Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Remington Sportsman 58. probably should have bought it

Was out hitting a few pawn shops this morning, and now i am wondering if i left a treasure behind. I haven't seen one of these before, but I will do my best to describe it.

Remington Sportsman 58 20 gauge....wood and blueing extremely nice (i would say 95%+)
had white diamond things inlaid in the stock....and gold fill on the receiver scene (ducks, quail, etc). Barrel said skeet, but a poly-choke had been added.

they had $349 on it, but i am sure it could have been had for less.

instead i paid $475 out the door for a sweet 1961 Belgian Browning Auto-5 that was marked $599....so i'm not real upset, mind you

so was that a steal on the 58, or no?

Think it's a good thing you passed, probably only worth a couple hundred bucks the way you describe it.

I owned a 12 gauge Sportsman 58 for a short while. It is a reliable shotgun, but was replaced by the 1100, which was a quantum leap up in gas operated shotgun evolution. The 58 was Remington's first gas shotgun and used an internal piston in the forward end of the magazine (it was sectioned into two parts, bottom held two shells, then a pinned in place plastic divider, followed by the piston. Piston connected to the action bars using a small, capped stud - on 12 gauge guns these are said to crack - but mine was original and okay. The gold fill on the engraving was aftermarket - it is rolled, but looked pretty decent for it's day - a factory gun would be all blue (receiver and engraving). I like a Polychoke, but it does lower the value of the gun to most buyers. The white diamonds are also an aftermarket installation. Your "instead" purchase of an A-5 for $475.00 was the better decisions (IMO).

thanks for the reply. i was thinking it was factory because the white diamonds look just like the diamond you see on the grip cap of Remington 1100's. It was a cool looking little 20 gauge, and not something you see everyday. I still would like to have it, but obviously i wanted the Browning more

I think my Mod 58 had a dog with a duck in it's mouth,or a winged
bird on the grip cap. Not sure but the white diamond is for sure

an 1100/1187 type thing. I gave 300 for one with two barrels,

you did good.

Bob

One would hope so.. It's about $200 over market..


No..

The M58 was VERY load specific. Anything off it's specs and it would either not eject/feed, or it would batter the receiver to death.. Plus, the mainspring/collar assemblies are so obsolete that (IIRC) there's only one major source of those left and they ARE spendy....

I think you honestly did well by passing it up..

Redneck is right the shotgun I was posting about was the mod 50.

It too was a specitly gun made by machine gun williams.

Bob