New Member - Just received Model 48 Sportsman from my Dad

[DaveW]

Greetings,

My name is Dave and I just joined because I recently visited home and my dad gave me his father's Remington Model 48 Sportsman 12 ga shotgun. I'm really happy to have received this gun from him and plan to use it quite a bit. My dad never fired the gun the whole time he owned it, but he kept it very clean and in apparently excellent shape. The blue on the metal parts is in very good shape and the stock has a few scratches, but overall is very nice. My dad said he kept the gun clean, and I believe him because I don't see any oil residue/build-up inside the receiver or in the trigger area. The butt plate seems to have dried out and is worn, so I would love to get this replaced.



I have a few questions.

1. Should I have the gun inspected and serviced in any way before firing it?
2. Can anyone here provide reference to regular care and maintenance instructions that I should follow?
3. Is there anything special about this gun that I should be aware of?
3. What should I do to replace the butt plate? Is it possible to find an original, replacement butt plate, or do I need to have something fabricated?

Thanks!

Any advice you can give will be much appreciated.

[Virginian]

Congratulations. Step one, go to http://www.remington.com/library/downlo ... anuals.asp , and follow the steps to get you an owner's manual. Once you have that, and you read it, you need to take it apart and clean it and lube it. I do not think that is an original Remington recoil pad. I had one that looked like - oil attacked it - that on a Parker Hale and I forget what brand it was. But any competent gunsmith can fit an new recoil pad. And from the looks of that gun it ought to take about an extra 15 seconds to make sure it's okay to shoot, but you can likely judge thet when you have it apart. Come back with more questions when you get that far.

[DaveW]

Thanks. I just registered with Remington and submitted a request for owner's literature. I can't wait to get started. Should I just pick up a maintenance kit from my local gun shop?

[Virginian]

A regular shotgun cleaning kit probably wouldn't be a bad thing to get. I just realized I still have the one I bought long ago, and it's older than my oldest gun. A red metal container holds everything, from Outers, it's about 50. A spray can of RemOil is good too. And an old toothbrush will come in handy too, and some shop rags. You can get them at a gun shop, or if you are like around here, WalMart is about 20 miles closer than anything else.
Look on the left side of the barrel, not too far in front of the receiver and see what choke you have. Should say IMP CYL, MOD, or FULL in small lettering. Good thing to know.