Gun Review: Remington V3 Field Sport Shotgun

1. IIRC this is DU ‘s gun of the year. Which means everyone on the editorial staff prob received a complimentary one…..glad to see a review here.

2. I’m glad at least some of their products are still quality. I bought an 870 last year and it wouldn’t eject any shells… Sold it and got a mossberg.

   Older Remington’s are legit, I’ve got a 30 year old wingmaster with the smoothest shotgun action I’ve ever felt

3. But does it work?

4. Not to rain on a parade, but I have a concern about this gun. We went shooting sporting clays and my buddy brought his new V3. It was the second time he’d had it out, and he was sharing with his brother. The first time around, it was struggling to feed, which we attributed to needing to be broken in. Halfway through our second outing with it, the little black pin you see in the underside picture noting the magazine cut off fell out mid round. It lost a spring that was mounted behind the plate inside the receiver. He said he was sending it back to them, but I’ve never thought to ask where they are with it.

   I will say it did shoot nicely while it was working.

   • “It really shoots good. When it’s working.” Seems to be the Remington mantra these days.

     • With that camo job, dropping it in the field risks losing it forever… 🙂

5. And what problem does this particular gun solve that the 1100 or 1187 had? Mind you, I’ve been into a bunch of 1100’s and 87’s. They’re OK shotguns. Not super-nice, but competently made shotguns that work as intended. What screaming problem do these widely sold, widely owned Remington products have?

   Oh, price. Remington wants to make a cheaper, crappier shotgun to obscure the fact that you can’t buy a quality shotgun for under $1K any more.

   Months ago, I put a stake in the ground here on TTAG when I said it isn’t really possible to build a quality gun for under $1K any more. People howled.

   Whelp… once again, you’re going to see evidence that I have an idea what it costs to make a quality gun when you put this up against a 1100 or 1187 (never mind a Browning, or European semi-auto). What we used to consider “field grade” semi-autos are now all sporting MSRP’s over $1K. Never mind a nice semi-auto or pump.

   • Um… do you even light-load bro?

   • Bought mine in oct 2017. 28” camo model. Shot flawlessly out of the box. Bought it to introduce my son to clay sports without beating him up. After shooting the V3 my trusty 870 might convert to HD use. A little background on me- bought an early 887 in Remington’s dark days. That gun did not do anything right and my guess is the MBA running the show had no spare parts available. They eventually sent me my 870 but it left a deep distrust. Things can and do change for corporations and this appears to be a very good design and execution by manufacturing. Time will tell how well it holds up but this is an exceptionally simple, elegant design, and those tend to work well.

     Recoil with 2.75” 1-1/8 loads is hardly noticeable. The 1oz loads hardly seemed worth the effort/cost. I’m a big guy and probably not affected as much as my son will be but this is a very soft shooter. It is also pretty light, not a concern for me so much as the weight of my versamax didnt bother me. This gun doesn’t have the spongy feel of the VM and it was easy to acquire second shots. I’m just a normal guy that shoots for fun and bags a few pheasant each year but it’s the best I’ve owned.

     My scores were the same with this as normal. Not stroking the pump action and not recovering from recoil took a few boxes to get used to.

     Minor quibbles
     Beware the trap fields the ejection is impressive.
     Need to seal the fore end since there can be blowback
     Not that it matters one bit, but it’s not pretty. The view down the rib looks pretty much like every other shotgun so who cares.
     Adjusting shims- where are they?

     Anyway, best firearm I’ve bought in a long time. As for the comment above why change? Because you have to. This gun does not have o rings and is likely much less money to produce. Like it or not companies must make money while bringing competitively priced product to market. Engineers are used to design new products to do this. New is often not better but in my opinion this group did an excellent job. In an industry that’s been around for hundreds of years that’s probably not as easy as it may seem.

     Let’s hope the days of Remington rushing product to market are over and the lesson have been learned. Seems that way.

