Best designed pump action ever?

Rifle or shotgun.

Go!

For shotgun - Best designed from aesthetics? Hand feel? Ease of tear down? All around best utilitarian type?

My short life would say the Remington 870. Incredibly easy to clean. Tons of aftermarket parts. Has always been a very affordable gun with limitless customizations. I like how it felt compared to the Mossberg when I got my first 870 years ago, the M500 just felt flimsy. Now I’ve got 870’s from several generations. Can drop them in the mud and pick it up and slam birds

Remington Wingmaster 870. (NOT Remington 870 Express... big difference in quality and smoothness of action)

Remington 870.

Browning BPS. Best finished action ever produced in a pump shot gun

Remington 870 Wingmaster for best

With that said my favorite bump is a Winchester Model 12

Winchester model 61

This

Function, reliability, smoothness.

Browning BPS.

I would take a vintage Winchester Model 12 with Cutts compensator over any modern pump action repeater every time

Old Model 12 skeet gun.
Old 870 Wingmaster
Benelli Nova isn't too bad.

Rifle, Gallery .22 (Old, one) and NOT a Rossi

Wingmaster

Winchester 1200 or 1300

870 Wingmaster

I’m partial to my Ithaca 37. I have no idea what makes one pump better than the other, but that’s my favorite

I have a Benelli Nova that i used to shoot alot and loved it. No real comparison as i moved up to an autoloader, but there is absolutely nothing about it i can complain about.

Winchester model 1897 and model 12. Best ever made. IMO

Ithaca 37. had it 50 years and counting.

Yep.

I'll probably get blasted, but...Mossberg 500. Simple, reliable, reliable, and reliable. I had a buddy that never, and I mean, never cleaned his. Sounded like sandpaper every time he racked it. But it just kept on going.

Browning BPS for us lefties!!

Exactly! This thread makes me want to go get another 500. I sold the one that I had years ago. I want another one so I don't have to clean it....ever.

First for me is an old Winchester Model 12. Second is an old 870 wingmaster. Both very solid.

Model 42-410. It’s a work of art.

Ted Williams model 200

All I hunted with growing up.

Model 62 sa. Winchester 22

Function, reliability and smoothness…..hands down the Winchester Model 12. No others come close.

Winchester Model 12
Ithica model 37
Winchester model 1897

1,2,3…IMHO

clean your camera lens oxner

For me it's a Winchester 42 and a 62. I have a couple of each and they are slick..

Frio

Remington 870 Wingmaster.

S&W 3000 12g pump ----- 40 years with me
Remington 760 .35 Remington

Smooth baby

if you have to ask...

75 posts, keep at it

Agreed!

A slicked-up Model 42 Skeet is pretty hard to beat. Wish I had bought one many years ago and lost it in the back of the safe.

++1

A Remington 31 or a tuned up model 12. I have had plenty of good 870s also. The older Wingmasters are the best of the newer pumps but you can polish and/or coat any 870 to butter smoothness.

My cousin had one , I was blessed to hunt with it a few times as a teenager. After I graduated college , I started looking for one to buy.
I didn't buy one because I thought they were too expensive. They still are.


Mo

Winchester Model 12. 870 ain't to bad also.

I did like my Browning BPS. It served me well in the saltwater marsh south of Morgan City, Louisiana hunting ducks in the 80’s & 90’s.

870 Wingmaster for the win in my books. Never fails and if you need to clean it, its a snap. Winchester 12 and Ithaca 37 also great guns but a little more involved in cleaning

If you are going to be hunting in the freezing rain or in a climate where the rain could freeze, in a blind or in a boat, then it is a Browning BPS (no openly exposed chamber for water to get in and it throws the empty hulls at your feet), otherwise it is a Remington 870 Wingmaster. Both of mine have killed everything I have hunted and neither have ever failed me.

I agree with this. Maybe because it’s what I grew up with. Buddy had a mossberg 835 and it felt real wobbly and rickety on the forend. Also didn’t like the safety up top. I have an old model 12, but it’s kinda wobbly was well. Don’t really care for browning ejecting out the bottom. But that’s just my

Model 12, of course! ...the perfect repeater...

1300

870 for me. Ithaca is a very solid mention and I have never handled a model 12 or Browning but know they were nice shotguns.

