The Pump Action
Submitted by Bruce Buck on Mon, 05/18/2009 - 9:28am.
In the next four blogs it might be interesting to chat about the different types of shotgun actions: pump, autoloader, side-by-side and over/under. I’ll skip the single-shot because I don’t have much experience with it. Each of the four main actions has areas in which it excels. Let’s start with the pump.
This is the American blue-collar gun. It is strong, sturdy, incredibly reliable and often modestly priced. Pumpguns have been around for well over 100 years. Their reliability in stressful situations has endeared them to our military and law-enforcement forces for generations.
The pump is by far the most popular type of shotgun sold in the US. The latest NSSF study showed that the Remington 870 Express, at less than $300, was the nation’s current best-selling shotgun. An 870 was my first gun and a Winchester Model 12 my second. After that I got fancier stuff, but never really better. I think that one of the reasons I like pumps so much is that my European pals can’t comprehend them. I keep thinking that if I took the trouble of tracking down a 12-gauge Wingmaster with a 26” Light Contour barrel and added a stock that actually fit a grownup, as opposed to the stocks that Remington continues to build for our great-grandfathers, I really wouldn’t need much else. Want something else? Of course. But not need.
Unfortunately, all pumps aren’t inexpensive. Priced a good-condition Model 42 recently? What about an original Model 12 28-gauge? Ouch! But an 870 Wingmaster is a pretty good alternative. The Remington Express costs half as much, but the Wingmaster is the one you want.
I’ve been through a bunch of Wingmaster 870s and have seen many, many more in action. I’ve never seen one fail to fire due to the gun. Of course it can happen and I’m sure it does, but I haven’t seen it. And you can always short-shuck a pump, but that’s not the gun’s fault. I have put parts into Model 12s and Model 42s, but those guns had been through many happy hands before they came to me. I’ve never put a part in a Remington pump.
I can’t think of a better gun in the duck blind than a pump. Yes, there is some recoil if you insist on shooting 3-1/2” Roman candles, but that’s your choice. If you are slothful (as my wife tells me I tend to be), pumps don’t really need to be cleaned in order to function. When autos are dirty, they stop. When pumps are dirty, they are like a kid playing in mud. They simply don’t care and may actually rather like it. When the inevitable waterfowl dunking occurs, a pump can just be shaken a bit and is back in action. Modern pumps are easy to disassemble and clean when you get home. Model 12s are more of a handful but still easier than most O/Us and side-by-sides.
For you lefties, both the Browning BPS and the Ithaca Model 37 have bottom ejection. Bottom-ejection guns are also great in the goose pit or duck blind, as they keep the guy next to you from getting pelted with sizzling-hot ejects. Ever get one of those down the back of your neck? Ouch!
Is all perfect in pumpgun land? Not hardly. Some pumps are so ugly that my dog barks at them. The Benelli Nova and new Remington 887 come to mind. The Nova is a decent gun, although the one-piece action/stock means you can never alter stock height. One size must fit all or else. The new Remington 887 is built with futuristic plastic armor cladding on everything, including the barrel. It should handle harsh duck-boat treatment nicely, but it looks like a mud wrestler at a deb party.
Most pumps, other than the smooth-shucking Mossberg, have trigger guard safeties that aren’t as nice to use as tang safeties. I suppose it’s all what you get used to. Also, some pumps tend to have overly heavy barrels because they are made so inexpensively. Light barrels cost more to make. In 12 gauge a Wingmaster with the Light Contour barrel is nicely balanced. A long-barreled 870 Express is more ponderous.
My biggest beef with some pumps is the use of an interrupter. It is the little device inserted into the action that keeps the bolt closed until there is a very slight pressure forward on the forend. The lawyers think this is supposed to save you from yourself. In reality it just saves a lot of birds’ lives when you can’t pump in that second shot.
The old Winchester Model 12s and 42s didn’t have interrupters. You could just hold the trigger back and pump like crazy. That’s what Herb Parsons did when he was a demo shooter for Winchester. Remington 870s are generally not too bad. The current guns have interrupters, but they don’t seem to cause much in the way of problems for most people. I watched Matt Dryke (Gold Medal, International Skeet, Los Angeles ’84, with a Remington 3200) do some amazing trick shooting with his 870 and it sure didn’t slow him down.
But the interrupter on my Model 12 28-gauge Browning reproduction was so intrusive that I sold the gun. Yes, I tried to exorcise the wretched metal toggle, but I couldn’t make it work. I’ve not tried the new Ithaca Model 37 pumps, so I don’t know what they will be like in that department, but I’m hoping for the best. I will be getting an M-37 for testing down the road.
The bottom line on pumps is that they are fun to shoot because they are so participatory. They are somehow more manly than other guns. They are definitely more American.
That’s it for getting pumped up. Time to relax.
Boots off. Beer open.
