Review: Remington 11-87 Sportsman Field Twenty Gauge

In all of these years, I've never reviewed an 11-87 20 gauge, until now. I did review a very handsome 1100 Sporting 20 some years back: it was an eight pound gun, great for clays, but not for field use. The 11-87 Sportsman Field 20 Walnut comes in one flavor: a 26 inch barrel. It is distinctly unique among current production shotguns.

The 11-87 20 gauge is the only autoloading twenty gauge made in the United States. It is also the only 20 gauge autoloader that I can think of, currently made, with a steel receiver. While Remington lists this model as being 7-1/4 pounds, I was very pleasantly surprised that my example weighs nearly a full half of a pound less than that: it weighs in at 6 lbs., 12.1 oz. via calibrated electronic scale. The 11-87's trigger is yet another nice surprise, breaking cleanly at 3-1/4 lbs.

Remington has done a few things to keep the price well within the affordable range, supplying one Modified Remchoke choke tube, the trigger guard is black plastic, yet this 11-87 still sports a chromed bolt and a gold trigger. The darkly stained walnut has clean, cut checkering: the traditional Remington fleur-de-lis style. The recoil pad is a solid pad, not a SuperCell, but is ground to fit the end of the buttstock flawlessly. MSRP on this shotgun is $815.92, but street price is about $615. All new Remington firearms come with a written lifetime warranty. There is also a black synthetic 11-87 20 gauge, that has a $649 MSRP and the final 11-87 20 gauge offering is a black synthetic compact, with a 21 inch barrel and an adjustable length of pull.

The 11-87 Sportsman Field 20 gauge carries extremely well: I've already carried it some twenty miles or so, working with the latest addition to the family: June, a seven year old German Short-haired Pointer, shown above. As you would imagine with a 6-3/4 lb. gas-operated twenty gauge, recoil is delightfully low. No one is going to be anything but comfortable breaking a lot of clays or making hulls with this gun on the dove field. My favorite 20 gauge dove load is 1 oz. of hard #7-1/2 shot. One ounce loads, when shot in volume, can become a bit tiresome with flyweight 20 gauges, but that is not the case with this 11-87 at all.

The 1100 / 11-87 series of shotguns have become an American icon since the original introduction in 1963. Since then, they have gone on to become the best-selling autoloading shotguns in the history of the world, by no small margin. The smooth shouldering, smooth swinging, light recoiling 11-87 is an ideal family shotgun. It is not only wallet friendly, but American steel and walnut and its classic lines never goes out of style. 

See https://www.remington.com/shotguns/autoloading/model-11-87/model-11-87-sportsman-field for more information.

Copyright 2020 by Randy Wakeman. All Rights Reserved.