Nothing is smoother than a 70yo Ithaca with electrical tape holding the stock together.

Remington 870 Wingmaster. I need a .410 & a 28 to complete my collection.

That's a Winchester.

Spencer / Bannerman - most of you probably never seen one.

Winchester 97 is a No Go.

Remington 870 is most likely the Best. (dual action bars)

"old model" Ithaca Model 37 is a close second.

This thread could have stopped there.

Winchester model 12

Agreed.

Older Wingmaster 870

I know. It’s a 12.

Who's got a Winchester model 12 I can take apart and reassemble?

Anybody notice anytime there's one of these threads, there's suddenly a flurry of similar items in the classifieds? Currently this morning there are no less than 3 pump action shottys on the first Firearms page.

Older 870 Wingmaster.

Remington 870 Wingmaster. It’s no secret why other manufacturers adopted twin action bars once the 870’s patten expired. The Browning BPS is a close second. It combined the best features of the Ithaca model 37, the Remington 870 and added a top tang safety making it truly amber dexterous.

Older Wingmasters - best bang for the buck when it comes to shotguns.
I owned a BPS and it was nice. I didn't shoot it much but not a fan of the enclose chamber. I have a habit of sliding shotgun actions open a bit to visually verify if there is a shell chambered when I'm hunting. Easy with an 870 but a pain to flip that BPS over and look in from the bottom.

Back in the '70s, my Dad went through Coaches Training with the late, great John Satterwhite. Part of Satterwhite's exhibition for the coaches attending the course included most of what's in the attached video.

Satterwhite used a variety of 870s for his demonstrations, until he reached his "eight birds at one time" gag...where he moved to a Model 12. After the shooting day concluded, Daddy quizzed John about why he shot 870s for 99% of his work and then traded to the Model 12 at the bitter end. Daddy said that Satterwhite grinned and told him that, for the amount of shooting that he did, NOTHING held up as well as the 870 with its dual slide bars. He swapped to the Model 12 when there were eight targets in the air simultaneously as (with no trigger disconnect) he could cycle the action holding the trigger back and fire the shotgun simply by closing the slide when he wanted.

Satterwhite also told Daddy that the toughest part of that gag was learning how to throw eight targets such that they'd separate in mid-air!

Rest in Peace, John...you were a Scattergun God!

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...514695A50DD3F8BD6F73514695&FORM=VIRE

Ithaca Model 37

Model 31 Remington only been mentioned once. This tells me not many on here ever shot one. Take my 31 over my model 12s and wingmasters any day.

The Model 31 was brought out by Remington to compete with the Model 12, and lost big time. Remington got smart and benched it in favor of the 870 due to it being much less expensive to manufacture….and it was its low price that gave it the top spot in the market. To date it is the most popular pump (based on sales) ever created. The Model 12 never lost its following as the ‘best’ pump on the market as it was the #1 choice of both Trap and Skeet shooters before the O/Us (and single shot break opens in trap) became popular. There are still quite a few Model 12s in use in competitive Trap.

You mean model 1200 ,or 12 guage? Cause the Ted Williams is not a model 12. But they are damn good

They didn't make very many of them and they quit production so long ago that people have forgotten about them. You'll hardly ever find one for sale much less find someone shooting one of them.

Wish I could sat the same about my Ithaca 37. Dad bought it for me new in the early 80's and it's been nothing but a jam-o-matic. Been to 3 different gunsmiths and back to Ithaca twice. I think the last gunsmith that worked on it may have fixed it but I'll probably never take it on another hunt because I dont trust it. Sucks because I really like it. Model 37 Ultra featherlight.

I've shot a Model 31 a few times, it's a very nice gun. But the Model 12's have had so many shells through them the actions are polished like glass and run so smooth.

The model 12’s were from an era where every part was hand fitted. No slop and no burs or grit. That attention to detail was more expensive to build and why they were discontinued in ‘64. The safety, unlike an 870, is in front of the trigger guard where it belongs and you finger rides it naturally. The trigger is the best I’ve experienced on a pump or auto loader. It has no disconnect. If you hold it down it will fire as fast as you can pump the action. The overall smoothness of the model 12 in my estimation is unparalleled in a pump gun.

Smokey: I agree and would add that they had no stamped parts.

That's one reason why I collect them.