I have a 12 gauge "special purpose" 11-87. Runs fine, but either I'm blind or it doesn't have a bolt buffer that I can find. The rear of the bolt does not appear to have a place for it, and none elsewhere.

What am I missing? Where does it fit?

I did a quick search for 11-87 Special Field bolt and found this image from Midway that shows it doesn't have the traditional bolt buffer. https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1005587118

I don't own one, so others will have to chime in.

Special Field and Special Purpose are two different animals, but I have never seen any 1100 or 11-87 12 gauge bolt with no buffer. Perhaps someone has switched something out.

That was my assumption as well, that all the 11-87 and 1100 bolt groups had buffers. I did another search for 11-87 Special Purpose bolts and found one on EBAY that shows a buffer.

https://imgur.com/a/XMuCdQv (couldn’t post the image link from my tablet so here is the url)

My bolt is matte black like the Midway photo.

Please post a picture of the subject bolt.

I found it - my goof - sorry.

It is in the rear of the bolt. And black, just like the bolt. And it's flush with the rear. How much is it supposed to stick out?

In my experience, if you replace that buffer with a new one, the new one will look just like the old one after a box of shells

I replaced mine about 1966, and it did indeed look like the old one in short order. That one is still working all these years and about 100,000 shells later.