MacTech
Member
I figure at *some* point I may be adding an 870 to my small but growing shotgun collection (probably a 20 gauge, just to have something different), but one thing concerns me, in many of the 870 threads I've read, a common annoyance has been the ease at which an 870 tends to pick up a "bloom" of cosmetic surface corrosion, I figure it had to be a fluke
This afternoon, I stopped by my local "fun store", and looked at a bunch of 870's, love the solid feel of the pump action, but not a fan of the shell lifter getting in the way of loading, the safety, meh, not an issue, I have crossbolt safeties on my .22 rifles, so it's not something I haven't encountered before
However, I saw first-hand the corrosion issue on nearly every 870 I picked up, new, used, it mattered not, some were worse than others, but I'd say that at least 85-95% of the 870's I handled had rust on them somewhere
To be fair, these *are* firearms that are on display racks where they can be picked up by potential customers, and who knows how sweaty/salty their hands may be, or if they have exceptionally corrosive sweat, it's not fair to summary judge the entire line as "prone to rusting" when who knows how many people have handled them, it's not like they're wearing acid-free cotton gloves or wiping the guns down with a silicone cloth after handling....
Still, the corrosion issue concerns me, as we have a salt marsh on the outer edge of our property, and live a mere 10 minute drive from the beach (the fun shop is within walking distance of a salt marsh as well), so corrosion *would* be an issue for any 870 I would end up bringing home....
That said, no other pumpguns I looked at seemed to have such an issue with surface corrosion, "Brand M, Brand I, Brand B, Brand HR", and any other brand I picked up had no corrosion issues (ruling out old, abused guns obviously), the issue seemed largely endemic to the 870 line, and mattered not whether I was looking at an Express, or Wingmaster
Please tell me this is an issue with the display guns being handled by the "unwashed masses", and not a problem with an otherwise great pumpgun line
This afternoon, I stopped by my local "fun store", and looked at a bunch of 870's, love the solid feel of the pump action, but not a fan of the shell lifter getting in the way of loading, the safety, meh, not an issue, I have crossbolt safeties on my .22 rifles, so it's not something I haven't encountered before
However, I saw first-hand the corrosion issue on nearly every 870 I picked up, new, used, it mattered not, some were worse than others, but I'd say that at least 85-95% of the 870's I handled had rust on them somewhere
To be fair, these *are* firearms that are on display racks where they can be picked up by potential customers, and who knows how sweaty/salty their hands may be, or if they have exceptionally corrosive sweat, it's not fair to summary judge the entire line as "prone to rusting" when who knows how many people have handled them, it's not like they're wearing acid-free cotton gloves or wiping the guns down with a silicone cloth after handling....
Still, the corrosion issue concerns me, as we have a salt marsh on the outer edge of our property, and live a mere 10 minute drive from the beach (the fun shop is within walking distance of a salt marsh as well), so corrosion *would* be an issue for any 870 I would end up bringing home....
That said, no other pumpguns I looked at seemed to have such an issue with surface corrosion, "Brand M, Brand I, Brand B, Brand HR", and any other brand I picked up had no corrosion issues (ruling out old, abused guns obviously), the issue seemed largely endemic to the 870 line, and mattered not whether I was looking at an Express, or Wingmaster
Please tell me this is an issue with the display guns being handled by the "unwashed masses", and not a problem with an otherwise great pumpgun line
