You have one of the best engineered pump guns ever made in the U.S. Remington was fighting an uphill battle against the ever popular model 97 Winchester in the early 1900's. They started out with the Model 10, a no exposed hammer gun, that was unique as it ejected spent rounds out the bottom of the receiver. It flapped out the fired round, and brought one up for the chamber. My dad had one in the early 50's and he took his share of ducks with it. Next was JM Browning Model 17 Remington. It was a 20 gauge only and with an IC bird barrel dad made it awful hard on quail. Later on Remington sold or the patent expired and Ithaca copied and sold it as the model 37. It too had bottom ejection. I still have dad's model 17 and the memories of hunts gone by. Remington made some modifications to the model 10, and called it the Model 29. I think the 10 and 29 were 12ga only and the 29 had the safety behind the trigger guard, instead of inside the front of the tg. It too ejected out the bottom of the receiver. Next comes the model 31. It was an easy take down gun like the 17 Remington. One of my uncles was a gun smith in the little town of Beebe, AR. and I remember him discussing how well made the steel version of the 31 was. With the 31 Remington broke with tradition and shells were ejected out the right side of the receiver. It was made in 12 and 20ga, there may have been a 16ga, but I don't remember ever seeing one. It was also made in standard grade solid steel, and also in an aluminum LT version. It may have have been the first American made shotgun to use an alloy receiver. Keep in mind that pump guns were steady losing ground to the autoloaders coming along. I know that Remington 10 along with the model 97 Winchester went to Europe as"trench guns", as did the model 1912 Winchester in "The Great War". Somewhere in the late 50's or early 60's the Remington Wingmaster came out with great fan fair. It may have been called the 870 but I just remember people calling it a Wingmaster. It had something new in the pump gun world, and that was two flat forend guides that kept the block sliding straight. It may have helped some in that regard, and Remington used it a lot in it's promotion campaigns. I had used a 16ga Field Grade L.C. Smith on birds during my teen years, but when I was discharged from the Marines in 1970 I just had to have a new Light 12 Browning, and sold my L.C. to one of my cousins, he used the hell out of it and now belongs to a second cousin. That 12 ga Browning cost me many comments from dad, who would make some kind of comment about ruining birds, and comments like, " did you get enough shot in that one", as feathers were still floating down. Those are some of the things I remember about pump guns, and days I wish I could bring back. I am great full to God for giving me the man I called dad, and those hunts we shared long ago. They were without a doubt the GREATEST GENERATION.
Last edited by Gramps2; 01/10/19.
