John Rogers
April 30, 2007, 01:31 AM
I picked up a couple of Mossberg barrels for my 870 express from Havlin Sales (http://www.havlinsales.com, click on "close-out barrels"). They cost $90 each. One is 28" with accu-choke and vent rib, one is 18.5" with cylinder bore and rifle sights. Both are blued steel. It seemed like a good deal because all the new barrels available from Remington are now apparently made without the barrel ring detent (according to the person I talked to on the phone). My 870 Express Synthetic 18" came with the extended magazine and no dimples, so I was looking for a longer barrel that was compatible and not finding much. These Mossberg barrels do have the detent on the barrel ring. To my untrained eyes both barrels seemed just fine. I didn't really need the rifle sighted barrel but figured it was a good opportunity and might help me put off buying a rifle for a good while.
The longer barrel: bead on the longer barrel has a hairline crack and may eventually need replacement. It's lighter than I expected, meaning the gun feels nicely balanced even with the longer barrel. I haven't gotten to consider the pattern yet, but I was hitting clay targets with it more often than not.
The shorter barrel: No flaws I could detect. The indoor range close by prefers that targets be no more (and no less) than 7 yards for buckshot, so that is what I did. The Federal "Premium Law Enforcement" 00 buck with the "flitecontrol" wad was making one wad-sized hole in the paper, so it wasn't possible to evaluate the pattern. Remington managed recoil 00 buck was making about a fist-sized pattern, and the Federal Classic #4 buck was very evenly spread and completely within the area of an 8" "Shoot N C" target. These patterns were much tighter than the same ammunition in my original 18.5" cylinder bore factory barrel, so I was very pleased. I haven't tried slugs yet.
My understanding is that they have a limited supply of these barrels so I thought I should post my positive first impressions even though I haven't used them much yet and probably don't have the experience to be able to spot all the possible problems. As far as I can tell it is the best deal going if you are looking for a replacement barrel for an 870.
John
The longer barrel: bead on the longer barrel has a hairline crack and may eventually need replacement. It's lighter than I expected, meaning the gun feels nicely balanced even with the longer barrel. I haven't gotten to consider the pattern yet, but I was hitting clay targets with it more often than not.
The shorter barrel: No flaws I could detect. The indoor range close by prefers that targets be no more (and no less) than 7 yards for buckshot, so that is what I did. The Federal "Premium Law Enforcement" 00 buck with the "flitecontrol" wad was making one wad-sized hole in the paper, so it wasn't possible to evaluate the pattern. Remington managed recoil 00 buck was making about a fist-sized pattern, and the Federal Classic #4 buck was very evenly spread and completely within the area of an 8" "Shoot N C" target. These patterns were much tighter than the same ammunition in my original 18.5" cylinder bore factory barrel, so I was very pleased. I haven't tried slugs yet.
My understanding is that they have a limited supply of these barrels so I thought I should post my positive first impressions even though I haven't used them much yet and probably don't have the experience to be able to spot all the possible problems. As far as I can tell it is the best deal going if you are looking for a replacement barrel for an 870.
John