Fred Fuller
Moderator Emeritus
No, not the 62nd time I've done this. Then again it might be, now that I think about it...
Lo these many years ago I bought a used Express gun. On the rack at my favorite MOD (merchant of death) it was in field form, sporting birch or beech furniture, a matte blued finish, and a 28" VR barrel fitted from the factory for RemChokes. As an older version of the Express (all I give serious appraisal to since the 'improvements' started) it had an aluminum trigger plate and no magazine tube dimples. How can you tell?
For the trigger plate check, hold the gun muzzle up with the loading port toward you. Push up the shell lifter and look down at the back of the loading port where it hinges at the front of the trigger guard. Unless the trigger plate has been refinished you will see two whiteish rectangles if the trigger plate is aluminum- if it's plastic the rectangles won't show white.
As for magazine tube dimples just turn the magazine cap. If you hear the clack-clack-clack of a plastic retainer snapping back into the magazine cap notches you will know that it's likely dimples are there. The sure check is to remove the barrel and look, if it's OK with the proprietor. Be careful any time you take a magazine cap off, you might have to contain the magazine spring if the retainer has not been replaced/engaged... .
I don't recall the price, it was a run of the mill used 870 and I rarely pay more than $150 or a bit more for one even today. This was in the late 90's and prices were lower then too.
Either there was a 20" rifle sighted barrel in the parts bin already, or I ran across one and picked it up. Again they were cheaper then than now, but were and are less than $100 as a usual price. Back then it was closer to $75- 80. But that was the first change from stock, the gun got a short barrel and was on its way to being a working gun. Along the way came some shooting, sighting in with slugs, patterning with buckshot etc.
Somewhere a six- shell SideSaddle and a three- shot magazine extension and clamp got added and the wood got swapped for black plastic furniture, in this case one of the old fashioned solid SpeedFeed buttstocks with a SureFire fore-end added for good measure. The factory sight inserts got changed out for replacements with tritium elements. A GI 'silent sling' was fitted with 1 1/4" detachable swivels and went on the studs when needed. And the gun got shot some more, zeroed with slugs again, and shot some more.
Not happy with the straight cylinder bore barrel, I took it by Colonial Arms on one of my trips home to Selma, AL and had it fitted for RemChokes with a Modified tube installed and had the forcing cone lengthened. This process, along with adding the tritium sights, essentially tripled the total cost of the 20" barrel- but it does what I want it to do. Spread over time, the cost of step-by-step modifications doesn't hurt so bad, and it gives you a chance to evaluate what you think you want to do with the gun by shooting it along the way. The modified barrel in this case got patterned some more and shot some more slugs for sighting in. Patterns improved, and Estate low recoil 00 buck proved to be a favorite load in this barrel. It would keep patterns in a saucer at 25 yards.
Finally the gun went out for parkerizing. A friend with a set of tanks had trashed a .308 finishing reamer I loaned him, and we settled on a couple of parkerizing jobs to make things even. This particular 870 was one of them. I delivered both barrels, the 28" and the 20" with its tritium sights removed, the magazine cap and extension, clamp and receiver minus the trigger plate and pins. Everything came back a nice dark shade of matte gray, having been sandblasted before going in the tanks.
I cleaned it all up well and put it back together as it was before it went out for parkerizing. And again it got shot some more, sighted in again for slugs and shot yet more. It stayed in that configuration for several years, doing house gun duty and traveling artillery duty as well. It was a favorite piece among various other shotguns including some other 870s.
Then along came my wife, and a new house, and a need for house guns that fitted her. She had a Mossberg 500 that she used in 3-gun, but as I preferred 870s she was willing to make the conversion to 870s for standardization's sake. It took some time and lots of practice but she transitioned successfully to the different design.
What she _couldn't_ transition to was a gun set up the way I liked them. She is petite and couldn't easily handle a standard length of pull and short forearm, nor could she support a gun laden in front with a magazine extension. We settled on a 4-round SideSaddle, a full field length forearm, no magazine extension and a 12 1/2" LOP. This was manageable though it was a bit heavier than the Mossberg she had used. She found that with low-recoil buckshot the heavier gun was more pleasant to shoot than her Mossberg had been. I built her wedding-present shotgun on an 870 I had bought from a member of a certain unmentionable elite counterterrorist organization when he transitioned to a Benelli semiauto as a personal shotgun, modifying it to fit her as described above. She used it in that configuration for a while and liked it.
But then we bought our place in the country and set up housekeeping there. The new house has both doors in the middle, front and back, and bedrooms on either end. In order not to be separated from a long gun by intruders entering the doors it became necessary to add another house gun. My old favorite was the choice candidate, so it lost the magazine extension, got its stock shortened and a KickEeze pad added, a long forearm was substituted for the SureFire and a 4-round SideSaddle went onto the machine screws holding the trigger plate in place where the 6-round version had been.