- Bruce Buck's blog
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There Can Be Only One Best Pumpgun Ever - Winchester Model 12
Interesting thread. It's fun to read the everyone's experiences shooting pumpguns. I've been a rabid bird hunter for more than 45 years, and during that time I've seen just about everything. There's no doubt in my mind that the pumpgun rules under most duck and goose hunting conditions. However, and I've shot just about all of 'em at one time or another, in my opinion the Winchester Model 12 simply has no peer. Rugged, reliable, smooth, beautiful, and a natural pointer, it is simply the best pumpgun ever produced. I have several of them in various configurations, from a Heavy Duck Gun down to a first-year 20-gauge, and each of them always delivers. Plus, it's a real hoot to use them to outshoot guys whose guns cost more than my 4-wheel-drive...
Pumpgun for Ducks
My pump-gun passion most likely started with my first shotgun: My grandfather’s Winchester 97. I started using it when I was 12, and hunted ducks, geese, dove, quail and pheasant with it until I was 29. Nono (the Italian word for grandfather) used it for at least 50 years before that. During his years as a coal miner in Utah, that gun fed his family.
I retired the 97 more than a quarter-century ago, choosing over/unders for upland hunting and modern pumps and semi-autos for duck hunting. When steel became the law of the land, and as ammunition companies kept increasing their loads’ velocity every year, I used my Browning BPS and Remington 870s less and less. I just couldn’t take the recoil.
It’s hard enough to have a good gun mount when you’re cramped in a duck blind. But couple a bad gun mount with some of today’s overstuffed magnum duck loads, and fire a pump three times, fast … some real discomfort is on the way. Reproduce that agony a few more times in the same day, and the thrill of the sport can be gone – replaced by a sore shoulder.
By last year, I had pretty much switched completely to a gas autoloader in the duck marsh. Oh, I had some days and times when I would use a pump or O/U, but recoil would raise its ugly head before long, and I went right back to those comfortable semi-autos.
Then a break occurred. Last year I was asked to be a field tester for one of the ammunition companies. They sent me their new, 2 ¾ inch, 1 ¼ ounce load, going around 1325 feet per second. That’s not so different from the lead duck and pheasant loads I used years ago, and I decided that I would shoot my Remington 870 on the opening weekend. After all, there’s something that just seems right about waterfowl and pump guns.
Well, I took a limit of very nice ducks and a brace of geese on the opener. And I was pleasantly surprised to find that the recoil was manageable and that the loads killed just about as well as my old favorite lead loads. It felt like I was going back home to my roots, and for the rest of the season, that 870 went along on almost all of my hunts. And I hunted a lot.
One evening before a hunt in the middle of the season, I was chatting with another member of my duck club over some milk and cookies. I asked him if he had ever noticed a favorite print that hangs in the hall near my room at the club – an old pump gun, laying across moose antlers and draped with three lovely mallards. I always stop and admire it when I arrive at the club.
Turns out that Randy liked that picture too, and small wonder. He started waterfowling with his grandfather's Model 97, too.
Soon we were both on our feet, heading toward the picture. The first thing I realized was that besides the old shotgun, there’s a rifle supported by those moose antlers, and a label that read "We Recommend and Sell WINCHESTER Cartridges and Guns". There is also a nice leather strap vest, a call, and some loading equipment. Funny, for years the only thing I ever focused on and saw were the pump gun and the ducks.
Maybe that’s because the pump is the classic gun for waterfowling. It just seems to be the right tool. It points extremely well, is tough as nails, and rarely if ever breaks down or jams. And now that we have some sensible nontoxic loads available to us, it might be time to bring them out of the closet again.
But there is still another reason to select on the pump as a waterfowling piece -- many people just plain shoot them better. In his classic, “Shotgunning: The Art and the Science, shotgun guru Bob Brister wrote:
"The reason many shooters can score better in the field, particularly on ducks and geese, with a pump than any other action is that in the process of pumping between shots, the shooter is temporarily brought off target and must make a fresh point with all the advantages of the built-in momentum of the second swing.”
My own shooting coach, Marty Fischer, thinks that the timing of the pump – generally a bit slower than the auto -- gives the shooter an extra split second more to bring the duck into clear focus. And that can be a huge plus.
I'm sure many other hunters have a pump shotgun hidden away, one that once gave them years of pleasure to shoot and produced many successful days in the field. But as time passed, more modern autos may have won their hearts, and their old faithful pumps sit neglected, the machine-like precision of their silky smooth actions a dim memory.
My thought is this -- next season, buy some moderate speed non-toxic loads, and take that old gun out in the blind. You just might find that she still points extremely well, works flawlessly, and that you shoot it better than your high tech pieces. Then when you set down a heavy strap of ducks at the end of the morning and look at your old favorite pump, you might just get a warm, fuzzy feeling.
