I can't compare them to the other guns you mentioned but I have a 11-87 and a just sold my Browning Gold. Now I liked both guns and used the Browning more but that is simply because it fit me better and I shot it better. But for me the Remington held its own. Both of these guns saw 3 years in the duck blind and I never had a problem with either. Keep it clean and you should never have a problem with it. So in my opinion I would say good.

 

A fair and legitimaqte question.

Be prepared, though, for the differing views and possibly harsh words and hard feelings that may follow :shock: :lol:

I have had good results with the Remington family of gas operated autoloaders, the 1100 and 11/87.

Their ergonomcs suit me and I do some of my best shooting with them; I have owned (or still own) interia and long recoil operated guns but I prefer to shoot the gas operated Rem.'s

Others will differ.

 

I will do the best I can here. Since I don't own or shoot any of the guns you speak of I can be an unbiased judge. I have friends and family that do own 11-87's so I have see them in the field hunting, as well as just messing around shooting clays, so I have watched the gun shoot 3 1/2" mag. loads, as well as 2 3/4" light clay loads with no problems, so I can say that in my unbiased opinion the 11-87 is a good all-around gun. I have seen them wet on goose hunts, hunting ducks out of salt water blinds with water up to you know where, and just walking dove with no problems. I have no experience with the Franchi, or the Stoeger, so I hope someone else can help there. Personally I shoot a Winchester X-2, and love it. It have also been on many hunts where it's not so nice and have had no problems.

 

The Remington 11/87 was a redesign of the 1100 in 1987, hence the name 11/87. They changed it to a 3" chamber with slightly different gas porting for the barrel. This is a fine and dependable firearm. Those that have them will defend them whole hearted and those that bash either had a bad experience with one or never owned one. IMHO, you can't get a better gun for the money. They are well made, very reliable, good looking shotguns. The number one thing about the 11/87 (and 1100 for that matter) is you have to keep them clean. I have never had a jam or FTF that could be blamed directly on the gun. I have had a few poor shells that didn't go bang the first time, but a second try usually made it fire.

I have two different 1100's and one 11/87 and I love them all. (I have other shotguns too, so this isn't just a bias Remington write-up.) I really can't remember the last time I had a problem with the exception of my 1100 Competition. It broke the link, but Remington is standing behind it and fixing it no charge even though I am not the original owner. It had to be sent to the factory because the link broke and came out the ejection slot, but this is a freak occurance. Remington told me they had never seen one break and get wedged in there like mine did before I sent it in. The link is a common replacement piece but usually after many thousands of rounds. The last person I talked to that had broken the link in his said it did it at about the 30,000 round mark. Mine happened to only have about 5,000 though it. That and the fact the link is $11.80 from Remington makes this a non issue for me. The other thing that needs occasional replacement is the o-ring but again, not for thousands of rounds.

You really can't go wrong with this gun. It is well made, easy to shoot, feels right in the hands and is one of the easiest auto-loaders on the planet to disassemble and clean. I can have one apart in all pieces in about two minutes. This is not breaking down the trigger group, but there is no need to do that to get it sparkling clean. If you want to see the breakdown of good cleaning instructions, go to the Remington forum and it is right on top as a sticky. It is for the 1100, but the guns come apart identical t o the 11/87 and share most parts. To top it all off for you, this is arguably the softest recoiling auto-loader ever made with perhaps the exception of the Browning Gold series.

With over 6 million of this design being sold by Remington since the 60's, I would say the Remington 1100 and 11/87 aren't just good, they're great!

Phil

 

The 11-87 premier is a fine gun. My 12ga has been my favorite most trusted gun for 18 years. Seldom has it ever needed anything. 2x sets of gas rings and a couple insignificant parts over the years. That is it. The premier is my #1 choice of the 11-87 line up. If your looking at a 3" chambered gun the 11-87 is a great value and a great gun. I don't feel so strongly with the supermag 3.5" mags. I'd not go there again. For them next time I'm going Browning.

After 18 yrs with it. About 30 seconds to completly break it down for routine cleaning. I know my 11-87 well enough.

 

Hello, can't comment on other models, but have been around Remingtons for years, family small game hunts, with friends at the gun club, never witnessed any real problems. I use a 1100 Sporting 12, and the 1187 Premier 12. Shooting 4 to 6 boxes per visit to the club, shooting the Federal Top Gun shells, never any trouble they cycle great. Tear them down, clean them well, they have been good to me....Good Luck.... 8)

 

I've owned a 12ga 1187 Premier for about 2 1/2 years. I like the gun very much. Despite some of the bad press it's received regarding the supposed inability to cycle light loads, I've not experienced any feed problems at all. It eats any type of round I put in it from the cheapest bulk target ammo to full scale 3" magnums and never a hiccup. An added benefit is that it's a really soft shooting gun. I estimate that I've put over 5,000 rounds through it since I bought it in January of 2005. I'm shooting it less now because I've switched from trap to skeet and it's not as well suited to that game as my O/U.