And it has lived that way ever since- until now. Somewhere along the way a really old Express model came along, that already had its stock (walnut in this case) shortened and a 20" ImpCyl rifle sighted barrel in place. With the addition of a set of XO 24/7 Express sights and a 4-round SideSaddle my wife pronounced it perfect and adopted it as hers, along with her wedding present 870. My old favorite 870 became a safe gun, kept loaded and handy in the front of the safe as one more just-in-case measure.
Then came eBay.
Not long ago I got an 18" rifle sighted ImpCyl police gun barrel. I'd been looking for one for a long time, as I prefer 18" barrels even to 20" ones for tight quarters. About the same time someone offered a set of walnut police gun furniture as well. I got that too.
Within a few hours after the BBT (big brown truck) showed up, Franken870 was changing character for the third time. The new slightly-used barrel was parkerized, and needed a parkerized gun to go on. There was only one available- and the barrel fit it fine, no problem. There was one more set of Meprolite tritium sights in the parts bin, and it was but a few minutes' work to get them installed on the factory bases. There was a 6-round SideSaddle in there too and it went on, the 4-round version it replaced going back into the clamshell package for future use.
A couple days later the wood showed up. Nice, very nice- like new save for the rack number stamped into the bottom flat of the pistol grip- 62 it was, as in the thread title. Again it was a minutes-long job to get it in place, relegating the black plastic to the parts bin. A heavy coat of Johnson's paste wax sealed the interior wood surfaces and started a base for the exterior finish (more coats of wax). The two-round extension was not to be found, but a one-round Wilson extension, spring and lime green follower surfaced in the parts box and were installed.
Then the shooting started... and continues. In time there will be a replacement 2-round parkerized extension and provision for a front sling swivel. There will be a mount for an M3 light to go on the extension and a sling to go on the swivel studs. In time... right now there is more shooting to be done, sighting in for slugs, patterning to pick a favored buckshot load. And ol' Frank looks like a new gun again.
Except for the really shiny spots on the action bars where they contact the shell stops that is, and that wear to the magazine tube and the black finish on the bolt from the slide traveling back and forth...
lpl/nc (now if I can just find an 18" Mod 870 barrel...)
Lo these many years ago I bought a used Express gun. On the rack at my favorite MOD (merchant of death) it was in field form, sporting birch or beech furniture, a matte blued finish, and a 28" VR barrel fitted from the factory for RemChokes. As an older version of the Express (all I give serious appraisal to since the 'improvements' started) it had an aluminum trigger plate and no magazine tube dimples. How can you tell?
For the trigger plate check, hold the gun muzzle up with the loading port toward you. Push up the shell lifter and look down at the back of the loading port where it hinges at the front of the trigger guard. Unless the trigger plate has been refinished you will see two whiteish rectangles if the trigger plate is aluminum- if it's plastic the rectangles won't show white.
As for magazine tube dimples just turn the magazine cap. If you hear the clack-clack-clack of a plastic retainer snapping back into the magazine cap notches you will know that it's likely dimples are there. The sure check is to remove the barrel and look, if it's OK with the proprietor. Be careful any time you take a magazine cap off, you might have to contain the magazine spring if the retainer has not been replaced/engaged... .
I don't recall the price, it was a run of the mill used 870 and I rarely pay more than $150 or a bit more for one even today. This was in the late 90's and prices were lower then too.
Either there was a 20" rifle sighted barrel in the parts bin already, or I ran across one and picked it up. Again they were cheaper then than now, but were and are less than $100 as a usual price. Back then it was closer to $75- 80. But that was the first change from stock, the gun got a short barrel and was on its way to being a working gun. Along the way came some shooting, sighting in with slugs, patterning with buckshot etc.
Somewhere a six- shell SideSaddle and a three- shot magazine extension and clamp got added and the wood got swapped for black plastic furniture, in this case one of the old fashioned solid SpeedFeed buttstocks with a SureFire fore-end added for good measure. The factory sight inserts got changed out for replacements with tritium elements. A GI 'silent sling' was fitted with 1 1/4" detachable swivels and went on the studs when needed. And the gun got shot some more, zeroed with slugs again, and shot some more.