6. Thanks for the review.

   I’d rather pay a little more and get the Benelli 3 1/2″ version. Or the Browning. It’s really immaterial at this point because I don’t have time for duck and goose hunting. If I did, I could use my pre-FG 870 3 1/”2 Express Mag.

   I also guess I’m one of those weird guys who doesn’t mind a little weight in a magnum shotgun. Or a magnum rifle. Or a magnum revolver.

   • You and I both.

     I simply do not understand this obsession with “light, lighter, lightest” in “magnum” firearms. After people find out that the recoil hurts, they then start going down stupid paths, like porting, comps, muzzle brakes, etc. ’round and ’round they swirl, trying to tell ol’ Isaac that he was wrong, that there is no such thing as conservation of momentum because…. marketing!

     • Word up.

       I wish you were my gunsmith because the last one I had didn’t know the difference between mechanical zero and optical zero. He also called my waiting period waiver a “Micky Mouse letter.” I haven’t darkened his door since.

       I’ve never paid you a cent but you’ve taught me more than any of the gunsmiths I’ve met so far. Thanks for that. I’m going to take a Gunsmithing class when my schedule allows it. At this point I just know enough to know that there’s a lot more to learn.

       • I know it is a fair hike form SoCal where you’re based, but the two schools I recommend the most for a summer class (which would be one or two weeks in duration) would be Trinidad State Junior College, in Trinidad CO (you’d fly into Colorado Springs, which is two hours to the north, or you could drive over on US 50 (go up to Sacramento, then just follow US 50 to Pueblo, CO, and drive an hour south – this would be a spectacular drive if you like the remote west), or you pick up US 40 in Barstow, drive out to ABQ, then drive north about 3 hours.

         Pluses for Trinidad:
         – You’re only 45 minutes away from the Whittington Center, one of the best ranges for any shooting discipline in the US
         – TSJC’s library has more odd and rare books on guns collected in one place than anywhere else I’ve been, ever. You can’t check most of these books out of the library, but you can read them there without having to deal with a “closed stack” sort of setup.
         – You’re about equidistant from Denver and Albuquerque, if you want to explore those areas. The museums in Denver are quite good. The history in NM in the southeast part of the state is incredible. The touristy things to do in the northern part (Santa Fe, Taos, etc) are quite nice during the summer. The San Luis Valley (north and west of Trinidad – go to Walsenberg and drive west to Alamosa) is beautiful if you like the high desert.
         – It’s the high desert, and it gets cool at night, with relative humidities of only 5 to 20% during the day. “It’s a dry heat” is so very true in the high desert in the summer.

         Downsides:
         – Trinidad is a hole. Over one-third of the population is on welfare, another third works for the county government, and the last third is hard-core union thugs. The town’s appearance reflects this. There are Mexican gangs east of town that will rival anything you’ve seen in SoCal.
         – There’s few good places to eat in Trinidad. A couple of really good Italian places, a good taco joint or two, and after that… things go downhill fast.

         The other school I can recommend is Murray State, in Tishomingo, OK.

         Pluses:
         – As good as TSJC, a well-equipped school with lots of good professional ‘smiths who come in to teach
         – Their labs are spotless and well-equipped.
         – Okies are seriously nice people.
         – Pretty close to Dallas/Ft Worth as a place to fly into. I drove down from Wyoming, but if I were flying, I’d go into DFW and drive north.

         Downsides:
         – They have tornadoes that can kill your ass dead. In 2013, I came away from Murray State on a Friday after a week-long class, and the FM radio popped off at about 1400 local, saying that there was a “significant likelihood of a severe weather event.” WTF? Translate that for me, please. OK, well, in three hours, there was a wall of black to the northwest of my driving path that stretched from the ground to “higher than I can see” and I literally could see nothing inside this wall of black. The sirens started wailing, the TV’s in restaurants started flashing red, the radio was blaring – F3+ twister touching down here, here, there and there, and baseball sized hail behind the twisters.

