The Remington 870s have been around since the 1940s and over 10 million have been sold since for a reason----they work. I picked up the police trade in gun reviewed today about a year ago for under $300 (should have bought 5 at that price!); it’s the 20’’ 7+1 model with rifle sights. It was beat up on the outside but looked like it had been shot very, very little. I put on a set of my favorite furniture (Magpul), polished up the chamber with some steel wool, and got to running rounds through it. Quick summary of the pros and cons below:
Pros:
-100% reliable with all loads I’ve put through it from low brass Walmart ammo to full power 3’’ slugs/buckshot
-Parkerized finish
-Tons of aftermarket support
-I’m a fan of the rifle sights
-Combat proven shotgun
-Comes with the forged extractor and heavy carrier dog spring that many Express model users end up installing anyway
-7+1 capacity on this model
-Handles & points very well
-Spare parts are available at pretty much every gun shop in the country should you ever need them
Cons:
-14’’ factory LOP. I’m 6’0’’ and I prefer a shorter (around 12’') LOP. Most people I know do as well
-The rear sight is somewhat odd. The notch is a little tight and a peep sight would likely be both faster and more accurate. I know they have models with Wilson rings on the receiver but just replacing the rear sight with a peep would still help out with quick acquisition
Here’s a review video with some shooting and a discussion of the gun’s properties:
870 HD Video Review Link
I took delivery of mine earlier last week and I haven’t had the chance to take it out to the range. I broke it down and looked everything over. Other than cruiser wear on the external parkerization (much like yours), the internals look flawless. Taking out the fore end assembly from the plastic fore end, there was light rust (typical) and I went ahead and oiled up that area. Yours seems to have more consistent coloration than mine. The +3 extension and the magazine lug parkerization on the barrel of my shotgun is much lighter than the parkerization from the rest of the gun for no discernible reason. The lifter has no notable wear from brass rubbing against it while loading shells. All the bits inside the receiver didn’t have so much as a thread of lint or speck of dirt built up in the corners. The barrel has some streak marks from either slugs or wadding. I’m not sure how old these guns are but I haven’t steel wooled my barrel as the chamber looked good with a bore light. These things probably have no more than a couple hundred rounds through them at the range and the shotgun has probably never been used defensively.
Mine came with a 6-round Tacstar shotshell saddle. Unfortunately it covers up the distinctive OSHP flying tire logo. I wish I had received a wingmaster version with the OSHP engraving at the very front of the receiver so I could run a 4-round sidesaddle without covering up the logo. I’m considering running saddle-less but I’ll need to buy a set of pins since it came with the Tacstar pins.
I also agree the factory stock is too long and I installed a 13" LOP modified Speedfeed stock which is shown on a DIY thread I created earlier. I actually like the OSHP medallion on the factory stock so I chopped it down and I’m waiting for an aftermarket pad to turn it into a 13" LOP stock so it bears some original character. I was hoping they came with the 13" LOP Remington LE stocks but no such luck.
I am also probably dropping it to a 18.5" rifled barrel and +2 setup as I feel the extra 1.5" of the barrel and a full mag tube, plus a light starts to make it heavy for myself. Even downloading the mag by one (which I do on my shotguns so I can top a slug into the tube if need-be without ejecting a live shell from the chamber) didn’t help much.
Like you mentioned, the rear notch of the rifle sight is really, really tiny. I’ve never looked down another 870 rifle sight barrel so I don’t know if these are factory sights. Target acquisition is actually kind of slow. I set it up with a CDM MOD-C mount and as a coincidence, I found tapping the light, given it’s location with a Surefire 6P using a KX4 head and shrouded Z48 tailcap switch actually lights up the white dot on the front sight, which made it feel similar to a fiber sight. I’m going to replace the set with the XS 24/7 and I’m debating between the big dot or standard dot. I’ve shot handguns to 50 yards with the big dots but it starts covering a lot of real estate and I’m thinking that a standard dot using the XS system will be just as fast on a long gun.
I’ve got a Magpul SGA forend on order since I’ve been dying to try it and I’ve had a chance to try the Surefire M69 and Surefire weaponlight forend to see which I might run with this rig. The only downside to the Surefire shotgun weaponlight is the hump looooves to bite your knuckles if you utilize the push/pull method of recoil control. The factory LE forend seems a bit lacking in grip so hopefully it comes down between the discontinued M69 or Magpul.
One last downside (in my opinion) is the factory safety. I always seem to end up replacing all my safeties with an oversized pancake or the jumbo “button” type. I really like being able to easily activate it with the joint of my finger when I transition from outside the trigger guard to inside. However, for the $270 asking price of these OSHP 870P shotguns, it’s a hell of a deal. I hate my 870 express. The thing rusts faster than wet brake rotors. Even though it only takes $30 to upgrade the express internals to police standard, we’re left with the lousy bead blasted blued finish.