New 870....another project..

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orangeninja

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Okay guys, I found a BRAND NEW Remington 870 Express Magnum with sythetic furniture and 18 inch barrel. I am currently "upgrading" an older 870 Express Magnum. See what you think of what I'm doing.

First...the older one.

1. Replaced the 28 inch barrel with an 18 1/4 from Mossberg built to Remi specs. Great Barrel.

2. Speed Feed pistol grip buttsock with 13 inch LOP (Full stock). Fore end.

3. Having the barrel back bored and ported for recoil.

4. Install a Browning "Gel" recoil pad to replace the hard rubber one.

5. (MAY DO THIS, haven't decided yet.) Ghost rings or some type of rifle sights.

6. 7 Shot extension tube.

7. Heat Sheild.

My new Remington will have all the above except MAYBE the heat sheild. However, I will have to file down the magazine tube indentions to put the Mag extension on it.

May eventually get a Speed Feed or Choate side folding stock. I know it will be brutal, but this will be a "special case" gun locked in the back of my truck cab for "special needs".:D

I'd rather have a folder than just my pistol.

Can you guys think of or recommend anything else?

The folder shotty may be a 20ga. or a .410.
 
A sidesaddle to hold some extra ammo and a Blackhawk cheekpad/ammo carrier.

The Blackhawk cheekpad/ammo carrier gives your cheek some real protection, though probably wouldn't fit on a folding stock. It's essential in my mind, I like to shoot slugs. Good product.

I sold off my Choate side folder because it's like you said...brutal.

Blachhawk also sells some pretty decent slings, with or without ammo loops.

Lots and lots of Ammo.

Oh yeah, and some Acme bolt on skill.:D

If you cant find skill in a box, try a Trius trap machine. About 80 bucks or so and fully adjustable for high/low fast/slow throw to practice with. Good machine.
 
Not sure what you are looking for, but I can give you my opinion.

Barrel: Sounds fine, I wouldn't have it backbored or ported. I would want it just like it comes from the factory.
Stock: I wouldn't want a pistol grip stock and would want the stock at least an inch shorter.
I wouldn't want the aftermarket recoil pad but don't have anything significant against it unless it lenthened the stock beyond 12"
Sights: Make sure that you get a square post front sight and not a round front sight for use with the ghost rings.
Extension tube: I would leave it off. It is heavy placing additional weight out on the end of the gun, it is a real problem spot for causing malfunctions, and isn't needed for 99.9% of a civilian gunfights. If you can't solve the problem with five rounds, you are in serious trouble.
Heat Shield: I can't see any point to this at all.

I would add a sidesaddle, a single point tac sling, and an integrated fore end light. Stay away from the sling that holds shotshells.
 
All that is more than you need, IMO. But don't let me stop you.

In your shoes, I'd get the trigger right if needed, and many are fine right from Ilion.

Unless you are built larger than average, cut an inch OA from the stock with a GOOD pad installed.Make sure it fits by patterning ammo and shoot a little skeet for familiarization.

Add sling studs if they're not there now.

Buy ammo, use up, repeat until it's a well known tool.

It and you are ready.

Skip the porting. Low light flash is real, the possible lessened muzzle jump may not be.

HTH...
 
Dave McCracken

what about just back bore on the barrel? does this dramatically reduce the recoil?
 
alduro,
Here is my take-
Back boring and porting- waste of money. Had backbored barrels and standard barrels and never saw an improvement in real world performance.

I personally wouldn't get the speed feed stock- again I just don't see the need.

Recoild pad - Good idea.

Good advise from dave on the trigger, although I have never personally had a trigger reworked on a shottie and have no complaints.

Buy lots and lots of ammo- shotguns have to eat too you know and they like to eat alot.

Ghost rings - depends on your purposes. Shoot it awhile and go from there.
Matt
 
Okay...I will port and backbore 1 gun and compare it against the stock gun and give you guys a little range report.


The pistol grip full stock? It's a keeper, I just love the feel.
 
Back and overboring, IMO, do improve patterns and cut kick a bit, but.....

I doubt many of us can feel the difference. I cannot.

Done in conjunction with a longer forcing cone, I think the package may reduce kick enough to tell the difference, but still less than going to 8 pellet loads of 00 buck or a 1 oz load instead of 1 1/8. And way less than when adding a 2 shot mag extension or an S/S.

The one mildly overbored barrel here is the one that came on my 870TB. I cannot tell the difference in kick between it with .733"/.695" bore/choke and the original barrel on #6, which runs .725"/685".

