870 sights.

[liliysdad]

What are my options for a set of Ghost ring sights for an 870?

I have the rifle sighted barrel now, and was curious as to whether anyone made a new "peep" attachemnt for the existing rear pedestal, and a blade for the front dovetail?

If not, I noticed you can buy the Mossberg 590 GR sights seperately, which I really like. How adaptable would these sights be to the 870?

As you can tell, Im looking for the cheapest way to good sights..

 

[L-2]

http://www.remingtonle.com/shotguns/870pmax.htm

http://www.wilsoncombat.com/s_borderpatrol.asp

http://www.mossberg.com/pcatalog/lawprc.htm

I was pondering your issue. For me, I'd sell my existing shotgun and buy one already set-up the way I want it or close to what I want.

XS Sights and Wilson sell sights specifically made for the 870, but they're in the $140 range, plus the installation could be another $100, for drilling & tapping the receiver.
Wilson can rebuild your existing 870, but that's $400 plus shipping.

Rather than take a chance on an imperfect fit, using Mossberg sights on a Remington, you could buy a Mossberg 590A1 with GR sights, for ~$500, new. I imagine comparable Remington 870P's are similarly priced.

Go ahead and splurge a little! The money spent may just be the weapon which saves you & your family's lives. (Because of the GRS topic, I'm assuming this is an HD shotgun.) Let us know what you decide.

 

[Fred Fuller]

liliysdad,

The rear base on rifle sighted Remingtons is too far forward to allow a large diameter aperture (aka ghost ring) rear sight to perform properly. The ghost ring needs to be mounted on the receiver closer to the shooter's eye in order for the eye to utilize it as a ghost ring.

This means drilling and tapping your receiver for the (pretty much) permanent installation of the rear sight. If this is to be a dedicated defensive gun that's no problem, but if you want to switch barrels and use it as a fowling piece the rear sight would be a distraction to put it mildly.

Given that you have the factory bases already installed, changing out the sight inserts to a more useful style is likely your least expensive approach. The factory originals are awfully small to use quickly or in less than optimal light. I like the XO express sights myself (see http://www.expresssights.com/catshotgun.html ). This style of sights has been used on dangerous game rifles for many years and is very fast. It will allow keeping the sights on the barrel, if you plan to use the gun for other purposes as well.

I've used replacement sights from IWI which fit the factory bases as well. These are Patridge style (square notch rear, square blade front) sights which are far more visible than the factory originals. Their web site is at http://www.ptnightsights.com/ . Meprolight makes a similar set- see them at http://www.meprolight.com/products.asp?id=2 . I like tritium replacement sights, by the way.

If you are going to istall ghost rings, I like the MMC version best for the rear sight, but that's only one option ( http://www.mmcsight.com/shotgun.htm ). You may have noticed the XO version at their site earlier, Wilson/Scattergun makes their own version, as do a couple of others to include Mossberg.

HTH,

lpl/nc

 

[liliysdad]

Rather than take a chance on an imperfect fit, using Mossberg sights on a Remington, you could buy a Mossberg 590A1 with GR sights, for ~$500, new. I imagine comparable Remington 870P's are similarly priced.

No way Id trade the 870 for a Mossy of any kind...

This is my HD/Duty shotgun. I have an 18" bead sight barrel for it as well...I was having a brain fart about the eye relief on the rear sight...DUH!!!

I like the Ashley express sights a lot...How strong are they?

 

[9mmMike]

I use the XO express sights as well on my rifle-sighted 870's. They are quite sturdy and work well. I have one set of nuclear sights on the HD gun (that I also use for sporting clays) and they are the cat's meow.
Mike

 

[Andrew Wyatt]

the mossberg sights will fit on 870s, but you need to drill and tap the holes in the reciever for it.

 

[MrMurphy]

AO/XSS ghost ring

MMC, LPA (the Benelli kind) Wilson Combat/Scattergun Technologies are all good. My Benelli has the LPAs and I like them, but the XSS type is good too.

 

[444]

Take this for what it is worth.
I have an 870 with a short factory barrel and Remington factory sights.
I also own an 870 tricked out by Hans Vang with ghost ring sights.

Earlier this year I took two defensive shotgun classes. I used my 870 with the Remington factory sights. During the Gunsite course I also used a Vang gun for about half a day. I found after it was all said and done that I actually liked my Remington factory sights better than the ghost ring. I could hit faster and with more accuracy than I could with a ghost ring. Even at night it wasn't an issue, probably because I have a Surefire dedicated fore end light and could see my sights fine. I made numerous hits on pepper poppers at 100 yards using my Remington factory sights. In fact, I don't think I missed any of them.
Maybe if I fired a couple thousand more slugs with the ghost ring, I would change my mind ?

 

[Andrew Wyatt]

are the GR sights higher off the bore axis?

if so, and you haven't corrected for the height by padding the comb, you might not be getting as solid a cheek weld as you might need. just a suggestion.