Remington 1100 Sporter shotgun review

May 04, 2012

Much of this gun’s success came about because of its excellent handling characteristics, qualities which were in part due to the shape of stock and particularly the pistol grip.

Few other semi-autos have ever been able to match it.

In the 1980s the 1100 was replaced by the 11-87 but the newcomer – a good gun in its own right – never quite lived up to the reputation of its predecessor and because of this the 1100 soon made a welcome return with a few updates; multichokes being the most notable.

And there’s still new life in the old gal – latest 1100 to reach our shores is an out-and-out competition model version that really cuts the mustard.

As you can see, the stock and fore-end are made from a black synthetic polymer which has been textured for grip and, again, the stock is a key feature.

This time it features a damper system working in conjunction with a Remington Supercell butt pad to reduce recoil by a noticeable amount.

The comb is also adjustable for height and cast – both left and right handed – so an owner can tailor the fit accordingly.

It’s good to see that Remington has stuck to its proven gas system for cycling the cartridges but the metal parts have now been treated with a nickel-teflon coating to make their movement and cycling as smooth as possible.

Earlier 1100s were known to be a little cartridge sensitive which could lead to ejection problems, but this has now been addressed with Remington having fine tuned the gun to be as flexible as possible with a wide variety of loads.

The 30in over-bored barrel is chambered for two 3/4in competition loads and what Remington call ‘light field loads’.

The gun is proofed in Birmingham and has been passed for use with steel shot as well as lead. It sports a 10mm ventilated top rib with white mid-sight and foresight bead for the most positive sighting.

Overall weight of the gun is a little over 8lb which on paper might seem a shade heavy, but the handling belies this and the gun feels quite lively.

JASON’S VERDICT
“The synthetic stock and fore-end look makes this gun more of a tool than a thing of beauty, but it is a very good tool and a very good quality one at that.

I still don’t quite know what it is about the 1100, but most people will shoot one well – and usually better than any other gun they might own!

This, again is down to the gun’s handling and balance which matches that of the older model.”