1970 Remington 1100

John Fraser

John Fraser

Well-known member
My father-in-law just passed down a Remington 1100 for my son to use. It was made around 1970. Is it OK to shoot steel with this gun?

Also it shoots 2-3/4" only. If I did get a new barrel for it, would it be able to shoot 3"?
 
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Check with Remington regarding the steel shot...probably can find the info on their website.

Part 2, no, a 2-3/4" gun is a 2-3/4" gun regardless if a 3" chamber barrel would even fit.

You probably want to give it a good teardown cleaning and get a new O ring for it.
 
I believe this gun would have fallen into the class action suit claiming Remington barrels were not strong enough. Remington lost the suit and made their barrels heavier and I believe out of a better steel. Certainly thousands have been used successfully with steel (full choke would cause higher pressures). A cautious approach would be to replace the barrel. And no changing the barrel does not make the gun into a 3" Mag. The receiver determines the shell length capacity.

Scott

 
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Thanks. I didn't think I could make it a 3", but I was considering trying to get a barrel for it anyway for the Rem-Chokes and the ability to shoot steel. The gun came with 2 barrels, a Skeet and a Full.

Perhaps this is a candidate for the other non-toxic shot? I've always shot steel because of the cost. My son doesn’t shoot excessively so maybe bismuth, etc. would be a good alternative. A few years ago I inherited a Lee reloader and I’ve saved plenty of 2-3/4” AA hulls. My father-in-law has a lot of reloading experience with lead. Does anyone have any good bismuth/tungsten/etc. recipes?

Either way, I’ll definitely contact Remington to get their opinion on the barrel.
 
John,
The 1100 is one of the softest shooting gas gun actions. It was modified to become the 11-87. The Skeet shooters still use them. The internal parts are easily available from Midway or Brownells. YouTube has videos on how to field strip them. Getting the action spring out is a bit more of a trick but not hard. I bought the armors book by Jerry Kuhnhausen. It gave a lot of info on the history of the design.
I am using two of them with a 26 inch fixed choke skeet for teaching clay target shooting. I am looking to buy two 28 inch full vented rib barrels for trap. Both have 1 inch decelerator recoil pads installed. Very easy recoil with lighter loads down to 7\8 oz for new shooters.
I did replace the action and mag springs on the two that I bought recently along with a few minor parts. Had to also replace the gas piston on one and the O ring on both.
The original barrels are highly sought after by target shooters due to the light weight and balance. I think the full would be too tight for steel.
Ducks in close dont need 3 inch loads. Pattern some 2 3\4 till you get 100 pellets in the circle. That will kill any duck to 40yds with a #3 pellet, and Mark has proven here that inside of that way smaller shot works very well.

Enjoy the family history of that gun.

Bob
 
Thanks Bob. My son Ben is currently shooting an 870 20 guage. My father in law thought the 1100 would be a good gun for him because of the low recoil. The gun was originally purchased by his father for his brother.

When you pattern a gun for decoying birds, do you shoot from 40 yards? 30 yards? What size circle do you want to get 100 pellets in?
 
You can put a steel shot barrel on the gun for under $200.00 and it will shoot 3" steel but is not approved for 3" lead. The gun is just as good or better than a new semi auto. Just buy the new barrel and if you want to buy a set of plastic stocks to go with it if you want to keep the wood nice.
 
John,
pattern at the distance you want to shoot. I used to do it at 40 but dont much now even for goose loads.

Getting the birds inside of 30 yds is a challenge and a lot more fun for me. You have to be right on with a tight choke load set for 40 and beyond if the birds decoy inside of 25 which they do if you hide in a good layout or marsh boat.

I use the table cloth plastic from Walmart. Almost 4' wide. Staple to a pallet or frame and shoot for the center.
Draw a 30 inch circle around the densest part. Count the holes by ticking them off with a sharpie. Over 100 hits even in the circle and you are good to go. That count at that distance, pretty much guarantees a three pellet hit on a ducks vitals and a killing shot. IE if it dosent die you missed.
For kicks cut open a shell and count the pellets in it. Some factory loads pattern very poorly. I still dont know where the shot goes. But it doesnt hit the paper.

Have fun with that gun. If you have questions about parts shoot me a PM. I think I have the list from Midway.
 
I'm now 65 and have been using my fathers 1100 shoot steel out of it all the time. Modified, 28" barrel, 2 3/4" only serial # 88770V. Can anyone tell me when it was manufactured.

Mike
 
I can't tell what year I bought my LH 3" 1100 , but I can tell you it was the year that Long Island went from lead to steel. It's the only gun I shot since then. In fact I have two of the them, except for a few rounds of trap the only shot thats ever been trough the barrel is steel. Shoot away and don't worry about it
 
Called Remington this am and w/ the sn 88770V was manufactured in 1964 and yes i can shoot steel out of that barrel.
Sweetest shotgun i've ever fired throws a great pattern and very low recoil.
 
Good news. I called Remington today. The skeet barrel can shoot steel. The full choke barrel can not shoot steel, but it can shoot (non-steel) turkey loads. The gun was made in 1971.

Now to find a steel load that will pattern well at decoying ranges.
 
You may want to ask Remington an additional question; If you open the full choke up to a lite-modified, would it be safe to shoot steel? I've opened up three 16 ga chokes and it's easy to do. On the other hand if you want the full for turkey, your good to go.

Scott
 
John,
here is a few pictures of the parts I replaced on the two that I am running right now. One of the guns was missing the gas piston and I had to buy a new set from Umrich. They carry the two piece original design. I dont have a picture of that.

DSCN5011.jpg


DSCN5014.jpg



Here is a shot of the tools I use to get the stock off to change the recoil spring and the follower for the wishbone.


DSCN5012.jpg

 
Thanks Scott and Bob.

I don't think I want to mess with the original barrels, being that it's a family gun. Someday I'll probably just get a replacement barrel with the Rem-chokes so it's infinitely adjustable. I'll save the Full and Skeet barrels for trap and skeet shooting. If I can get a duck load to pattern decently with the skeet barrel, then I won't be in as much of a hurry to buy a barrel.

Thanks for showing the pictures of the parts. The other day my father in law showed me how to load/unload the gun. Then we switched the barrels over. In preparation for some sporting clays today, I tried to load it and fire it yesterday afternoon. I couldn't get a shell in the magazine and I also couldn't get the trigger to pull back. I wanted Ben to practice with it and so I brought it to the club today anyway. A friend looked at it and found an extra set of rings stuck up inside the collar on the skeet barrel. He removed them and the gun worked fine. The o-ring does look pretty worn so I'll probably be buying one of those soon. I spoke to my father in law and he said that a couple of years ago he switched the barrels from skeet to full and thought he had lost a ring. Not knowing it was stuck on the skeet barrel, he bought a replacement ring and put it on the gun.

Ben did well with the gun today, busting more clays than I did. That's great shooting for him compared to how he was shooting last year.
 
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