Are those old 870 Riot police trade in's any good?

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Seattle206

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I see that buds has a some magnum 870 riot police trade in for $270. they have a 20" barrel fitted with rifle sights, appears to have a blued finish, synthetic police handguard + speedfeed stock, and metal trigger guards. whats the verdict on these? I assume they are abused on the outside but are quite nice on the inside, as in they are moved around a lot but shot very little. are these wingmasters outfitted to be police guns?

I just sold my mossberg 500 7+1, never really liked it due to the awkward position of the safety and overall cheap feel to it, much prefer the remington safety on my 20ga express. so i sold the mosy for $250 and the riot shotgun seems real nice for a basic, no thrills, no tacticool, HD gun.
 
http://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=411537360

$270 is not a bad price because of the rifle sights. If that barrel is what I think it is, that barrel alone costs over $150 brand new. Here's another option that is about the same if you know you're not going to shoot 3" shells:

http://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=411537363

Try this also:

http://www.summitgunbroker.com/870_Mag_Riots.html

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Whatever you decide, think about what's important to you, and call up the seller with your questions. Then, fax the seller a memo of understanding about the specific gun you will be getting. I have bought used before from this type of lot. I made a mistake my first time by not asking specific questions about my particular gun. My second try went well because I had asked questions.

These sellers typically go to auctions and buy a bunch of these police guns in a lot. Understand that you won't be getting the gun in the picture. You will probably be getting a gun that is in worse condition. Perhaps your gun will have bead sights or ghost ring sights. I know it says rifle sights, but ask anyway. There are many other possible differences from the picture.
 
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Good advice above. I would think the ones with synthetic stocks would have fared better than the ones in years past with wood stocks. The police trade ins I have seen the stocks, especially the buttstocks, needed some refinishing before you would have wanted to be seen in public with it, but everything else was fine.
 
I agree to ask questions and get an agreement. I have bought two old police guns in the past three years and have had good experiences. Maybe ask for handpick and photos then see if you can buy the one in photos, should be real serious though.
 
I just bought one of the 3" magnum police trade in from Bud's.... It was missing the magazine spring when I got it... sent them an email and they shipped me the spring... It works fine now.... they rated it at 70 to 80% which was more than a fair description...

Mine came with the Speed Feed stock. The recoil pad is hard as a rock and I have not been able to locate a pre fit Limbsaver type pad for it ... a standard synthetic stock pad did not fit... any suggestions?

To me it would not be worth the cost of having a pad fitted to this stock... I had a shell pop loose from it... maybe it has a spring that needs to be replace???

My 2cents
 
2ndwind,

would you mind posting pictures of the shotgun? Does it read "wingmaster" on the receiver?
 
Oh nuts. I wish I'd seen this 2 weeks ago; it'd have saved me several hundred dollars. :-/ This was pretty much exactly what I was looking for.
 
bought police trade in with speedfeed stock and hard recoil pad ,could not find a prefit pad , so used a limbsaver slip-on over hard pad ,was either medium or large, works fine
 
I was there today[at Buds] and they had about 20 on the rack but they were not magnums. They looked like they would be great trunk guns with a coat of duracoat on them. The recievers were really scratched up from being locked in the gunracks....
 
Well my 870 riot magnum from buds will arrive on wednesday. I hope I get one that looks at least decent. I sold my mossberg 500 7+1 to fund this purchase. It was either the police trade in from buds for the 18" parked magnum from summitgunbrokers.
 
Mine came with the Speed Feed stock. The recoil pad is hard as a rock and I have not been able to locate a pre fit Limbsaver type pad for it ... a standard synthetic stock pad did not fit... any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Unless you want the onboard shell storage, swap out the stock for a Hogue. They come with very nice recoil pads. (I have a Hogue youth stock on my HD Mossberg 500 Mariner.)
 
Our shotguns generally look awful from being banged around and stored in racks, but most will never fire a hundred rounds through them over their entire service life. We get ours in, have a academy class or two use them to qualify in order to make sure they work and then they go to the field, where most will never be fired again. Even the guns that stay at the academy for extended periods don't get shot very much. Far fewer rounds of 12ga are used in training and qualification than rounds through the pistol, and we all know how little shooting most agencies actually mandate for training.

Short version, I'd snatch up a police shotgun in a second provided the price was right. Leave it as is for a butt ugly but reliable beater gun, or refinish for something that looks nicer.
 
Received my 870 today and to my surprise, I am amazed at how good the condition is! The blueing has a nice deep and rich look to it giving it a "high class" look, the blueing on my mossberg does not compare. No rust or pitting just some ware marks on the magazine tube from the pump. Field stripped just to find out how clean the chrome bolt is. This shotgun was barely fired! cleaned out the dust from the bore only to see how smooth and shiny it is! This was definitely worth the $281. The action is sooo smooth, like butter even better than the action of my 870 express. And this gun feels VERY solid, there is only slight play on the pump while the 500 rattled like a loose can.

I might have been lucky and the guys at buds picked out a nice one, but I would definitelt recommend these 870 police riots to anyone.

I'll upload some pictures later.
 
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