[snovvman]

I have a Remington 870 w/ a 20" barrel, currently with a bead front and folding stock.

It sits around as a home defense weapon, but I would like to take it target shooting and maybe some recreational trap shooting.

1) I would like to get improved sights, something better than the front bead.
a) I've seen the Wilson/Trijicon rifle style sights that require drilling/tapping the receiver.
b) I know I can also install a scope mount and use a red dot/hologram sight
c) ATI has a cheap heatshield/ghost ring sight that I might try. At worse, it's a $20 throw-away.

Question: What are the pros/cons of a rifle-style sight versus a scoped/red dot sight (and how does sight radius come into play here)? How does this affect aiming time/accuracy, etc.?

Just how well does the ATI heatshield/sight combo work?

What are your recommendations and why?

2) With the folding stock and pistol grip, will the gun work as is in trap shooting? Or, should I get a conventional stock? Why?

I seek wisdom and understanding. Many thanks for any help!

[rantingredneck]

First of all congrats on owning an 870. You have one of the most widely supported shotgun platforms in the world. If it is made, it is made for the 870.

You can buy a remington barrel that has remington rifle sights installed. I like those for HD and hunting. Not sure they'd do you very good at trap shooting though, your bead may be better for that.

I've never found red dots on a shotgun to be much use. They seem to (for me) throw off the balance a bit and make the shotgun less easy to handle.

I'd avoid anything ATI like the plague. It will be a $20.00 throw away, trust me.

For stocks, I like speedfeed synthetics, but that's just me. Numrich gun parts was running a special awhile back on used sets that were like 25.50 or so.

If it were me, I'd pick up a good quality synthetic stock and a 20" remington rifle sighted barrel and be done. You can get the barrel either as a fixed IC choke or with the Remchoke system. Then you can keep the bead sight barrel to swap on and break clays or sell that barrel to recoup some of your costs.

[rcmodel]

but I would like to take it target shooting and maybe some recreational trap shooting.You sure don't want rifle sights or a red-dot for that!

You need at least a 28" vent rib barrel with a full choke, or screw-in choke tubes for trap shooting. Same for most any clay target shooting, except choke will be open for Skeet, and maybe modified or imp mod for sporting clays.

At any rate, don't take a rifle sighted riot-gun to a trap shooting contest!

You might want to put a standard Remington stock & recoil pad on it.
Why?
Because a wire folder will beat the pee-wadding out of you shooting a few rounds of blue-rock.

rcmodel

[Youngster]

If it were my shotgun I'd throw on a Hogue Short Shot convential stock with a premium pad and a set of easy to see open sights {Remington's are mediocre, on the other end of the scale you have XS 24/7 Express sights which are pricey but the best IMO}.

A good set of open sights gives you a solid accuracy advantage at any kind of a distance while giving up little if anything in the way of speed up close compared to beads, while making for a lot less eye clutter than ghost rings. As mentioned above you'll need a whole other barrel and sights setup for trap.

[sm]

but I would like to take it target shooting and maybe some recreational trap shooting.

-Wood, full stock, Pachmayer Decelerator recoil pad.

Wood is denser, and allows for less felt recoil.
Wood allows one to tweak gun fit, such as LOP, comb, cast on, cast off, pitch, and a gun that fits, will not only shoot where one looks, also reduce felt recoil.

Factory front bead is fine, many of the top shooters in clay disciplines, do not use a bead on purpose, including on custom guns that are built to fit them.

Shotguns are pointed, not aimed.


Focus on the target - not the equipment - Will Fennell