I have seen several posts on SW concerning the Remington 3200. I love this model and it is a great shotgun. If you are looking to buy one there are a few things to watch out for. The Remington 3200 came out in 1973-74. The first guns produced had two pins on the rear of the receiver.
These guns had to be sent back to Remington for an update after Remington made a recall. The recall improved the consistency of trigger pull, improved the wood to receiver fit, and improved the strength of the top tang and bottom tang by adding metal between them. Guns that were made after 1976 or so (serial #'s above 30,000) only had one pin at the rear of the receiver.
These guns were produced from the factory with the updates and thus didn't need to be sent back. Some will look at the serial # on the bottom of the receiver to check for the updates. Remington put a dot between the "OU" and the serial number after the gun was updated. I have heard of people taking a punch and adding the dot to a gun that has not been updated. The only way to tell if the updates have been done to a 3200 is to look at the bottom of the breechface with the barrels removed. If you see two hex head screws, the updates have been done as seen in this picture.
If the gun you are looking at does not have these updates, it will cost you about $700.00 to have them done by Laib's Gunsmithing.
Another thing to watch for in the 3200's also can be seen in the above picture. If you look at the top hole in the breechface you can see that the firing pin is stuck in the out position. This pin should retract with the top lever thrown to the right. You can see the bottom hole does not have the pin stuck in the hole. This gun has had almost all of its use through the top barrel. You can see in the above picture that there is significant wear in the top area and none in the bottom area of the breechface. These guns tend to misfire because the holes wear shut over the life of the gun. Again, Laib's can fix this problem for you, but you will spend more $$.
I hope this information will help anyone looking for a 3200. I was at the Ohio Gun Collector's Association gun show this weekend and saw three 3200's for sale. Two of the three looked brand new but did not have the updates! Both were priced @ around $1,400.00. That is what they would be worth in updated condition. They would need $700.00 of repairs to be ready to go.
If anybody has any 3200 info I would love to hear from you.
These guns had to be sent back to Remington for an update after Remington made a recall. The recall improved the consistency of trigger pull, improved the wood to receiver fit, and improved the strength of the top tang and bottom tang by adding metal between them. Guns that were made after 1976 or so (serial #'s above 30,000) only had one pin at the rear of the receiver.
These guns were produced from the factory with the updates and thus didn't need to be sent back. Some will look at the serial # on the bottom of the receiver to check for the updates. Remington put a dot between the "OU" and the serial number after the gun was updated. I have heard of people taking a punch and adding the dot to a gun that has not been updated. The only way to tell if the updates have been done to a 3200 is to look at the bottom of the breechface with the barrels removed. If you see two hex head screws, the updates have been done as seen in this picture.
If the gun you are looking at does not have these updates, it will cost you about $700.00 to have them done by Laib's Gunsmithing.
Another thing to watch for in the 3200's also can be seen in the above picture. If you look at the top hole in the breechface you can see that the firing pin is stuck in the out position. This pin should retract with the top lever thrown to the right. You can see the bottom hole does not have the pin stuck in the hole. This gun has had almost all of its use through the top barrel. You can see in the above picture that there is significant wear in the top area and none in the bottom area of the breechface. These guns tend to misfire because the holes wear shut over the life of the gun. Again, Laib's can fix this problem for you, but you will spend more $$.
I hope this information will help anyone looking for a 3200. I was at the Ohio Gun Collector's Association gun show this weekend and saw three 3200's for sale. Two of the three looked brand new but did not have the updates! Both were priced @ around $1,400.00. That is what they would be worth in updated condition. They would need $700.00 of repairs to be ready to go.
If anybody has any 3200 info I would love to hear from you.