         When I drove into Anadarko, OK just before dark, there was not so much as a twig left on a tree in that town. Cars, houses, you name it, had been shredded by hail the size of your fist – no lie, because you could see hailstones everywhere in the town, in piles. Water was 9″ deep in the streets. Bankers in two-piece suits were directing traffic to allow cops to get up on the interstate and deal with the wreckage and injured.
         – The weather is hot and humid. Did you train at Twenty Nine Palms? Yea, forget that. That was pleasant. Oklahoma east of the “dry line” is like a triple-canopy jungle of sweat and humidity. Holy crap, is it humid. Tishomingo is about 50 miles east of the dry line.
         – Tishomingo is actually a pretty small residential town. There’s not many places to eat out there. There is a supermarket. The dorm rooms will have a microwave and a small fridge. The food in the Murray State cafe’ is OK, but nothing special. You’d have to drive 45 minutes west to get a good steak or something like that.
         – There will almost certainly be thunderstorms within any given week there that will raise your hair. Holy. Crap. I’d thought I’d seen thunderstorms in my life. I was wrong. So very wrong. Fortunately, the Okies take care of their guests. “Go here, do this, don’t do that. Y’all will be OK if you don’t panic.” Absolutely wonderful people. I can hardly say enough nice things about the folks in Oklahoma. They know their weather, too.

         After my trip to Tishomingo, I never complain about the weather in Wyoming. Ever. I don’t care if we got 6′ of snow tomorrow, I’d cheerfully shovel it rather than deal with what the Okies do.

       • DG,

         Thanks for the info! I’ll be archiving that for the future. Currently the “Black Lives Matter” and “Day of Rage” situations are the highest priority on my radar screen. I sense some overtime coming my way – which is looking on the bright side of life.

         Both New Mexico and Colorado could be doable. I’ve currently got a bullet button rebuild (easy) and an under-gassed, over spring, and / or faulty extractor on an AR-10 to deal with (probably easy).

         If you’re ever in the SoCal area, and you like scotch, feel free to contact me at [email protected].

         Cheers,
         Aaron

     • Hey Dyspeptic do you know of any good gunsmithing schools on the east coast close to Maryland. This AGI place keeps bothering me and looks like some distance learning BS. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance

7. One good product does not make up for the steady string of fails. I will watch and see.

8. Put 500 rounds of 3 and a half inch turkey Loads through it and if the receiver is still in one piece give me a call. Until then you can keep it. Let’s just say I’ve had too many bad experiences with big green

   • That will be hard since it’s only chambered for three-inch shells. Might want to re-read the review.

     • Well, you might possibly be able to do it, with a whole lot of cramming…once.

       • You can, indeed, put too-long shells into a shorter chamber. What will tend to happen is:

         1. Your pressures will go up – but not as much as most people fear.
         2. Your shot might tend to be deformed in older guns with the more severe forcing cone angles, because the shot cup was squished down as it left the shell.
         3. In some guns, the shotshell might have trouble extracting.

         I’ve seen lots and lots of too-long shells fired in short chambers, but not 3.5″ in 3″ chambers. No, I’ve seen lots of 2.75″ shells fired in 2 1/2, 2 5/8 and 2 9/16ths long chambers. People forget that 100 years ago, chambers often were shorter than is “standard” today. People also forget that most shells 100 years ago were made of waxed paper. People further forget that 100 years ago, there were no one-piece buffer/wad+shot cup. Wads were felted wool under the shot. This required a steep angle on the forcing cone in order to get the felt wad to “seal up” as it came out of the shell, so that the pressure would be behind the shot, and not blowing through the shot column in the barrel.

         One of the jobs I do to old shotguns is possibly lengthen a chamber, and sometimes I smooth the forcing cone to be more like modern forcing cones. I could write up a whole article on old shotgun chambers vs. modern chambers.

         The upshot is that putting a 3.5″ shell into a 3″ chamber probably won’t do anything catastrophic, but it isn’t recommended. If someone is really bent on using a 3.5″ 12ga shell, I’d recommend they step up to a 10ga gun.

