What can you tell me about this 870?

[Bonano]

Hi Guys
I bought this Wingmaster 870 a few years ago out of the blue for $500 but still haven't been able to figure out what it is specifically.
It has a 20"bbl, +3 mag extension and LEO folding stock. 2 3/4" shells only. The barrel code is either "OU" or "UO" -- can't quite tell. I think the date is either 1971 or 1977.

The previous owner claimed it was a police-trade in that had spent most of it's life riding around in a cruiser. The left-side of the receiver is engraved with "State Highway Patrol -- Ohio" and has a good amount of finish wear to support the story.

There's a few things that concern me -- first is that the shotgun has sights from an early Rem 700 rifle instead of a bead sight. I happened to ask a collector about this and was told it may have been done for a contract, but I haven't found many other 870's like it. The second thing is that it looks to have been re-parked, but I can't figure if it was originally blued or not since I haven't been able to find another LEO folder that was parkerized. The bolt is also parkerized.

Is this shotgun collectable? What would the approximate value of it be?

My apologies for the crude photos -- had to use my phone

[bbull311]

I would suspect that during your inquiries you found that many Remington 870 Wingmasters were pressed into service both before and after the release of the police model. I would contact Remington customer service to see what they can tell you what configuration it was sold in. They may also be able to tell you who it was sold to if it was a special order or part of a contract. You can also try contacting the Ohio Highway Patrol. They may or may not be able to help you find more info on the shotgun. They should have some record of how it came into service but I dont know how willing they would be to share that info. Some departments are more helpful then others. All in all I would say $500 was a fair price.

[Synchronizor]

Looks like a well-used older 870P to me. I kind of doubt someone would go to the trouble of Parkerizing and engraving the receiver if they were only going to ask for $500.

Regarding the sights, Remington equips a lot of shorter combat & hunting 870 barrels with sights like those used on their rifles. I have an older Wingmaster barrel that has 700-esque rifle sights.

870 rifle sights_C50.JPG (45.28 KiB) Viewed 3165 times

Your rear ramp looks like it might be different from mine, but I can't really tell since the stock is partially obstructing it in your pictures.

The gun may well have been Parkerized at some point after it left the factory, going by the fact that the gun and metal stock parts all seem to have the same appearance, but I wouldn't consider that unusual for a LE shotgun. From what I understand, bluing was fairly common on older Police models (most are Parkerized these days), but Parkerizing was pretty well-established back then as well, and Remington has been selling 870s to various military buyers since the late 1960s. If your receiver has "Wingmaster" engraved on the side, I'd guess it was originally blued, but it shouldn't make much functional difference either way.

Unless you can uncover something significant about its history, I don't think this gun is collectible or especially valuable. There are lots of old retired police 870s out there, and from what I've seen, the basic ones tend to go for around $250 - $400. Yours has the classic LE folding stock (a la Terminator 2), which adds some cool points and gives it a little extra value. Assuming it's in decent working shape, $500 seems about fair for it.