I know that's exactly what has happened to me. And don't be the least bit surprised if that pump gun isn't part of your arsenal for the rest of the season!
Gary Cappelletti
870 Remington stocks
OK Mr Buck, so what is wrong with Rem's 870 stock unless it has more drop at comb and heel than most shooters need?
I thought their stock was one reason they have sold ten million 870's. For me, the present Wingmaster grip is very good...certainly better than Beretta's production guns stocks...I guess all Italians have real small hands!
For "rough shoot8ing", as the Brits say, I feel the trend for longer stocks is not in the right direction. Depending on the clothing worn while shooting I think 13 7/8 to 14 1/8 is right; I am six feet tall and weigh 148 lb. For turkey hunting (shooting, you hope) 13 3/4 is better.
Thank you,
Flintlock
Grousehunter30531@yahoo.com
Pump Guns.
Thanks, Bruce. I've shot 870s for a half century and still haven't worn one out.
A couple things.....
The ten millionth 870 will roll off the line soon, if it hasn't already.
The 870 is the most popular civilian arm ever made, only things like the AK, Mauser 98K, M-16,etc made for armies have higher counts.
My personal round count through personal and agency 870s has to be approaching six figures. The total number and type of broken parts is two firing pin springs, both on a trap 870TB with a high round count and an impressively slick action.
I have the 1950 Wingmaster Pop gave me for Christmas in 1959. He bought it used. It has seen plenty of use and also has a butter slick shuck.
While some folks state break action guns handle better without that long receiver, my experience is if I have trouble hitting a target with an 870, I also have trouble hitting it with any of the many decent shotguns other than pumps I have used over the decades.
Dave McCracken
The pump action article
Bruce,
I enjoyed the article and am a big fan of the Model 12 myself. I disagree with your statement that Herb Parsons held the trigger back and pumped like crazy when exhibition shooting. I can't say that he never shot like that but he didn't do it all the time.
The DVD "Showman Shooter" shows Herb Parsons doing an exhibition in Williamsport, PA. There is a slow motion sequence in that film that clearly shows his finger pulling and releasing the trigger between shots when demonstrating rapid fire with a Model 12.
Best regards,
Charles Otte
Covington, WA
pump guns
The old model 12 still reigns supreme as far as balance and swing weight ! I have been shooting one since my grandfather presented on my ninth birthday a new 16 gauge with a solid rib with a cylinder barrel and a full choke, both 28 inch. That was some time ago in nineteen forty nine! Thousands of rounds have been passed through that gun and it is still as dependable as ever. Consequently, over the years, I extended the collection to include 20's, 12 heavy duck, (which I still shoot to this day) and of course the model 42, which is the most delightful 410 ever made! So much for the Winchesters! I live in the middle of duck country in a small town in Arkansas on the edge of the grand prairie and my passion is mallards! We hunt flooded green timber about 70% of the time and I opted for a wingmaster in 3" 20 ga. as a knockabout gun when winchester produced a lubaloy in about 1945. I have shot this same gun since 1953 and still shoot it today. People have marveled at seeing me dip it in the water and shuck it to wash the powder residue out to improve the lubricity . It just keeps on a goin! I am 70 years old and continue to duck hunt at least 50 days of a 60 day season, and the old 870 is my standby when the weather is rainy or freezing and I don't want to subject my old model 12's to the abuse. What a great simple design Remington has produced --- and it will continue. Long after I'm gone I feel sure my grandson will enjoy the old 870 !!
interrupters
I think you have interrupters mixed up with something else. Model 12s do not have an interrupter. If you hold the trigger down and pump the action, the gun will fire each time the action goes to battery as long as the ammunition in the gun lasts. However, if you take a cocked model 12 (preferably empty) and pull the trigger, you cannot open the action unless you first push the forearm forward.
All 870s have interrupters. If you hold the trigger down and pump the action, it will not fire until you release the trigger and pull it again. On the other hand, if you take a cocked 870 and pull the trigger (again, perferably with an empty chamber), you do not have to push the forearm forward to open the action.
Dennis Starleaf
Mossberg 500
If I wrote an ode to a great gun, it would be to my Mossberg 500 pump. I now have beautiful guns glistening back at me from the cabinet. But that Mossberg, my Mossberg, is in a special class. I bought it at 15. It's old and not exactly a looker, but it's killed more birds than all the others combined. My dad and I shortened the forend when my left winter glove kept getting caught beneath it. When the safety malfunctioned, I removed the trigger mechanism and realized it hadn't been cleaned in 20 years. After 10 mins, we were back in action for another 20. Smooth-shucking, yep. I learned an ethical hunting lesson with the big 12 ga when as a teen, I obliterated a sitting quail at close range and earned the disappointed look of my father. Never again. As with any old gun, many memories are tied to it, most involve my father or my son, and three great dogs. Would I ever sell it? Nope. Who would want it? To me though, the old pump is priceless.