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It's the "Express" I think. It may have a blued, bead blasted finish, rather than Parkerizing. I think I paid like $180 for it back in the early 90's.
I'll have to look at a newer one and see if the finish is recognizably different. If it is, thanks for the tip, that the Parkerized ones are not what you want.
IIRC, the Express was offered at various times in both a matte blue and a parkerized finish, and a matte finish on the wood rather than the typical high gloss finish.
They have always been mechanically the same as the regular 870, only the finish was different.
IIRC, the Express was offered at various times in both a matte blue and a parkerized finish, and a matte finish on the wood rather than the typical high gloss finish.
They have always been mechanically the same as the regular 870, only the finish was different.
Yeah, in the 90's at least, it was a good utility gun at a good price. It really sucks what has happened with Remington the past few years. The 700, too, while not a really finely made rifle, was a good utility gun, to my eye the Classic is good looking, they tend to be good shooters right out of the box. While you could get a prettier, or even outright better gun if you wanted to spend more money, (Cooper and other small boutique makers) they were decent guns at a decent price.
Hell, at least we still have CZ, looking good and shooting good. Ruger has some good products out there, and they are hell for stout, even if they tend to be a bit heavy and beefy, which is part of the stoutness. And for a practical rifle, Savage, and Mossberg. Anyway the vast majority of the good older guns, older Remingtons, Winchesters, Savage, Colt, even L.C. Smith - are still out there, most of them by no means worn out. The shotguns won't have interchangeable choke tubes, but, get over that. If, like most on here, you like to hunt, consider the quest to find and acquire them as a form of hunting.
My favorite go to upland gun is a Savage 330. It was manufactured by Valmet for Savage. I have a pretty rare 12/20 ga barrel set matched to the receiver.
That was common for the Valmet models, which were and are pricier.
Man I slay some birds with that rig.
I’m not impressed with Mossberg rifles though. 5 or so years ago a guy I was hunting with bought a bolt in .30-06 and no matter what he put down the tube he couldn’t group it. Tried a new scope- nada. I read on line reviews with other users reporting similar results.
He was on a budget and I kept telling him look at Tikka. He finally bought one and lo and behold- it shot lights out.
Cerberus Corporation. Bad news and deep state controlled. Look at their board and major investors and you'll see politicos from both sides. They wanted to buy up a major bloc of gun and ammo manufacturers so that they could " shut off the spigot" if it was decided that citizens weren't supposed to have access to guns and ammunition.
They trashed Remington and hurt most gun manufacturers they bought, quality wise. Misfeasance and malfeasance.
Cerberus ? The same Cerberus that bought Chrysler?
Location: East Texas, with the Clan of the Cave Bear
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I'd venture to guess the cause for being financially strapped and thus the bankruptcy could be any of or a combination of any of these suggestions:
- Plain and simple poor management at the corporate level
- The capital investment firm (Cerberus) sucked the money out of the company as a profit strategy for shareholders
- Politically the company was bought and purposely killed via a slow sucky death due to political reasons (see the above 2 reasons).
I don't think it's because of product failures although that argument could be put forward also. We all know that with the move from Conn. to NY the quality and QC went downhill of both Remington, Marlin, and to a lesser extent Bushmaster. I think quality is better on these brands now. Other Freedom Group brands I can't speak personally to.
Location: East Texas, with the Clan of the Cave Bear
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TaxPhd
IIRC, the Express was offered at various times in both a matte blue and a parkerized finish, and a matte finish on the wood rather than the typical high gloss finish.
They have always been mechanically the same as the regular 870, only the finish was different.
One important difference is the extractor. The WM is non-MIM(more durable and hardy) vs the Express which is MIM.
Fit and finish also. WM is by far a smoother/slicker action.
Well I'm going to have to step back and eat a plate of crow. I happened on a screaming deal to get two Remington 5R rifles at an incredible price. I could resale one and make up ground enough to almost cover my 2 recent Mauser purchases, so I bit.
I got a 6.5 Creedmoor with a 24" barrel and a .308 with a 20" barrel. Heavy contour, fluted barrel, HMS Precision stock. Good looking rifles albeit portly due to their 'tactical' alignment in their offerings.
I picked up some brass for the 6.5, a jug of H4350 and some Sierra MatchKings, 142gr tipped. I also mounted a 10x42 fixed power SWFS Super Sniper scope. I broke the barrel in, cleaning after each of the first 5 shots, then a few 3 round strings and clean between and then I checked for copper fouling. Very minimal fouling found.
Load development began at the minimum starting, moving up in course 5 gr increments. Although a few 5 shot groups produced 1.5" groups at 100yds, nothing looked stellar. I chrono'd each shot and my loads were really consistent, the best 5 shot string produced a SD of 6 and extreme spread of 16fps. That's pretty good for virgin brass and a new rifle. It also happened to be one of the worst groups.
I broke down and bought a box of Hornady Match 140gr ELD ammo yesterday and fired 5 rounds from that first, then moved on to the last 3 ladder loads using the Sierra. I was pretty stoked to see that this rifle may just have a case of Sierra-itis and just not like those heacy, long TMK's
Note- all of this shooting was done in a VERY uncomfortable position- small steel table using bi-pod and rear bags with me hunched over from a shop stool.. Not a typical bench position by any means.
The Hornady match ammo gave good accuracy results- .655" group in my book, but you can read the SD/ES numbers. HORRIBLE. Not good for long range precision in my book, but it gives me a good place to start using those bullets. Going to load some up this week and try it again.
The Remington trigger is their new 'X-Mark' or whatever, supposedly adjustable. I am at the lightest setting on each rifle, and both have varying pull weights but little creep. If I keep either one a Timney goes in.
I have to say I am surprised with the rifle. Certainly not in the same league as my Browning X-Bolt, but overall a nicely built rifle.
I only fired the .308 4 times and I used Federal Match ammo. I backyard boresighted it yesterday looking through the barrel at a steel gong target 90 yards downrange. First shot on paper at 100yards (that was lucky, eh?). Shot went high, I adjusted the scope and went too far south but 2 shots next to each other confirmed where I needed to be, 4th shot got me where I need to start. Kind of slow process when you gotta clean the barrel between shots, outside in windy 40deg weather.. Afternoon gusts picked up to 5-15mph..
I'll admit my first reaction is I REALLY like the shorter 20" barrel .308. What a handy size. If that one shoots as good as I think it does, that 6.5CM will be finding a new home.
In conclusion, it appears that based on 2 new Remington Rifles, at least this model, proved to me that there is some quality left at Remington. I'd buy another 5R for sure.
Yeah, let me join Threerun in saying that the people ready to bury Remington are a bit ahead of themselves. At my favorite local gun store, I was looking at a new Remington 572 .22 pump rifle, recent manufacture. Being new I didn't have a chance to fire it, but, it certainly looked good, good finish on everything. This one is/was a BDL
I bought a used ADL model for a bit less $. But if you are willing to fork over $500 for a .22, well, take a look at the 572 then. Have not fired mine yet. Being a rimfire, I don't dry fire it, so, the trigger may not be all that good. The centerfire Remington pump guns are not known for having a very good trigger action.
They also had some "Remlin" lever guns. One thing I didn't like about them is that they are not drilling and tapping the receivers for "peep" sights like Marlin used to do. But they looked better than OK.
Most of my Remington guns are from the 80's, and they have all been at least decent shooters.
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