doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com steel in old M31s.

I bought this gun off of a junk rack for very little money. I'm using light, cheap, 2 3/4 #3 steel duck loads in it. Would it be better to never use it?

Note how well the 'machine blue' finish on the old Remingtons holds up.

Shoot it.

Its still a Model 31, use these;

http://www.rstshells.com/store/default.aspx

or these;

http://www.polywad.com/

or these;

http://kentgamebore.com/waterfowl-loads/tungsten-waterfowl.html

This is a really great gun. Easily the best pump 12 I've ever shot. I won't deliberately wreck or abuse it. If I detect any appreciable wear from these loads, I'll make the effort to get proper shells for it.

Remington says any barrel made since 1950 with a choke modified or more open is suitable for steel shotshells. The only problem I have ever personally seen has been bulges in the choke area of tightly choked guns and one modified barrel on an old hardware store grade double. As for scratches in the bore, I have seen those but whether it was caused by steel or grit off a nasty shell picked out of the bottom of the blind I don't know, but I saw them before steel shot, too.
If I was shooting a Model 1100 or a Wingmaster I wouldn't sweat anything, because replacement barrels are plentiful if anything did happen. On a 31 I might think twice or three times first. With the availability of Kent Impact, Nice Shot, Hevi-Shot Classic Doubles, etc. why risk it? Yes, they are more expensive. What's the total cost difference for how many shells you intend to shoot? I don't shoot steel anyway, I don't like it at all. When a duck drops I just think that was $4 well spent.
An acquaintance who likes Poly Chokes (retch, heave !) has one on an old Wingmaster. Poly Choke said don't shoot heavy steel through it. He bought a new barrel and got a screw in PolyChoke rated for steel shot to fit the RemChoke threads and has had no problems. Apparently Poly and Remington changed the steel they were using for manufacturing in the 50s. I don't know about the others.

With loose choke it should hold up well to all modern upland loads including expert steel from Walmart. LGS has old all steel Model 31 and it is put together like "brick ....house". Looking over it I do not see any reason I would pick that over
new 'Wingmaster' with 'Light Contour' barrel ie the best upland pump ever offered to the American hunter.

Does anyone remember the ambulance chaser lawsuit against
Remington for "defective" steel in their shotgun barrels about 20 years ago?? Class action case was settled, and, because I had a number or Remingtons, I got $100 or so in the settlement. Immediately gave the money to a group fighting frivolous lawsiuts

Practicing diversity this AM. Shooting everything from greenwing teal to greater Canada's. I really like this old gun.

I didn't get any money from Remington, just a blizzard of unintelligible paperwork for a few years. I have a few Remington barrels from the 'defective' era and they seem to work just fine.

The Polychoke story is interesting. It appears to all the world to be made of spring steel. It would also appear that the hardness necessary to make the leaves of the collet retain spring action would make the Polychoke harder than any steel pellets.

My initial concern with steel shot in a Poly was that the increase in pressure might fail the soldered joint. Poly install jobs vary widely. Some are good and straight, some point off at an angle, and some have a pretty wide gap.

The gizmo was really ahead of it's time. The only problem except the appearance of the thing is that it raises the front bead on plain barrel guns and makes the gun shoot low. Works better on ribbed barrels, or you can bend the barrel (which can and has been done).

The Remington Garza settlement has become the law school model for how to made a bunch of money in a class action suit. The original gun was a used 1100 trap being shot with reloads by a fella in Ill.
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