Remington's Model 11-87 Compact Sportsman

Fall turkey season is near and rude displays like this have me particularly interested in finding the ideal shotgun that will transition this show of attitude into smoked holiday table fare. His name is Bob. He does this every morning, with three other compatriots foraging in the woods behind the shop, leaving large reminders of their presence all over the place. It’s not that I take this personally, as much as I… take this personally.

After putting together a twelve gauge slug gun for deer hunting, and beating the snot out of myself during the post project check out, I decided I would go compact and man… down just a little bit. Anyone who has worked with 3″ 20 gauge slug or turkey loads knows this doesn’t represent much of a ballistic step down, but the twenty makes for a much more compact and lightweight  firearm. My literal area of the woods produces turkeys at close range in lots of dense hardwood.

 

 

 

This is my second run at a 20 gauge 3″ chamber turkey gun. The first was a Mossberg compact pump that was ok from the standpoint of utility, but it was really rough around the edges and so it was eventually sold. The Remington Model 11-87 Compact Sportsman’s gas operating system offers softer recoil, the little gun has much improved aesthetics and the package provides a real step up in quality fit and finish.

 

 

The Remington Model 11-87 Compact Sportsman ships with a 21″ smoothbore barrel with a modified choke. A variety of chokes are available for use with Remington’s interchangeable choke system. Additionally, two 21″ rifled slug barrels are available #27591 with cantilevered scope mount and #29563 with barrel mounted rifle sights. This Model 11-87 Compact’s receiver is not drilled and taped or grooved for accessory sights, but between the full rib and accessory barrels, other mount methods are not really needed.

2¾” or 3″

I think Remington is making some of the nicest mass produced guns they have ever made. The finish is excellent, inside and out and dimensions from one gun of the same model to another are extremely consistent. That isn’t a minor manufacturing evolution as it’s this consistency that assure one gun will shoot as well as the next and that there will not be a bad one in the bunch.

The easiest way to shake out a gas operated shotgun is to feed it a variety of ammo and see if it burps, coughs or sputters and fails to cycle in any way. One way the Model 11-87 differentiates itself from other Remington models, and other companies’ products, is with the incorporation of a  patented self-cleaning pressure-compensating gas operating system. The system works by passing enough pressure to reliably cycle the action and dumping the excess. The premise isn’t unlike that associated with a waste gate on an automotive turbo charging system. You set the desired boost, 20 PSI, and all of the excess pressure is bled off and exhausted to ensure that the engine sees uniform pressure. In the case of the Model 11-87, regardless use of  target loads or 3″ Express loads, the gun sees only the right amount of actuating pressure and dumps the excess. During this evaluation, a variety of 2¾” and 3″ ammunition was fired, from modest to high performance loading, and all fed reliably and locked the bolt open on empty.

Pseudo turkey performance…

Maine Turkeys are very intelligent. So much so that they’ve group roosted beneath my wife’s home office window with enough frequency that Diane named each in every one of them. Consequently, “Big Tom” targets is about as real as it’s going to get. At 30 yards, 68% of the Remington Express Long Range 2¾” 1 oz shot, approximately 154 pellets, landed in a 13½” circle. 75% of the 212 pellets from a 3″ Remington Nitro Turkey 1¼” #5 load hit in a 13½” with a lot more centrally concentrated pattern. Initially, I shot high with too much of the barrel ramp in an inclined view but, once adjusted, the gun was quick pointing and right on target.

and a slugfest…

I picked up a value pack of Remington Slugger 20 gauge 2¾” 5/8 oz slugs at the Walmart. Slugger ammo is intended for use in smooth bore guns, although I’m not so sure a modified choke was figured into that application equation.

At thirty yards, about as far as a person can see in the woods of Maine, and shooting from a standing position, a one inch group was easy to produce. I am a lousy shot… gunner, but the instinctive point of the little Compact Sportsman made me look good. While I have referred to this shotgun as a “little” something or other, the reference is to the gun’s size only as the recoil is… attention getting, as is the muzzle blast and the one ton of muzzle energy.

The Slugger 20 gauge slug weighs approximately 273 grains and has a muzzle velocity of 1,800 fps which means approximately 1965 ft/lbs of kinetic energy… which is a lot of thumping for deer or hogs or black bear or… lots of things. And there is enough of this force retained to give the slug loads a 150 yard useful range. No, I’m not suggesting a ramp sighted shotgun is appropriate for this distance, I am saying that the gun has more than enough steam to cover what can be hit.

And the Remington Model 11-87 Compact Sportsman comes with… stuff.

As noted elsewhere in the long winded unlearned tome, the Compact comes with an adjustable length of pull. The spacers, lower left, that appear to be suspiciously shaped into the profile of the buttstock, are each ½” thick and can be stacked for a total increase in pull of 1″ for a total length of 14″. I shot the live fire portion with no space in place and it didn’t seem to have an adverse effect on point… ability. Hey, If they say dancacality on Dancing with the Stars, I claim the right to create make believe word, pointability™ or, pointafication™… or pointalicious™ to describe a guns natural tendency to point at a target. The green magazine plug reduces the magazine capacity to two shells, three for the gun including a chambered round, where conformance to the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act is required. The silver tube is, of course, the removable modified choke, one of five degrees of choke available for the Model 11-87. The key, beneath the choke, makes easy work of choke change out.

I can only surmise…

I was really sorry the Model 11-87 Compact Sportsman project came to a conclusion. Most of the time, when I work with an autoloader and different types of ammunition, there will come a time when I have to manually feed shells at either end of the power range, or I will have to at least clear the chamber occasionally, or the bolt won’t lock open. None of this ever happened with the Model 11-87, which allowed me to concentrate on shooting.

The gun is… attractive in fit and finish. A source of aesthetic pride of ownership affixed to a gun with a durable finish. It is, again, very compact and easy handling. The twenty gauge 2¾” & 3″ chamber makes for a flexible gun and the option of extending applications with barrel, choke and length of pull changes makes for a versatile firearm. Neat.