At SBFG. Priced very reasonably:

https://stevebarnettfineguns.com/remington-shotguns-2-for-sale/remington-model-31-12-gauge?rq=22223

JR

I was thinking that is pretty spendy as I bought one probably even a bit nicer for $325 out the door at a local pawn shop. Checked my records and my buy was before the crash of 2008!!

Everything that Stevie has for sale in "spendy" I have bought 2 nice clean pre-1950 field grade M12's in 20 gauge recently, each under $550 cash money no trading. Steve is, or was I guess I should say, a well-known dealer, I only buy from private parties, so I am sure he has a 35-40% "uptick" in his price. RWTF

I sold a mint 31 TC to a friend who has given me many favors in the past. My present 31s are a mint vent rib skeet 12 with a nice custom stock and forend, probably Fajen or Bishop. Another is a solid rib skeet 12 with second barrel, modified, numbered to the gun. This is a really nice one.

Nice gun. A friend has one, that was his father's. It is, of course, not for sale.

$595 is really not that much when compared to the asking prices for used BPS and 870 guns in my area.

I'd spend $595 for a nice one if it had a ribbed barrel. I'm done buying plain barrel guns. They all shoot way high for me if they are stocked close to my dimensions. The last one I bought I had to replace the bead with a much bigger bead to get the POI close enough to my POA.

REM 31L lightweight would be more to my liking for upland hunting. A friend of mine has one and loves it. 12b solid rib. Nice gun and more around 6.5 lbs for carrying.

My first shotgun was a Model 31 20 ga. It did not have the grooved forend, but the bulkier, 870-style, checkered forend. Does anyone know what grade that would have been? I've been watching for one like that for sale with no success.

In all likelihood, Shelldrake, you have a 'Skeet' grade M31. I've the same thing in a 12 ga. 'Skeet' model, that serials out to the early 1930's, is checkered fore and aft, and sports an ivory bead front sight atop the ventilated rib. How is your gun choked?

To my knowledge, every alloy-receiver 31 I've seen had a cracked frame in front of the loading port where the magazine tube is screwed in, but I've only seen 4 or 5. No idea if it matters.
JR

My 31L remains crackless and in 20ga is a joy to carry. It has a "Poly-Choke" kind of thing that automatically switches from open choke for a covey rise to a tighter choke for succeeding shots. The duraluminum action has weathered to a funky color though...Geo

Thanks for the reply Robt. This gun was unfortunately traded many moons ago. I'm going on memory and a photograph. The gun had a plain barrel and a Polychoke. My photo clearly shows the forend. I'm guessing it was not a Skeet grade?

I've got y'all all beat: my M31L 20 gauge unaltered and in very nice condition cost me $100.00 out the door at a small gunshop. Plain barrel--I did have Skeet's open the full choke. Nice gun and vastly better than anything on the market today. I consider the 31's to be superior to the Model 12's (I know, them's fighting words)!

I sold a minty 31TC a couple years ago for $750.00. Had paid $300 for it from a feller who officed in the same building as me. Made the deal while riding up our elevator.

The interesting thing and bonus imho with the solid rib guns is that the rib is integral to the barrel. In other words, the barrel and rib are milled from one piece of steel….no solder. Hard to believe these guns are as inexpensive as they are, at least in my opinion. However, I hear they are a bear to dismantle and then put back right!

I have a 12-gauge Model 31LA "Standard" Grade with a 30-inch full choke solid rib barrel. That very heavy barrel on the light-weight receiver makes for a very muzzle-heavy gun. I'd think the 12-gauge Model 31LA would be much better balanced with a 26-inch plain barrel. My 20-gauge Model 31LA "Standard" Grade has a 26-inch plain barrel and is much better balanced. Remington tried to introduce the lightweight Model 31L with the 'Aeromet" receiver in 12-gauge in 1941 along with the "Improved" Model 31, but almost immediately they were not available due to raw material shortages.



After WW-II the Model 31L was offered in all three gauges and also briefly as skeet and trap guns.

The Model 31 Skeet Gun was introduced in the February 1, 1935, Remington Arms Co., Inc. catalog and said to be ready for delivery June 1, 1935.



My 1941 vintage 12-gauge, solid rib, Model 31 Skeet Gun --

I have 3 of the lightweight frame 20s and they are my favorite pumpgun to shoot. Great upland hunting shotgun that is easy to carry all day. I also have a couple full frame 12s that I prefer over model 12s as I think they are much smoother actions.

Was the 31 ever made with 3" chambers and a long barrel, the equivalent of a M12 Heavy Duck?

No. Remington's answer to the Model 12 Heavy Duck was the "Long Range" boring.





Until the Model 870 3-inch Magnum was introduced, the only gun Remington offered for the 12-gauge 3-inch Magnum shell was a scant few of their Parkers --

They are great! I have one in 16

Buzz said: I hear they are a bear to dismantle and then put back right!

The key is to remember the correct direction to tip the bolt slide--quite a puzzle for me!
The OP's noted gun is clean and nice but I think a ribbed 31 is way cooler. Same rib as on the Model 32's. I have a solid ribbed skeet gun and a couple of vent ribbed TC's that all handle and sight vey nicely. I recently acquired an early Etchen styled 31 stock set made from really upgraded walnut.I put this on an early TC, Kathleen likes the curved grip, me not so much.