Yes, there is a downside. It is a pretty involved process to clean it and because of the gas ports, it gets really dirty. I carry a spare o-ring just in case, but haven't had to replace the original yet. All in all, a very honest, good shooting gun in my opinion.

 

I have had my 11-87 since 87 yea I brought one of the first ones and I still have it.

It shoots everything I feed it, Skeet loads, Ducks loads, 2 3/4", 3" mags, lead, steel, bismuth you name and it's shot it.

Other then gas rings and seals I have nver had a problem with it, just buy one and shoot the hell out of it :wink:

IMHO Most guys who had one and had trouble with it have no idea how to clean it.

 

I'm not a fan for several reasons. Three of my buddies had 3" 11-87's. Two of them had several broken parts, and one got a few rides back to Remington. The thrid one never broke any parts but was shot less than the other two. The one that did not break any parts and one of the other ones, would at times eject a live shell from the magazine tube to the ground from under the carrier. They all required to be cleaned after a couple of hundred rounds or they would stop cycling. They also jammed too often even when clean. They were not the best in terms of cycling lighter loads. They were OK with faster 1oz loads but, would not with anything lighter.

In addition to the above problems I don't care for their wider forearms, heavy weight, barrel heavy balance, lack of features, and looser tolerances. The newer ones do have better blueing that is much deeper and the high gloss finish is nice that is on some nice wood at times.

For me there are just too many other auto loaders that I like better in this price range.

 

The newer ones do have better blueing that is much deeper and the high gloss finish is nice that is on some nice wood at times.

Other than your complete distaste for Remingtons. Have to disagree here. The newer ones look nice, but the blueing I felt was a tad thin to the older ones. My 01's blueing worn off right away near the loading gate. I'm finally having the receiver redone as I type. The 89 wouldn't have had any wear of the blueing if it hadn't ever had a t/s shell catcher on it.

 

I haven't seen an 11-87 in my group of friend's semi-autos that will hang with my $269 Baikal MP153 for reliability or durability. I'm not bashing Remington either because one of my favorite semi-autos of my lifetime is the 1100. 3 of 5 guys I know traded their Remington 11-87's for Benelli semi-autos. One traded for a Beretta 391, and the other still has his 11-87. All of us as a small group when younger swore by our 1100's. What does that tell you? I'm hopeful that the G3 & 105CTI will put Remington back on top again in semi-auto circles. I'll never figure why Remington decided to handle the Russian semi- auto since it's in direct competition with the 1187. If Remington decided to drop one from their lineup, it would have to be the 1187 in my opinion from what I've seen and experianced. Best of luck and good shooting to those that are happy with their Remington 11-87's. I'd like to see Remington First in Field again someday when it comes to semi-autos.

 

01lariat wrote:

Other than your complete distaste for Remingtons.

Since you usually recommend only one model for every use, I'm not surprised in your perception. The fact is it's only for their current semi auto shotguns. I still like their bluing better on their newer models. It's deeper and has more shine to it.

 

01lariat wrote:

Other than your complete distaste for Remingtons.

Since you usually recommend only one model for every use, I'm not surprised in your perception. The fact is it's only for their current semi auto shotguns. I still like their bluing better on their newer models. It's deeper and has more shine to it.

When you own 11-87 premiers thats all you really need. :wink: You do use the same story everytime of your 3 friends and their helplessness with their 11-87's. Seems you like to rag on Remington when you can. I think the only guns I ever really came down on here is the Spartan 310s that I owned and my new 11-87 supermag which it is alot of Remingtons inability to sell what they actualy promoted. It probably is no secret I dislike a few others, but I don't find ragging on them a productive way to spend my time. I'm not just a Remington fan. I do own Brownings and like them really well. Between the two brands I think they have me very well covered.
Where is the line drawn on current? The 1100 is 40 years old or so. The 11-87 is 20 years old. Both are tried and true.
I still disagree, but the scroll work is an added plus in looks on the newer models. The simple plain ones to me however have the a higher quality finish. Between my 01 and the 89 there was a big difference, but when it comes back there shouldn't be.

