870 Military/Police Project!

[knucklehead211]

Hey guys! I am three days out from moving into a new home. The girlfriend is so excited to have her home decor project, I figured I had to get a project of my own! As some of you know, I have a diamond in the rough; a 1953 Wingmaster that was used by a PD at some point in it's life - it would be wrong to assume it's been used for 60+ years, but a definite possibility. The exterior is a bit bruised and rusted, but nothing a quick bit of rust bluing can't fix. I figured it made sense to get this gun as stock as possible. I planned to get a stock set for the military build, and then a standard cop build as well. To that end I tracked down an old milsurp set of walnut, taken off a service gun, complete with rack number:





The stock is luckily in solid condition, though the finish is a bit banged up (I may very well refinish it with tru oil, but of course keep the rack number). It's also pre drilled for a sling stud. Weird thing is the end of the butt is somewhat curved:



I have no other wood stock to compare this to, so figured I'd ask around here. Does anyone know whether these butts (hehe) accept standard recoil pads and screws? I have tracked down the hard rubber butt plate that was used on the older style stocks way back, but if I could use a modern pad I'd rather.

[knucklehead211]

Another question I had was stain matching and refinishing. At this point I have three pieces of wood, and only two match. Pics for reference:





They are all walnut, so the grain and stain consistency should both match if I get them all stripped and then stain them the same. This would suit my project well. Though I do plan on getting the factory LEO folder to use with the corn cob forend, I would like to have the option to take the milsurp set hunting, and once I get home swap the corn cob on (because reasons). The thing is though, I'm worried to strip and refinish the corn cob forend. I want to get a tru oil satin/semi gloss finish like the corn cob, and I wouldn't want to lay the tru oil so thick I fill in the grooves, or sand them out while stripping. Has anyone refinished a corn cob forend with this style of finish? Any tips on how to achieve a uniform finish on all three of these pieces so they are interchangeable would be much appreciated.

Finally, I thank you guys for being a constant resource, and stick around. This will be the spot where I will post updates about my build, and ask more nagging questions!

[knucklehead211]

A quick little update for you guys. I've been keeping my eye on the 'Bay, and last week I managed to pick up a couple of pieces for the police part of my project. Gentlemen, may I present:



The Remington Factory Folding Stock.

In the above picture, I've shown everything necessary to set this gem up with the rare Uncle Mike's QD hinge pin. All you'll need aside from the parts themselves is a pair of retaining ring pliers. Easily found at Home Depot for about $25. Lets take another look, shall we? This is how we will be removing the factory hinge pin - insert the tips of the pliers into the retaining ring. Squeeze and the ring will pop out of the hinge pin groove with ease.



Do this on both sides of the stock to remove both rings. That done, the pin will slide out fairly easily. This is the Uncle Mike's QD swivel hinge pin - completely identical to the original hinge pin. The sole difference is the grooves on the inside that hold the QD swivel in place.

[knucklehead211]

Some more details on this item - not necessary, but I feel that not much has been posted about these on the web. Much oh the rest of the stock is held together using the same retaining rings, probably to make disassembly and cleaning simple:



Something some people may not know - I certainly didn't - is that the buttplate is spring activated, as opposed to a locking mechanism. When not in contact with the receiver and barrel, the plate rests in the folded down position. This is what the spring assembly looks like:



That's all for now. I've pretty well blown through my allotted budget for this week, but I personally find it worth it and I hope the rest of you enjoy the read and description!

[knucklehead211]

Some new developments. Last week I ordered a boatload of parts from Numrich Gun Parts Corp. For those unfamiliar, they deal in old gun parts as well as newer items. They actually had just what I needed though. I ordered a buttplate meant for the older wingmaster shotgun wood, along with a stock bolt and washer, buttplate screws, trigger plate pins, and a rubber recoil pad for the folding stock. When I installed the buttplate to the wood, it fit near perfect, except for one thing: there was a ton of extra rubber!



Luckily, my significant other had used a sanding machine the past week on another project, so I quickly got to work. I think Numrich may simply have the old buttplate molds, or they have always been grind to fit. Here's about halfway point progress:



I did end up putting a few sanding booboos on the stock, but I plan on stripping and refinishing at some point so it's no big deal. Here's the end result:



Managed to do pretty well, if I do say so myself!

[knucklehead211]

I also ordered a UTG Forend Wrench off of ebay, and though many endorse it, I would not recommend it. Though it does the job well enough, I had a hard time because the castle nut on my forend has grooves that sit at a recessed point. Basically, the forend tube comes up along the inside of the slots, meaning I needed a very narrow notched wrench (this is also why I couldn't use the slide as a wrench). It did work, but made it hard to tighten a forend down securely. That said, it did let me play around with a few different configurations:



LEO Setup (still need recoil pad and a different clamp for mag tube)



HD Setup (May use the mag tube, or get an NFA barrel)



Hunting/Trap Setup (Need a QD mag cap)

Stay tuned. I'm not sure whether I'll reblue or refinish first. I've heard when refinishing it helps to have a dry warm environment, and summer is almost over - but I don't want to rush it.

[Synchronizor]

Great photos, keep them coming. It's especially neat to see detailed images of your LE top-folder; as you mentioned, there aren't a ton of good pictures of these floating around. I'm interested to hear how much a recoil pad improves the shootability of that folding stock. Those things look cool, but the bare metal butt makes my shoulder hurt just looking at it.

For your HD configuration, you could consider a single-piece +1 magazine extension. It gives you an extra round in the tube (at least with standard 2.75" shells), but doesn't throw the gun's balance off too much, and still keeps the thing just as simple as it was with a magazine cap, since a single-piece +1 is essentially a longer magazine cap. They also fit well under an SBS barrel if you end up going that route at some point.

[knucklehead211]

Thanks Synchronizor! I haven't had a chance to go and shoot this baby yet - hoping that next week I can have a day off where I don't get bothered about anything but shooting trap, and get a chance to try out both the folding and milsurp stock. I also still need a way to affix the rubber permanently, as most of these stocks are bare simply because the pad fell off. If I knew a good way to do it, I would strip the folder down and remove the parking to do the same wingmaster rust bluing I want to do on the rest of the gun. Either way I do plan on detail stripping it since it's a moving part - and taking more pictures in the process too!

And that is a great idea on the +1 extension. My '53 wingmaster can only take 2.75" shells anyways, so it would be very handy to have an extra shot. Plus you can still use some mag tube clamps - not that it's necessary, but it would give me some extra piece of mind, and another point to attach a sling if I took the little barrel on a trip.

[Synchronizor]

I don't see much point in reinforcing a single-piece +1 with a clamp; it's such a short moment arm that I doubt you'd break anything even if you dropped the gun directly onto it. Now, if you want to use that clamp to mount accessories, it makes more sense. Actually, I've found that a 5-position clamp-on pic rail unit, though maybe a hair long, works quite well on my Wilson Combat +1:

[knucklehead211]

That looks pretty good actually, would be nice to maintain a flashlight option on a 14" barrel.