     • Hot damn your right. Won’t make a goose gun either. It would look good laying in a corn field

9. I’m going to be “that guy” and goes there. $850? With a plastic trigger guard? This isn’t a concealed carry piece. Plastic is not a pro. Why would I pay this? Not going to happen.

   • $850 with a plastic trigger guard because they figure thats better then $900 with a metal one. The trigger guard doesn’t make a difference in how it shoots so they figured it wasn’t worth making the gun more expensive by using a metal one.

   • You can purchase the Remington for anywhere between $525 and $650 if you look around.

10. When VW ships me my 5 large for cheating the government (I applaud their engineering smarts) on a ridiculous low NOX standard for the TDI I will be buying a brand new Browning A5 because it works. I say that a fully satisfied 11-87 owner.

    • If you like the way it performs, avoid getting the engine management code ‘updated’ in the recall…

11. Get a double barrel,learn how to shoot, try different loads – PRACTICE – Pattern the gun and be done with it. If you can’t hit it with 2 shots of 2 3/4 don’t shoot at it. It’s YOU not the gun. Most shooters I’ve seen couldn’t get their limit with a Market Gun. I blame most of these problems on the ADD instant expert ads/reviews. if you buy SUPER Magnum XYZ shotgun with the laserbeam choke and shoot super blackout 3 1/2 inch buffered,flightwad,XXL morracan oil infused magic bean shaped shot made of unubtaininum you’ll get your limit in 30 mins.

12. I have a Benelli M4 & had a VersaMax. The Remmy gas system is a copy/license of Benelli’s ARGO system. The biggest issue I dealt with while I owned the VersaMax was the firing pin retaining pin. On the Benelli, this cross-bolt pin is shrouded by the receiver, you can only remove it by disassembling the gun. On the Remington, the genius that adapted the design just hogged out the ejector port to cycle larger shells & exposed the pin when the bolt is forward. Also, the pin is held in place by friction of an o-ring only. Just fine in the Benelli because of the shrouding, but the Remington will spit the pin, firing pin & firing pin spring out the back of the bolt every 500 rounds or so if you don’t check it. I figured at least a retaining groove for o-ring was needed & had a local machine shop cut a 1/16 deep groove that solved the problem. I flunked out of a mechanical engineering degree 15 years ago. Remington must have paid a marketing major to convert/ruin Benelli’s design.

13. Great review, I have been looking into buying a Remington v3 and I think your review is the needed push to make me purchase it.

14. I like mine even though they looked Jerry rigged with two little return springs I guess time will tell?

15. I bought one and love the gun. I think it is funny how a lot of these people are dissing this gun, yet they never picked it up. I shot my V3 next to a Benelli Super Vinci and SBE II. It had considerable less recoil and I like the weight distribution on the V3 more. I shot two boxes out of this gun in one session and my sholder wasn’t sore at all. Sure the trigger guard is not medal, but the gun is also under 1K. This is not a show off gun, this is a get the job done firearm. So far it never jammed on me and it points great. There is a lot of great guns currently on the market, but in my opinion the V3 is the best for the value. If you really want inertia, then get a Franchi. But I have one of them too and it constantly jams.

16. Word was the Remington would be bring out a tactical version of the V3. Assuming that it has characteristics similar to the Versa Max Tactical and cost similar to other V3s, this might be a good thing.

    Anybody heard about a V3 Tactical?

17. Some folks have commented on the plastic trigger guards. My beef is the little nub that got molded into the butt stock for the sling swivel. How long will it be before that little blob of cheap plastic breaks off? Certainly not duck hunt ending, but c’mon. I should send Remington a picture of the quick disconnect ball bearing and socket system on my Fabarm XLR left hand semi. All metal. Looks great. Works great. Didn’t keep me from buying the gun.

    • You just compared a $540 V3 (from Bud’s Gun Shop) to a $2800 Fabarm. SMH. They aren’t really competitors in the same market at that price disparity.