Not happy with the straight cylinder bore barrel, I took it by Colonial Arms on one of my trips home to Selma, AL and had it fitted for RemChokes with a Modified tube installed and had the forcing cone lengthened. This process, along with adding the tritium sights, essentially tripled the total cost of the 20" barrel- but it does what I want it to do. Spread over time, the cost of step-by-step modifications doesn't hurt so bad, and it gives you a chance to evaluate what you think you want to do with the gun by shooting it along the way. The modified barrel in this case got patterned some more and shot some more slugs for sighting in. Patterns improved, and Estate low recoil 00 buck proved to be a favorite load in this barrel. It would keep patterns in a saucer at 25 yards.
Finally the gun went out for parkerizing. A friend with a set of tanks had trashed a .308 finishing reamer I loaned him, and we settled on a couple of parkerizing jobs to make things even. This particular 870 was one of them. I delivered both barrels, the 28" and the 20" with its tritium sights removed, the magazine cap and extension, clamp and receiver minus the trigger plate and pins. Everything came back a nice dark shade of matte gray, having been sandblasted before going in the tanks.
I cleaned it all up well and put it back together as it was before it went out for parkerizing. And again it got shot some more, sighted in again for slugs and shot yet more. It stayed in that configuration for several years, doing house gun duty and traveling artillery duty as well. It was a favorite piece among various other shotguns including some other 870s.
Then along came my wife, and a new house, and a need for house guns that fitted her. She had a Mossberg 500 that she used in 3-gun, but as I preferred 870s she was willing to make the conversion to 870s for standardization's sake. It took some time and lots of practice but she transitioned successfully to the different design.
What she _couldn't_ transition to was a gun set up the way I liked them. She is petite and couldn't easily handle a standard length of pull and short forearm, nor could she support a gun laden in front with a magazine extension. We settled on a 4-round SideSaddle, a full field length forearm, no magazine extension and a 12 1/2" LOP. This was manageable though it was a bit heavier than the Mossberg she had used. She found that with low-recoil buckshot the heavier gun was more pleasant to shoot than her Mossberg had been. I built her wedding-present shotgun on an 870 I had bought from a member of a certain unmentionable elite counterterrorist organization when he transitioned to a Benelli semiauto as a personal shotgun, modifying it to fit her as described above. She used it in that configuration for a while and liked it.
But then we bought our place in the country and set up housekeeping there. The new house has both doors in the middle, front and back, and bedrooms on either end. In order not to be separated from a long gun by intruders entering the doors it became necessary to add another house gun. My old favorite was the choice candidate, so it lost the magazine extension, got its stock shortened and a KickEeze pad added, a long forearm was substituted for the SureFire and a 4-round SideSaddle went onto the machine screws holding the trigger plate in place where the 6-round version had been.
And it has lived that way ever since- until now. Somewhere along the way a really old Express model came along, that already had its stock (walnut in this case) shortened and a 20" ImpCyl rifle sighted barrel in place. With the addition of a set of XO 24/7 Express sights and a 4-round SideSaddle my wife pronounced it perfect and adopted it as hers, along with her wedding present 870. My old favorite 870 became a safe gun, kept loaded and handy in the front of the safe as one more just-in-case measure.
Then came eBay.
Not long ago I got an 18" rifle sighted ImpCyl police gun barrel. I'd been looking for one for a long time, as I prefer 18" barrels even to 20" ones for tight quarters. About the same time someone offered a set of walnut police gun furniture as well. I got that too.
Within a few hours after the BBT (big brown truck) showed up, Franken870 was changing character for the third time. The new slightly-used barrel was parkerized, and needed a parkerized gun to go on. There was only one available- and the barrel fit it fine, no problem. There was one more set of Meprolite tritium sights in the parts bin, and it was but a few minutes' work to get them installed on the factory bases. There was a 6-round SideSaddle in there too and it went on, the 4-round version it replaced going back into the clamshell package for future use.
A couple days later the wood showed up. Nice, very nice- like new save for the rack number stamped into the bottom flat of the pistol grip- 62 it was, as in the thread title. Again it was a minutes-long job to get it in place, relegating the black plastic to the parts bin. A heavy coat of Johnson's paste wax sealed the interior wood surfaces and started a base for the exterior finish (more coats of wax). The two-round extension was not to be found, but a one-round Wilson extension, spring and lime green follower surfaced in the parts box and were installed.
Then the shooting started... and continues. In time there will be a replacement 2-round parkerized extension and provision for a front sling swivel. There will be a mount for an M3 light to go on the extension and a sling to go on the swivel studs. In time... right now there is more shooting to be done, sighting in for slugs, patterning to pick a favored buckshot load. And ol' Frank looks like a new gun again.
Except for the really shiny spots on the action bars where they contact the shell stops that is, and that wear to the magazine tube and the black finish on the bolt from the slide traveling back and forth...
lpl/nc (now if I can just find an 18" Mod 870 barrel...)