 

tmac21,
I now have 4 1187's in my safe (along with a pair of older 1100's). All have been extremely reliable. One of my Super Mags will only cycle fairly heavy target loads, but the other one does fine with lighter 1 oz loads. The two 20 ga models handle 7/8oz loads without a hitch (I've never tried them with 3/4 oz loads). As has been mentioned several times, if you keep them clean they work very, very well.

I have no real experience with the I-12, but I have a couple of regular shooting buddies who own M2000's. One has been very happy with his gun, while the other had to go back to the factory because it would not cycle the third round. It has been repaired and it now operates fine. They are light, cycle a wide variety of ammo, and are easy to clean. The combination of light weight and inertia operation leads to fairly heavy felt recoil, but for field guns they appear to be very good choices.

 

At a shoot last Tuesday night I had the pleasure of picking up a young lads 1187SC it came up beautifully - was light and pointable.
It bought back a lot of memories -- I shot one of these for 7 yrs and won a few shoots along the way - after around 30k rounds the only original parts on it was the wood and trigger - everything else had broke or fell off including mag tube twice - the running joke at my local shoot was I always had to lay a white sheet down in cage before I shot so I could see what had fell off -- reading the posts on these shooting forums for a good few years now there are shooters who have had no problems and shooter who have had nothing but problems -- if you are lucky enough to have a reliable one then good luck but if it breaks there is no way you can shoot clays (1187SC) without the doubt in back of your mind - this young lad has had this gun handed down to him by his Dad who was the first Sporting Champion in UK and first shooter to hit 100 straight on a registered sporting shoot and he used and still does use a 1100 but he always carries a bag of every spare he can get his hands on along with a spare gun.

Dave

 

I have experience with two 11-87 Premiers, an 1100 Special Field, and an SPR453 when it comes to autoloaders. I can't compare them to the I-12 or m2000, as I have not shot them. To me, the 1187s are a much higher quality than the 453, but they all shoot reliably. The 453 shoots 3.5" and did need a long break-in period to shoot light loads which the Remingtons don't require. The 12 ga. 11-87 3" shoots 1 oz Remington Game loads through 3" turkey loads just fine. Had one jam out of a box of 25 old 1 oz loads..really old Alcan loads. It shoots straight, does not kick much, and is a nice looking gun to my eyes.

The 20 ga. 11-87 and 20 ga. 1100 I have experience with cycle 7/8 oz 1200 fps and the hot 3/4 oz 1400 fps loads just fine. I have not tried lighter.

They do get kept clean.. I don't take the autoloading feature for granted as some do. Two hundred rounds between cleaning..probably has not happened on any of them. We don't shoot organized clay games with them yet, and I don't do torture tests on my own equipment. They get cleaned every three hunts, probably, or every other time to the range. They are very easy to clean as was stated, except for the recoil spring which is in the buttstock. Cleaning that involves removing the recoil pad and then the stock to access it. It should be done once a year or more often if it gets dunked a lot. Probably the weak point of the design in my opinion. It is easy to overlook because it is out of sight..I think many casual owners don't realize it is there. If that spring and tube interior gets rusty you will have problems more than likely, at some point.

Fit is as important as function because Remingtons don't come with a shim system or anything like that. It is designed for what Remington figures is the average build.. I must be close enough, because these guns fit me great. I love the way 1100s and 11-87s fit and handle for me, particularly the lighter Premiers. The SPR453 fits pretty well but not quite the same... that grip is thicker, it is longer and heavier overall. In the looks department there is no contest. The triggers are better on the Remingtons, too.

The stock recoil pads on wood 1100/1187s are poor, though..it is basically a hard rubber spacer. The SPR453 has a plain rubber pad but at least it is somewhat soft. Some new Remingtons come with the new R3. It is a much softer pad - not much to look at, but effective. I'm not sure which 11-87s come with them on. With the R3, Remington is finally issuing a proper, useful recoil pad on their guns.

There are a bunch of different 11-87 models out there. The Sportsman is the "cheap" model - it has synthetic stock, more weight overall, and is more muzzle heavy than the Premiers, and sell for bit less. There are a bunch of other specialty models, too, that generally sell for more than the Premier.

Worc is correct that the 11-87 is not full of new features. No Gel Tek, ComfortTec, Mercury Recoil Reducer, Kick Off, Speed Load, Cryo Barrel, or Overboring. It is simple with only one button on it, and that is to close the chamber. Classic looks and classic function.

Jeremiah

 

^^^two buttons with the safety^^^

 

That's not a button it's a bolt!

Jeremiah

 

I guess we're both wrong. Parts list calls it a switch.

