870 - Coming back to an old favorite

Status
Not open for further replies.
7

70extreme

Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
Messages
57
My first shotgun was an 870 Express 20+ years ago. I sold it and bought a Benelli M1S90. Two weeks ago, in the duck blind, my barrel sheared off at the barrel ring in the middle of the hunt. To Benelli's credit, they have agreed to repair it under warranty.

Since I needed a gun fast for hunting season, I just bought two Remington 870 Express shotguns with a 28" barrels. I also bought two 18" barrels that I will use for home defense. I was really worried about all the reports of bad quality and chamber problems on the new express guns. After a good cleaning as shown by the link below, I put 100 rounds through each gun with no malfunctions and no problems with the rounds sticking on extraction.

http://www.aiptactical.com/Page_2.html

I love these guns. I found that I enjoy shooting a pump more than a semiauto. It is just more fun. I will be selling my Benelli when it returns from repair and will become a full fledged 870 convert for dove, chukar, quail, duck, and home defense. The damage to my gun gave me a chance to do some thinking. I have had too many malfunctions with my Benelli duck hunting to trust it completely for home defense.

The 870 seems like a so much simpler gun with less to go wrong. The fit and finish of the new express guns were perfect in my experience.
 
Out of curiosity did you get them with the synthetic stock or the newest laminate.
Or perhaps you found them with the old hardwood stock.
 
bushmaster that's an amazing transformation! Makes me want to get out the sandpaper for my first shotgun (870 express) stock just to see if it improves!
 
My son has the synthetic. It makes the gun light. I bought the laminated wood. I love the look of the wood and it makes the felt recoil significantly less. It is a huge difference to me.
 
I bought a brand new 870 Wingmaster a few months ago and I have to say for the extra few dollars it is well worth it. Mostly from an aesthetic position, because let's face it High Gloss Walnut is much nicer to look at than synthetic or laminate wood.

I just started with the clay sports and love it to death. I have done Trap, Skeet, and Wobble trap. I have not done Sporting Clays but I look forward to when the club I go to has it set up again.

I see many over/unders and autos at the club but there are a few pumps out there. And I get the feeling that many appreciate the extra effort that is needed when you dust a double on the skeet field from 1 and 2 or 6 and 7. I did it the other day for the first time and then followed it up with another dusted double on my next round of 25. ;)
 
The Remington 870 is a very reliable, rugged and effective tool for it's intended purpose. A very well-made marvel of firearms engineering and a formidable weapon. It is the first shotgun I've ever shot, it is the shotgun I trained with and it is the gun that I trust as KING of firearms CQB.
 
The most amazing part is the takedown.
Barrel comes off with one nut
Trigger group knocks right out
Pump handle and bolt slide out real easy.
Only one as easy I know of is the Mossberg 500/590
Click to expand...

The Benelli Nova is much easier than either of those.
 
The 870 really is a tour de force. I own/have owned an awful lot of pump shotguns. The 870 is very, very tough to beat or even equal when all things are considered. It is not an accident that this gun is still being run off in quantity by Remington +50 years after it was introduced.
 
Careful Bushmaster less someone chimes in you probably own a Honda car or your shoes are made in China blah,blah,blah.
Fwiw I agree with you.
 
The Benelli Nova is much easier than either of those.
Click to expand...

I've owned all three, and many others. Actually, it's so close to the same that you'd never notice the difference. The only clever touch on the Nova is the teat on the mag cap to press the pins with.
 
The 870 Remington is the standard by which all other pump shotguns are measured, and it's been that way for 60 years.
The competition seems able to build very slick working, but far more expensive pumps based on new technologies, but when it comes down to a rugged, reliable, long lasting pump shotgun, it's hard to beat a Remington 870.



NCsmitty
 
I've owned all three, and many others. Actually, it's so close to the same that you'd never notice the difference. The only clever touch on the Nova is the teat on the mag cap to press the pins with.
Click to expand...

"The teat". Excellent! That is what I shall call it from now on...
 
We have three 870s in the house. I love my synthetic tactical express, but my favorite is probably the one in my dad's closet. It served my late grandfather for decades on the LAPD.and as a home defense gun. It still works flawlessly, and it still sits in the closet with four rounds of 00 buck ready to do work.
 
My two boys and I have a total of eight 870s plus a couple of 1100s. Three of the Wingmasters are TB/TC trap guns from the early seventies. One TB cracked the receiver after 300,000 plus shots so I bought a vintage, mint wingmaster and pirated the receiver for a 'heart' transplant. Still going.
Taking an express deer hunting tomorrow. Speedfeed synthetic stock, Hastings rifled barrel, Weaver saddle mount and Bushnell Trophy shotgun scope. My Lyman sabot slugs loaded right here at home. Backstraps coming up!
 
Just found this in the shotgun 101. It was written back in '04 and the only thing dated I can find is the fact that there are now more than 10 million 870's made instead of 8 million.