18. This is the dream rifle for me, I wish I had the money right now to buy it.

19. Good review, good shotgun but I like pump-action shotguns more 🙂

20. W O W, what a bunch of snobs!

    Not everyone can afford or likes the “B”- bombers out there. However, I can afford but don’t like them! I shoot weekly with guys that have them and at least once during a shooting session one of the jams at least once. My favorite Clay’s is my Remington camo 11-87 field gun, well used for about 10 years, and it has NEVER failed to fire, misfeed or had an ejection malfunction!

    We should all be so lucky to own and shoot what we want or like but all of us cannot, so I don’t think it is right to look down on a very good gun as the V3 or those that is all they can afford or maybe want. Don’t get me wrong I like my Citoris, Winchesters, Mossbergs, etc but I love my Remington’s, they are my “go to” guns when I need to take care of business!

    To each his own but what kind of “sportsmen” bad mouth others and what they have ,,,,,,, what does it really say about them?

21. I have a V3 and really like it.My only gripe is when feeding a shell into the magazine tube,when taking my thumb away the shell carrier comes down and traps it in.There is too much of a gap and the opening down the center of the carrier contributes to the problem.Ihave to use my left hand to hold the shell carrier up while putting the shells in right-handed.I am considering getting rid of it because of this.

22. I just got my v3 for chirstmas this past year I have had no problems at all. I have shot 300 rounds so far an killed a lot of ducks with it. best auto loader I ever owned. I looked at a A5, all my friends have them but I went with something diff that nobody had. Best choice ever

23. Six shots and my brand new V3 broke. Now months later and Remington hasn’t returned it fixed. I left with my reliable gun shop and they knew exactly what went wrong. They ordered the parts and Remington said no ship it back to us.
    Remington customer service is lacking. It might be a great gun but if something goes wrong how long should it really take to get it fixed. The old days I would have been back in action in a few weeks. I just hope I get it back before bird season begins again but I just have a bad feeling.

    • What broke? Did you get it back? How long did it take!

      • NOT SURE WHAT BROKE BUT MY HAS FUNCTIONED FLAWLESSLY SINCE I RECEIVED IT ABOUT 5 MONTHS AGO AND I HAVE PROBABLY 1200 ROUNDS THROUGH IT. I HAVE SHOT EVERYTHING FROM 2 3/4″ 1 OZ 3″ TURKEY LOADS AND NEVER A FTF OR JAM!
        I HAVE A 1100 & 11-87 AND THIS HAS BECOME MY GO TO GUNS FOR BIRDS AND CLAYS.
        FORM, FUNCTION AND PRICE, WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT?

24. “Remington ships the V3 in a Plano Gun Guard case”
    I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure Remington ships the V3 in a cardboard box

25. I’m new to using a semi shotgun, but so far, I really like my V3. I bought the walnut stock model, wanting a more traditional looking shotgun. It’s not super light, but lighter than my O/U and no problem carrying it all day. I’ll take a little extra weight if it translates into a softer shooting gun, and my V3 is certainly the softest shooting 12 gauge I’ve shot. Very light recoil, even when shooting high-powered pheasant loads for 3 days in SD. The gun is easy to break down and clean, too. The stock and fore-end feel a little thicker than most, and I was a little concerned about that. But after shooting it in the field, I completely forgot about it and found the gun to be quick and comfortable for me. My only complaint is the magazine loads a little stiff. Maybe that will resolve itself with some wear of the spring? Overall, if you’re looking for a simple yet high quality firearm at an affordable price, the V3 is worth considering. The fact that it is made in the USA makes me feel even better about my purchase.

26. The V3 is proving to be quite a shotgun, that will handle both light and heavy loads. The design and quality appear to be better than anticipated. The V3 may become the gun to beat. Remington appears to be moving back to a quality product, at least shotgun wise.

