The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

There has been a lot of talk of forum member Tactical and/or Retro pump action shotgun build recently so I thought it would be good to put them all in the same place so come on, show us your builds. S1 or S2, minor tweaks or major changes, before or after, post some pictures!

My one is a Stevens 77H that should end up looking a bit like the Vietnam era 77E, it will have to stop at 24" to remain S1 or S2 and other than that I hope to get it fairly close. Pictures to follow.

Anyone else?

I did this to a beautiful 870 wingmaster for a while. that image is of an express I was originally going to use as a base.

I was going for "space marine" looks wise.

It's now back to a nice walnut wingmaster but with a 10 shot tube.

Bleach needed for my eyes!

I would have thought a retro tactical shotgun would have been an Ithaca.

DL. wrote:Bleach needed for my eyes!

I would have thought a retro tactical shotgun would have been an Ithaca.

Or an 1897 Winchester.

Good call Ovenpaa, lets see some wood.

TomH wrote:

DL. wrote:Bleach needed for my eyes!

I would have thought a retro tactical shotgun would have been an Ithaca.

Or an 1897 Winchester.

Good call Ovenpaa, lets see some wood.

Retro:
1897 Win - 1898 dated (S1)
Mod 12 Win - 1916 dated
Ithaca 37 - 1959? dated

Tactical:
Rem 870 - check (x2 - have both 12 & 20)

Suggested reading:
Combat Shotguns, by Bruce Cranfield. Very detailed, lots of information on individual models & their parts variations & accessories.
The Worlds Fighting Shotguns, by Thomas Swearengen. An older book, took me 20 years to find my copy. Encyclopaedic/broader details.

ALSO

Check out the AR15 forum, there is a VERY detailed shotgun section on there & more than one thread about retro builds.
Sadly we aren't allowed their options on shorter barrel lengths or shorter o.a.l. - so don't plan on adding a folding stock & 18" barrel unless you have the donor gun in another country than the UK! (i.e., France...)
Another good forum is the Combat Shotgun one - run by a Remington dealer/armourer, plus the ShotgunWorld forum can provide a lot of information.
....still a few potential options out there; Remington 17, Browning BPS, Winchester 120, etc., so get reading & get shopping!

Prefer the KISS principle, plus while not against polymer/plastic on guns I feel that guns with polished bluing look best with plain wood stocks, those with parkerised matte or Duracoat type finishes look good with either.

Some good retro builds too on older autos: Browning A5, Remington Model 11, Savage 720 (er, all essentially the same gun), etc.

This is what I have in mind, the donor I have is a Stevens 77H with a 1967 Proof mark which is slightly odd as I would expect it to be a tad newer however I cannot find a definitive list of model years for the Model 77

Mine has the same Oregon Rubber Co 'T Slot' butt pad, and although the forend is slightly different in that it is shrouded at the rear it is easily sorted with a band saw and a few minutes on a lathe, in fact it will take longer to make a mandrel than to machine it. I have copious amounts of Van Dyke crystals so it is easily stained the required black. Ideally the metal work would be Parkerised however the trigger guard is a cast alloy so it would need anodising or painting as a separate item. I need some sling hangers for the M1 sling I have found.

I also need to remove the adjustable choke system, does anyone know if they are hard soldered or something else on the Stevens and any idea what length the barrel ends up at, it needs to be 24" or slightly more for obvious reasons. I could pop the barrel in the lathe and just machine it off however it is always good to know what I am up against.

One other thing is I intend to slick it to within and inch of its life and it will be interesting to see just how slick you can get one of these things.

My build has been kicked off by stripping it down into big bits. The trigger was a swine to remove, in theory it is just a matter of removing the rear screw and pushing the front pin out however the pin was reluctant to move and I had to resort to our hydraulic press just to get it started. I am not sure why it should have been so tight however with some carefully cleaning it can now be refitted with the resistance I would expect.

The forend is interesting, it needs to be machined to the original 77E profile and the 77H is the same metalwork with a shrouded rear that extends to the receiver. Easily modified. The problematical part is removing the inner steel sleeve and rear cap as the cap is held in place by the sleeve which is swaged over. This means I need to carefully prise it back, strip it, tidy the edges and then build a tool to reform it once it has been refinished which will be either a charcoal Cerakote or Parkerised.

Next jobs is remove the barrel and strip the woodwork after machining so it is ready for the ebonising stain which may well end up being concentrated Van Dyke crystals as they are water based so although the grain will be raised the stain should not be muddied when I add the hard oil finish.

Slide machined to emulate the 77E - It has the correct number and spaced grooves however I have deliberately offset it slightly so it can never be mistaken for an original 77E version. Just needs a good sanding and it is ready to start the staining process.

Been a busy boy

I have a customer that has just been granted permission for an 18" pump-action trench gun for re-enacting. He's also allowed to shoot it at clays.

He's looking at getting someone to source/make something like this Model 37 (any ideas?);



He's already got the bayonet to fit.
When I see it I'll post a picture.