Keep an eye on the This Old Barrel thread. I'll have that one in the shop first for a long cone and then for an overbore, with real results posted as to what it does.
 
Listen to 444 and Dave.

I prefer to keep things simple. The most I would do to the Mossberg barrel is lengthen the forcing cone, but even that may not show a significant improvement with 00B at 10-20 yds. Backboring will tighten the pattern because it's essentially adding choke to the barrel. Do you want a tighter pattern? Shooting birdshot I'd expect more improvement in the pattern. That's just my opinion, have the work done and let us know your empirical observations.

I would not install heat shields. I like the Pachmayr Decelerator recoil pads. YMMV
 
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I decided to elongate the forcing cone...I don't think I will backbore it. I am still iffy on the porting. Magnaport swears up and down it makes a difference so I will try one....I also have a friend who says it makes a difference.

Do the Decellerator pads work better than the Browning X-Recoil pads??
 
My Browning 525 is ported, while it doesn't seem to do much for light target loads, porting may reduce felt recoil with heavier loads. One thing it will definitely do is increase the sound decibel level for the shooter -- it will be a lot louder.

The Pachmayr Decelerator SC100 is shaped similar to the Browning X-Recoil pad but has a hard heel to more easily slide up on your shoulder -- mine's all black and I like it. The Browning pad looks good to me.
 
Magnaport gets paid to port barrels. I'd take any advice they have on whether to port with a grain of salt.

I just did some calculations. In a 7 lb shotgun, a 1 1/8 oz load at 1200 FPS has about 19 Ft Lbs of Free Recoil. Dropping the shot weight to 1 oz and the velocity to 1150 cuts FR to 14. That's close to 25%.

See why I'm such a proponent of light loads?

I've heard that a long cone cuts kick about 3% at an educated guess. Same with an overbore/backbore.

I do like the cone thing. But the main reason for so doing is better patterns, not a miraculous drop in ouchiness.
 
Dave,
Will lengthening the forcing cone significantly improve the pattern when shooting OOB? It does do good things with Trap and Skeet loads, but what does it do for large projectiles?

I'd considered lengthening the cone on my HD barrel, but since its primary load is 00B, what would I gain?
 
IME with larger projectiles and shot less prone to deform - it depends.

Some Forcing Cones are so sharp and steep even the larger projectiles and shot less prone ( like steel shot) "benefit" . Instead of "slamming" through that portion of bbl , the shot column and wad getting "scrunched" all at once...one is gonna feel greater recoil. Even them big 00 gonna get deformed a bit.

A Factory Forcing Cone that has less sharpness and steep angle...I can't tell any difference. I used a 1100 bbl and same lot of ammo. This was pretty good from factory as was, just a learning dealie I wanted to do. So a little FC work and re test...pattern same and I couldn't tell any difference with 00. It did improve the pattern with the light - 2 3/4 dr, 1 1/8 oz. load of #8 at 21 yds.

CAUTION: Some "light" bbls may not have enough "meat" in this area, and since SGs are like grenades in pressure...consult a good gunsmith that knows about the metallurgy, pressures and such. Some will only "lessen the angle" ( sharpeness) but not cut or make "longer".

Have seen a bbl that did fine with target loads, the pattern improved greatly ... but the "lack of meat" and too much cut to do the FC resulted in the bbl splitting when shot with #1 buckshot. Had what I'd call a "light bbl" t begin with.
 
have you thought about adding a light? Lots of options out there to add on a light to a good shotgun.
 
Personally, I like to lengthen the forcing cone, and then give the entire barrel and chamber a going over with Brownells Flex Hones to give the innards a good polish. With good buckshot it's not that noticeable, but with Sellier and Bellot and some other "economy" loads it makes a considerable difference. I've been told that it also cuts recoil, but I have not been able to tell a difference.

Opinions vary, but IMO if your fowling piece is to be used for home defense a weapon-mounted light is a must.

Denny
 
If you do decide to get ghost ring sights I strongly suggest MMC. I have some on my Rem. 870 20 gauge and they are tough as nails and also have tritinum?(cant spell) inserts.
 
I can't find my notes on this(no surprise) but I recall one cone job did cut a couple inches off 25 yard patterns. Once I get This Old Barrel reconed in a couple weeks, I'll shoot some of my SL 00 loads and compare results to the same loads in that barrel before the change.
 
The eagle product is much better,
Click to expand...

Reeally. I think the BH is pretty good, no complaints...But if the Eagle is better, maybe I should look into that. My son still needs one anyhoo. Maybe I'll order him one and compare. Whats better about the Eagle?

Got a link to them?
 
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