27. I got the Remington V-3 for my grandson for Christmas, it shoots flawlessly when you can get the shells in the mag. tube. I contacted Remington this morning and they want me to send it back to them. has anybody else had this problem.

28. We bought two of these for our Youth Trap program at our gun club. We got a discount from Remington (thank you) and were assured that this new design would be more comfortable for our smaller shooters, and easier to clean. We’ve had the guns for 3 months, and they started cycling poorly (estimated 2,000 rounds per gun), so we took them apart for a more thorough cleaning. The gas pistons WILL NOT COME APART. This is written up as a customer-serviceable part. We’ve broken two punches and rounded out two wrenches on it. (We are not novice firearm owners, either.) Contacted Remington, and they referred me to Midwest Gun Works for the proper tool, which they specifically named for me, I waited another week for it to get to me, and IT DOES NOT FIT–TOO BIG. Sigh. So I have to take these barrels to a gunsmith so that I can have them up and running for my program again on Saturday. I’ve been working on this for three weeks now, and nothing but runaround from Remington. Very, very unhappy.

    • Update: Remington got back to me, and is replacing the barrels with the updated gas blocks that have pistons that remove with a hex wrench to help my youth trap program keep moving forward. Kudos to Remington!!! Thanks so much!!!

29. To update this post.

    About 6 months ago, I bought a new V3 walnut with 26 inch barrel after having owned, repaired and shot most popular semi autos from the past 50 years. These included Winchester, Remingtons, Brownings, Berettas, etc. I feel confident in saying the best design from all of those is the the V3. It is a remarkably soft shooting shotgun and easily the cleanest shooting. It produces almost no debris in the action after use. In fact, it is for me the SOFTEST in the felt recoil department of all that I have shot. It is super simple to disassemble clean but don’t have to do that very often. It has cycled all 1 oz and heavier loads without one failure of any kind.
    I think Remington has “jumped the shark” in gas auto design with the new V3 and I also believe that if a person tries one he will be sold. Well done Remington, well done indeed!

30. In the 80’s, I bought an 1187 with a 26″ barrel and loved every minute of owning it. Wish I’d never parted with it. Last year, I bought a V3. Hard to imagine that the V3 SMOKES the 1187. Simple system. No “O” ring. Recoil is the lowest I’ve ever experienced. Fits like a glove. I have the 28″ barrel, synthetic stock. I’m happy to see Remington coming out with new versions. I plan to buy 26″ walnut stock in the near future, and if they come out with a target specific, I’ll own one of them, too.

    • I agree completely with the author! I think the new V3 (mine is a 26 inch walnut) is a giant leap forward in gas auto design! I predict it will have an impact similar to the break through that the Model 1100 was in 1963. It is an extremely user friendly gun with the lowest recoil of any 12 gauge I have ever shot in 58 years of shotgun use. I have owned many 1100s and the V3 design is far superior and should last well with almost zero maintaining. It needs very little maintenance (FAR less than the 1100) and in my case has been 100% reliable since the day I opened the box until today; approximately 2,000 rounds later. It has never balked at any shell I have fed it.

      The fact that Remington gives it a Lifetime Warranty is a wonderful benefit and from what I have heard, Big Green has now developed an excellent after sale record of no-nonsense, fixing issues. It is heart warming that with all the V3 models now available for turkey, waterfowl and compact versions; there is a model for anyone. Well done, Remington!

    • I’ve had my 28” walnut model V3 for over two years, has functioned without fail on the skeet range and in dove fields. As others have stated, very soft shooting gun . Has a great trigger also. It’s not fancy, but it just flat shoots. Particularly at it’s price point, just a great gun.

31. Can i usethis for shooting deer?

    • Why not? If you are using slugs just experiment with most open choke tubes and find out where it shoots. The drilled and tapped receiver makes it simple to add a dot sight or the like.

      If shooting buck shot same thing. Find the choke that favors the loads you are using and go hunting. You will appreciate the minimal recoil when shooting heavy loads. Good luck.

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