Dave McCracken
Moderator


Join Date: December 20, 2002
Location: MD.
Posts: 12,407

Why We Should All Have Pumpguns (101)....
Someone recently expressed surprise that pumps were still so popular. It seems to them that the plethora of good autos would have chased the trombone action into museums and off the range and out of the field. It hasn't happened and will not in the near future.

Here's why.

First, a little History. Semi Auto shotguns showed up in the field almost a century ago. Winchester's Model 1911 and the venerable Browning A-5 and its American made siblings from Savage and Remington were all in the fields before 1920.

Early autos were called "Jamamatics" by exasperated owners. They were ammo sensitive, dirt sensitive, lube sensitive, and tempermental as a Pop Diva. They had a tendency to lose their charging handles over deep mud and water. And, they were expensive.

Gradually, the makers came up with better autos, better ammo for them, and owners learned to make their cantankerous shotguns behave.

New autos are almost as reliable as pumpguns. The difference may be more philosophical than realistic, most can pass the 200 rounds of duty ammo sans glitches test once they are shot in a bit.

But even with reliability and the gas autos offering recoil reduction, there's still 3 or 4 pumps sold for every auto. Partly that's price, most 870s run less than $500 and many less than $300,new. New autos leave little change from a grand,and some run more.

Remington's 870 is the most made civilian firearm with over 8 million units sold. That's more than the 98K Mauser, the Garand, the M-14, and some less than the AK.

Working life of an 870 seems to be roughly 250,000 rounds. That's no misprint.

Given one can purchase many 870s for around $250, cost per round before the receiver cracks runs $0.001.That's Cost Effective, one can buy a shotgun capable of generations of use for less than a week's pay.

It's durable and economical, you concede. But how about versatility?

One 870 here is a parts gun. Its receiver and some other parts first worked at the MD Pen, 954 Forrest Ave, Baltimore Md. With two barrels, a handful of choke tubes,it's capable of doing well on sporting clays, gone 50 straight at trap, taken birds from quail to grouse to geese, shoots slugs into 3" at 50 yards and can serve well for HD. That enough?

How about ergonomics?

Many 870 triggers compare favorably with centerfire rifles. Three here are at 4 lbs or less, better than many Savage 110s and newer Winchesters. Heck, the heaviest 870 pull here is about that on my Post 64 Model 94, and it's had a trigger job.

Few autos have good triggers. Seminole and Angle Port will tweak your 391 trigger to 3 1/2 lbs, but tis costly. Allen Timney has made a good living getting 1100 triggers as good as 870s are from the factory.

As for fit, no auto is easier to fine tune fit on than an 870. The shim kits that come with Beretta and Benelli autos duplicate the homemade jobs done by trap shooting pump gunners since the 30s. More stocks are available for the 870 in aftermarket goodies than any auto, and one can buy anything from a top folder to marblecake walnut made to your dimensions. Wenig will sell you a roughed out blank to whittle into shape and Boyd's has a Nutmeg grain laminate thumbhole set if you really want one.

Weight is a mixed blessing in shotguns, as anyone who had touched off a turkey load in a 7 lb shotgun can testify to. Gas autos carry more weight forward due to the gas system under the barrel and run heavier overall for the most part. That extra will not be welcome some eve 3 ridges away from the truck. And the extra weight forward handicaps smaller folks.

Pumps have a simple MOA, both to learn and to teach. They're easy to make safe after firing, easy to load and unload without chambering live ammo, and do not require 3 hands to do so. And use after a few hundred or thousand rounds verges on being instinctive. 870s are good pointers.

While I've focussed on the 870 here, all this applies to the other good pumps.

Questions, comments, donations?....
Click to expand...
 
I think the problem you had with the Benelli was that you were using the wrong choke or the wrong barrel for steel shot.

A barrel normally does not break.
Sound like you had a excessive chamber pressure.
 
I think the problem you had with the Benelli was that you were using the wrong choke or the wrong barrel for steel shot.

That is a negative. Modified choke with Kent #2 Faststeel. The barrel shearing off at the barrel ring is a common problem on M1S90s and SBEs. Even though the gun was over 15 years old, Benelli is fixing it under warranty. That is pretty impressive for a company to do that.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

B
  • Locked
Went in to buy an 870 express - couldn't believe it ...
2
Replies
30
Views
6K
Oceans
O
O
  • Locked
Duck gun overkill
Replies
7
Views
520
Virginian
V
E
  • Locked
Buying a new shotgun tomorrow and want some advice.
Replies
24
Views
713
Plinkeriffic
P
D
  • Locked
Duck hunters - do you take your nice guns in the field?
Replies
18
Views
731
esheato
E
7
  • Locked
Can a pump guy be as good as a semiauto guy?
2
Replies
39
Views
2K
soda
S
Back
Top