 

Worc is correct that the 11-87 is not full of new features. No Gel Tek, ComfortTec, Mercury Recoil Reducer, Kick Off, Speed Load, Cryo Barrel, or Overboring. It is simple with only one button on it, and that is to close the chamber. Classic looks and classic function.

Or stock shim, magazine cutoff, self compsating gas system. The speed load and magazine cutoff are not new features either as the Browning Auto 5 had them. Stock shims are close to twenty years old as well. Its also designed/manufactured that if you tweek a magazine tube the cost to get fixed is close to the cost of replacement for a new gun.

You do use the same story everytime of your 3 friends and their helplessness with their 11-87's.

You are correct, My story is consistent as the sun rising in the East. Helpless for sure, one gun goes to both the dealers gun smith and to Remington (twice) and the other to the dealers smith and they still have issues. I learned my chamber polishing trick working on these 11-87's. I do give them credit as to making me more experinced with semi auto issues.

Where is the line drawn on current? The 1100 is 40 years old or so. The 11-87 is 20 years old. Both are tried and true.

Current is now and I put it back at least a decade. I'm glad they have worked well for you. They have not in my case.

Seems you like to rag on Remington when you can.

This is the title of the post, is it not? remington 11-87: Good or Bad?

With any gun review there are going to be less than favorable ones. I did a least give reasons as to why I don't like this particular model. Some were facts and some were opinions. I don't know how I could have done it any better. I'm not saying anyone else should not like their 11-87's. Just that I don't and I like quite a few other models much better in this price range.

 

I have two 11-87's. One in 12 and one in 20. I shoot them several days a week every week. I never have any problems with jams. I do clean them after every outing. I run a cleaning rod with some Rem Oil through the barrel then oil and wipe off the magazine tube. Then I put a little Rem Oil on the magazine tube then wipe it off lightly with some tissue paper leaving a thin coating of oil on the magazine tube. It always works for me. I like the feel of my Remingtons better than any of the other autos I have shot. The cheap price is a bonus.

 

Perhaps you can explain to me what a self compensating gas system is, Worc. It is my understanding that self compensating is exactly what the 11-87 does. The gas system is not fixed like an 1100 or 1100 Magnum. It is not manually adjustable like an MP153 that you need to turn with a wrench, or flip a ring over like some models. Instead it is compensated - by itself. The user does nothing to change between heavy or light loads; the two bleed ports regulate the gas pressure by spring. On a light load, the bleed ports open a little, on a heavy load the bleed ports open all the way.

Also, I mentioned stock shims, and the rock hard stock pad. I personally think magazine cutoff is a pain the butt, not a positive feature to me. But I did forget to mention it, thank you. The mp153/453 has that, or something that works similar. If you don't engage it, the magazine does not feed, so you can eject the shell in the chamber without loading one from the magazine. But you really have to jerk it back for it to work, and the shell is awkward to catch because of it. Perhaps other magazine cutoff systems work better.

Jeremiah

 

The short answer to the original question:
The 11-87 is a fine, mid-priced autoloader.

The 3" 11-87's enjoy a good reputation.
The 3 1/2" 11-87 not so much.

I have half a dozen hunting buddies that have put thousands of rounds through their 12ga 11-87's and and would not give them up for anything...and this is hard use in duck blinds.

I have a 20ga 11-87 that has never been able to feed field loads reliably, even after about 700 rounds through it....
I still like the gun, though, and have learned to live with its shortcomings.

 

We have several 1100 (dating from 1969 through 2005) and 1 11/87.

With minor fitting (LOP and maybe a different recoil pad) all have established a great track record with both field and on target ranges.

I've taught a bunch of new shooters, youth and adult, to shoot and hunt with both LT 20s and 11/87 Premier 20 w/o difficulty.

Repairs over the years:

1. 1 action bar on a 1969 gun which was used and must have had many rounds fired through it.

2. 1 barrel stop, Remington repaired this LT20 failure, at no cost after the gun was well out of warranty.

3. A couple of O rings and a recoil buffer

Not too bad a service record for 38 years...but wait I may be biased as before the 1100 I shot an 870 and a M 31 :roll:

I also shoot and enjoy owning a Win X2 3.5" mag and a handfull of O/Us. But that is not the question.

11/87=Exceeded Expectations!

 

I give the 11-87 a good rating. I have never had any of those semis with all the bells and whistles.

The 11-87 appears to me to be a good shooter. If you want all those extras, which in my opinion are just something extra to tear up, extra cleaning, and extra repairs, buy another brand.

I haven't had my 11-87 long but it is a "keep it simple" gun that doesn't need all that optional equipment. Mine has been reliable with 7/8 oz and up loads.