long. While a 21" barrel does work for snow geese, its blast with goose loads are a bit loud for a shared blind.
So, I picked up the barrel from Guns R Us a few weeks ago, swapped an extra tube for a Skeet choke, and have done a bit of loud research.
Going on a hunch,it was mounted on my 870 TB and shot 4 rounds of Skeet with it and the same of trap before patterning, though I counsel others to pattern first.
Why? Because I wanted see how it did when I didn't know where it was hitting.
My skeet scores, though still horrid, rose. Obviously, the Extra Full choke on my TB barrel was a severe handicap for a new skeet shooter.
My trap scores dropped a bit.
The patterning board told the story. POI was dead on at 20 yards with the skeet tube for windage, elevation was a hair over POA.
Using the Full tube and trap loads at 35 yards showed impacts higher than my trap barrel and a bit left. Not as far left as the TB's regular barrel, that's about 10" left, this is more like 5". That old barrel has shot low and left since Day One. I had the thing bent to raise the impact but it had gradually straightened it itself out over the last 10K rounds or so. With 20-30 straights at trap in the interim, I left it alone.
As there's two more 30" 870 barrels here, maybe some numbers are in order.
The new barrel has an ID of .7285". That's very close to the .729" bore considered to be a true 12 gauge. It weighs 2lbs,2 oz. The IC tube I had measured.720", nigh perfect constriction in this barrel for a true IC choke. That would be 10 POC, this is 8.5.
The barrel that came with the TB measures .733", a mild overbore. Choke's 38 POC. This may not be the original barrel, but IMO it's contemporary to the TB, made in 1978. It weighs 2 lbs,6 oz.
The barrel on #6, made in 1955, weighs 2 lbs, 4 oz and is ribless and Full choke.That works out to a .725" bore, .685" choke for 40 POC.
IOW, the new LC barrel weighs 4 oz less than the Trap barrel, and 2 oz less than the ribless field model.
I noted during the Skeet session that the TB was quicker than before. During the trap session, I was missing over some birds, a combo of the lighter front end and the higher POI. Use will fix that.
Also, I've scrutinized this new barrel for bad workmanship and shortcuts. Didn't find any. Finish seems as deep and glossy as with the other two barrels, no machine marks, good polish. Mounted on either #6 or the TB, it looks like it came that way from Ilion.
Minor gripe, the engraved markings on the barrel are lightly done and hard for me to read. Otherwise, the barrel's up to high standards.
Oh yes, while patterning I dropped in a skeet load and used the full choke to unload one into the patterning board at 20 yards. Max spread was about 14", usable spread around 10".
Of course, this could be the only good barrel made that day. But, it still holds up to old standards....
So, I recently got an early Birfday present, after I told my wondeful family what they were getting me.
It's a brand new, 30" Remchoked Light Contour barrel for an 870, of course.
I wanted a Remchoked barrel so I could swap chokes for Skeet, 5 stand and for hunting.
And I wanted a long barrel so I could use it to best advantage at trap. Also, my hunting buds have put up with Frankenstein's bunty and loud barrel too long. While a 21" barrel does work for snow geese, its blast with goose loads are a bit loud for a shared blind.
So, I picked up the barrel from Guns R Us a few weeks ago, swapped an extra tube for a Skeet choke, and have done a bit of loud research.
Going on a hunch,it was mounted on my 870 TB and shot 4 rounds of Skeet with it and the same of trap before patterning, though I counsel others to pattern first.
Why? Because I wanted see how it did when I didn't know where it was hitting.
My skeet scores, though still horrid, rose. Obviously, the Extra Full choke on my TB barrel was a severe handicap for a new skeet shooter.
My trap scores dropped a bit.
The patterning board told the story. POI was dead on at 20 yards with the skeet tube for windage, elevation was a hair over POA.
Using the Full tube and trap loads at 35 yards showed impacts higher than my trap barrel and a bit left. Not as far left as the TB's regular barrel, that's about 10" left, this is more like 5". That old barrel has shot low and left since Day One. I had the thing bent to raise the impact but it had gradually straightened it itself out over the last 10K rounds or so. With 20-30 straights at trap in the interim, I left it alone.
As there's two more 30" 870 barrels here, maybe some numbers are in order.
The new barrel has an ID of .7285". That's very close to the .729" bore considered to be a true 12 gauge. It weighs 2lbs,2 oz. The IC tube I had measured.720", nigh perfect constriction in this barrel for a true IC choke. That would be 10 POC, this is 8.5.
The barrel that came with the TB measures .733", a mild overbore. Choke's 38 POC. This may not be the original barrel, but IMO it's contemporary to the TB, made in 1978. It weighs 2 lbs,6 oz.
The barrel on #6, made in 1955, weighs 2 lbs, 4 oz and is ribless and Full choke.That works out to a .725" bore, .685" choke for 40 POC.
IOW, the new LC barrel weighs 4 oz less than the Trap barrel, and 2 oz less than the ribless field model.
I noted during the Skeet session that the TB was quicker than before. During the trap session, I was missing over some birds, a combo of the lighter front end and the higher POI. Use will fix that.
Also, I've scrutinized this new barrel for bad workmanship and shortcuts. Didn't find any. Finish seems as deep and glossy as with the other two barrels, no machine marks, good polish. Mounted on either #6 or the TB, it looks like it came that way from Ilion.
Minor gripe, the engraved markings on the barrel are lightly done and hard for me to read. Otherwise, the barrel's up to high standards.
Oh yes, while patterning I dropped in a skeet load and used the full choke to unload one into the patterning board at 20 yards. Max spread was about 14", usable spread around 10".
Of course, this could be the only good barrel made that day. But, it still holds up to old standards....
