Dave McCracken
Moderator In Memoriam
Frankenstein, my old parts gun that has as much versatility as it does ugly, has been exercized less lately than it had been back when I had few 870s. It's taken birds from geese to quail, has three woodcock and a grouse on it, taken ground game and surprised a few friends that thought barrels that short only belonged on defensive weapons.
A mere 21" barrel can do a lot, albeit it means little weight forward to keep the swing going and its bark in the confines of a goose blind is uh,emphatic. The show when touching off a goose load in low light is attention getting.
Anyway, the patterning written about in the thread about Comparisons of 870 barrels had one side effect.
It turns out that the fixed choke barrel from the TB goes on Frank and hits dead center for windage and 60-40 for elevation. It hits lower and a little left on the TB. I used up some range tickets today testing the combination and did indeed find it worthy. Heck, it was a lot of fun!
It also caused some comment. The barrel's a deep, rich. glossy blue. The forend is a coontail style from 1950. The action bars are also blue but slightly different in hue.
The receiver and mag tube are Parkerized, a velvet gray with shiny areas mingled in from wear.
The stock is aftermarket, a Sile made in Italy and similar to but not matching the finish on the forearm. It's a Monte Carlo style with less than impressive checkering but the dimensions are very similar to the TB and it fits me well.
Did I mention the Morgan Adjustable pad? That helps the fit, and the extra weight counters the heavy barrel a bit. All over, it's as obvious a mutt as there is. But pretty is as pretty does sometimes...
Frankenstein turns like a cutting horse and runs about 7 lbs empty. For comparison, my TB runs close to 9.
So I fired 3 rounds of trap and scored 21-23/25. Decent for me with a shotgun I haven't used much lately.
And the lighter weight made it fun.
A shooting acquaintance was there with a trap 870 he had picked up yesterday. A very nice guy with a darn good trap record, he had as much fun as I when we shot side by side and bantered a bit.
As my last round wound down, I took the last shot from low gun, and busted it WAY out there just to see if I could. I can.
Last Thursday I had put the Remchoke barrel on Frank and shot better at skeet than I had been. My scores still reek, but my game's coming together.
All in all, it's like meeting an old girlfriend and finding the embers of what had been are still warm...
A mere 21" barrel can do a lot, albeit it means little weight forward to keep the swing going and its bark in the confines of a goose blind is uh,emphatic. The show when touching off a goose load in low light is attention getting.
Anyway, the patterning written about in the thread about Comparisons of 870 barrels had one side effect.
It turns out that the fixed choke barrel from the TB goes on Frank and hits dead center for windage and 60-40 for elevation. It hits lower and a little left on the TB. I used up some range tickets today testing the combination and did indeed find it worthy. Heck, it was a lot of fun!
It also caused some comment. The barrel's a deep, rich. glossy blue. The forend is a coontail style from 1950. The action bars are also blue but slightly different in hue.
The receiver and mag tube are Parkerized, a velvet gray with shiny areas mingled in from wear.
The stock is aftermarket, a Sile made in Italy and similar to but not matching the finish on the forearm. It's a Monte Carlo style with less than impressive checkering but the dimensions are very similar to the TB and it fits me well.
Did I mention the Morgan Adjustable pad? That helps the fit, and the extra weight counters the heavy barrel a bit. All over, it's as obvious a mutt as there is. But pretty is as pretty does sometimes...
Frankenstein turns like a cutting horse and runs about 7 lbs empty. For comparison, my TB runs close to 9.
So I fired 3 rounds of trap and scored 21-23/25. Decent for me with a shotgun I haven't used much lately.
And the lighter weight made it fun.
A shooting acquaintance was there with a trap 870 he had picked up yesterday. A very nice guy with a darn good trap record, he had as much fun as I when we shot side by side and bantered a bit.
As my last round wound down, I took the last shot from low gun, and busted it WAY out there just to see if I could. I can.
Last Thursday I had put the Remchoke barrel on Frank and shot better at skeet than I had been. My scores still reek, but my game's coming together.
All in all, it's like meeting an old girlfriend and finding the embers of what had been are still warm...
