870 Express Sights?

[rrruuunnn]

I have a Remington 870 shotgun 20 gauge. Does anyone have a recommendation for sights?

I saw these 4:

http://www.gunaccessories.com/expresssights/shotgun.asp

[Tim the student]

What are you intending to do with it?

[Snarlingiron]

I am always amazed by this. For what these sights cost you, you can buy an 18 1/2" barrel with tritium rifle sights from Remington. If you want slug accuracy, just use them like you use any rifle sights. If you want to shoot like you shoot clays, just ignore the rear sight.

[rrruuunnn]

self defense

[rcmodel]

The little brass bead on the barrel is perfectly fine for SD.

You can get a Tritium bead repacement for about 30 bucks if you want a night sight.

If you shoot someone far enough away with it to need rifle sights, you will be charged with murder anyway.

rc

[ScareyH22A]

If you do get sights, I REALLY suggest Burris Speed Beads.

[RatDrall]

I have a rifle sighted, parkerized 18.5" barrel for sale for the same price, and it won't lose point of impact when you take the barrel off for cleaning...

[Howaido]

XS sights big dot tritium

[Bix]

I use the 24/7 Express sights linked to in the first post. I like them better than beads and factory rifle sights, but that's subjective - I've never compared on a timer.

I've used them in several defensive shotgun clases and a good bit of competition, and I think they're well suited to those tasks.

[rrruuunnn]

I don't hsve much experience with shotguns. But I've been told that even bird shot is very tight within 20 feet. The factory sights seems really minimal. I guess I just need to pracice.

[rcmodel]

Heres the thing.

The brass-bead shotgun sight has been all that was needed to shoot flying game-birds out of the air, running rabbits hopping along, little squirrels out of the tops of tall oak trees, and Germans coming over the wire.
As well as anything else that came along.
For the last two or three century's.

It has only been very recently that we learned that they don't work, and we need a $200 set of TackyCool rifle sights to hit a man, or man-sized target, standing still, at 20 feet!

rc

[Tim the student]

I think that at the ranges you will shoot at (unless your house is quite large/long) you will not need these sights.

Have you tried shooting it as is? I bet you will be highly accurate at 3-10 yards with the bead.

I am no SD expert, nor do I play one on the internet, but I do know that I can put 5 slugs in a paper plate at 50 yards shooting offhand with an 870. (I deer hunt shotgun only here in IA.)

[Kernel]

http://www.brownells.com/userdocs/skus/l_902000002_1.jpg
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/sid=32144/sku/_312__Magnum_Pro_Sight

For about 60 bucks you can get these Truglo sights from Brownells (or elsewhere). They're what I use on my 20ga Rem 870 for hunting rabbits over dogs with a super light loads & a turkey choke.

Let's me "head shoot" rabbits out to 30 yds, or so. The load is so weak it'll barely penetrates the skin. I think it knocks the rabbit out, more than anything.

The sights attach to the shotgun's rib. No modifications are required. With a simple hex wrench you can take'em on & off in 10 seconds. Make sure you get the right one that fits a 870 rib.

That said, I gotta agree with what RC Model and others have said. Not needed for HD. But don't be deterred. It's your shotgun. Do what you want.

[JimJD]

Mama Mia!:eek:
Those are some expensive sights! I'm with rcmodel on the tritium bead sight or something similar. Which reminds me, I still have to get around to doing that to my 870...:o

[rrruuunnn]

I've only test fired two shots. But I haven't done any practice.

[rcmodel]

Spend the rifle sight money on practice ammo.

You will be far far ahead of the curve when it comes to handling & hitting in SD use.

rc

[Bix]

Some folks will sometimes use their shotguns like rifles. For those folks, I think rifle sights (or some other sighting system) may make sense.

For example, the buck load that I primarily use in my shotgun will print a wad-sized pattern out to around 13 or so yards. Within that envelope, it is essentially a single projectile and has none of the 'patterning' advantage traditionally associated with shotguns.

If I have occasion to shoot that load within that envelope at a small target, I have found that I'm more likely to score a hit with rifle sights than I am with a bead. This makes sense, because I am shooting the gun like a rifle. Perhaps if I had more trigger time on the gun, I would not notice such a difference - but for me, I can hit far more reliably and repeatably under those conditions with sights.

I hit better with sights under other conditions: shooting from the weak side with a bead is a hope-for-the-best proposition for me :). With sights, I have a visual reference to confirm the gun is pointing where is should be. I can get my hits. Pretty much any time that standard dominant cheek weld is broken, I'm going to do better with sights (shooting supine, for example).

Obviously, these considerations may not be relevant to some shooters - just my experiences.

Incidentally, I also shoot clays. I use a bead for that. Materially different application; materially different tool. :)

[fireman 9731]

The stock sights are fine, just practice and its all you need. If you are really bent on getting different sights then just get a cheap trittium front bead. Like, RC said, spend that money on practice ammo!