So, it looks like I'm in the market for a ribbed 31XA or a 31TC.

Thanks, Dave

Was the M31's solid rib milled from the same billet as the barrel as was the M17 and not soldered to the barrel? Gil

Yes, as Buzz posted earlier, it was, and the vent rib on the Model 31 is also milled from the same piece of steel, just like the solid rib.

Thanks. If Buzz's post had been a snake, it would have bit me.

Well yeah, but at what price? This is a high-condition, plain huntin' gun, no pretentions, at a fair price, is all I'm saying...
JR

From the introduction of a solid rib for the Remington Autoloading Shotgun in the 1908 Remington Arms Co. catalog through the last Remington Model 31s in early 1950 all Remington ribs were milled integral with the barrel -- Model 11, Sportsman, Model 10, Model 17, Model 29 and Model 31. For some reason Remington only offered ventilated ribs on 12-gauge target guns, 30-inch trap barrels and 26-inch skeet barrels, in their pump guns. For the Model 11 and Sportsman autoloaders both solid ribs and vent ribs were offered in all barrel lengths and gauges.

In the later 1930s when Remington began offering factory Poly-Chokes, they milled them integral with the barrel as well.

Now Researcher that’s one I did not know! I have a minty 17 Deluxe with the milled rib but had no idea of the milled Poly-choke. What were they not capable of! I am amazed of the workmanship in my 17 and low end 31L. Thanks for the information.

There is no such thing as a Model 17 Deluxe. There was the Model 17A "Standard" Grade, the Model 17B "Special" Grade, the Model 17D "Tournament" Grade, the Model 17E "Expert" Grade and the Model 17F "Premier" Grade.





From the Model 17s introduction in the first Remington Arms Co., Inc. catalog (Catalog No. 51) the Model 17A "Standard" Grade had a plain American Walnut stock and ringed slide handle.



When Remington transitioned from the Model 10 to the Model 29 for their 12-gauge pump, the A "Standard" Grade got a checkered American Walnut stock and slide handle. Within a year the Model 17A "Standard" Grade got a checkered American Walnut stock and slide handle. From the 1930 catalog --



The Model 17B "Special" Grade had a checkered imported walnut stock and slide handle. It seems 99% of the time a dealer advertises a gun as a Model 17B "Special" Grade it is just a late Model 17A "Standard" Grade.

Real B "Special" Grades would be so marked --

How rare are solid rib M17s? Saw my first just a bit ago and I liked it. Didn't seem to add alot of weight.

I have a Remington Model 10T (Target) That's the VR model.
The VR being one piece with the bbl itself is quite a piece of machinework.

Nice shotgun, pretty wood. Two factory #'d butt stocks actually.
3 'Returned to Factory for Service' date codes on the bbl.
IIRC the mfg yr was '27 or 28.
A favorite shooter on the Skeet range for me
and when I do occasionally make it to the SC course.
Choke is your friend..

I had a Model 17 w/Solid Rib some yrs back. But it got traded/sold away.
I want to think that it traded for a Winchester 42. But that might only be to try and make me feel better.

In the trapshooting world nice 31TC's HAD been in the $700-800 range. I don't know about now. $500 870's are now getting over a grand. 1100's as well. Some kinda weird buying frenzy. I have a couple trap 870's I'll do some trolling with when I get time!
I have seen guns over on ts.com are moving--I sold a Model 12 easily this week.

I'm sure the percent of Model 17s ordered with the option of a solid rib is an unknowable number. How many people would spring for an $8 option on a $48 gun in the 1920s and 30s?

My father railed against two things in American shotgunnery, Winchester Model 24s and bottom dumper pump guns. For over 70 years I heeded him, but a couple of years ago a Model 17A "Standard" Grade with a 28-inch solid rib improved cylinder barrel for $200 out the door at my local pawn shop couldn't be resisted. The stock had been cut and a piece added back and a recoil pad.



Fits me well and has been a lot of fun for $200. My gun weighs a fraction of an ounce under six pounds.

Researcher: Thankyou for that! Bottom-dumpers used to concern me as well (I'd probably heard the some of same stories your dad was listening to), but only until I'd owned and then used a couple of them. As a Southpaw, they offer some serious advantages and very-few (if ever) any detriments to us right-hand challenged folks.

At the risk of preaching to the choir here, when properly cleaned-up and then tuned-up, pumpers are simply great and affordable tools. IMHO, the pre-WWII variants generally offer immense value for the price paid (in terms of build-quality and function) and they always seem to get my attention (even if I prefer doubles to hunt with). Almost everybody shot one in the world of my youth, and many shot them very well. My grandfather's generation seemed to treasure the doubles more, and only after being exposed to some better variants of those weapons did I finally abandon the pumps. Being of a frugal nature, I re-discovered them again in middle age as my search for the perfect upland gun became more-serious. I acquired several (many!) and cleaned them up to better understand them (there weren't any books on the subject then, and likely still aren't). I quickly found that after a proper clean-up and a little finish repair, I could re-sell locally with little trouble and be well paid for my work. Many of them went in that fashion to help me build a war-chest to afford some of my first truly-decent doubles. Now I find that I'm a bit sorry that I don't have some of them anymore, my old, two-barreled M17 being one of them.

Place has into a bunch of bumper jAckers...pump this pump that