870 Transmogrification

About 3 years ago I signed up for a defensive shotgun course. I bought a Remington 870 Hd shotgun with +2 factory extension. I added all the other stuff because having never taken a fighting shotgun class this is what I thought I needed. It served me well for the class and I'm keeping it as is.



I asked Santa to bring this one Christmas before last. Since I have acquired several auto loaders that I use for hunting and clays, so I decided to change this one into another fighting shotgun more along the lines that I now think a fighting shotgun should be. Here is the before:



And here is the final result.



18 1/2" barrel with tritium rifle sights. Haven't made my mind up about an extension yet. I'm thinking 5+1 is adequate for HD, but I may spring for a +2 extension. We'll see. The stock is a pull from a police gun (I prefer the corn cob fore end).

BTW, I have done a fair amount of this type of work. This was the most difficult to remove fore end nut I have ever encountered. It had some thread lock compound of some kind on it. It was really tight the entire length of the threads. The butt stock bolt was really tight also. It didn't have thread lock that I could tell, but it was almost like an interference fit. I cleaned up the threads on both ends with a 1/4" x 28 tap and die. I also had to shorten the butt stock bolt by about 1/4". It bottomed out before it pulled the stock tight. I got the gun new in the box, so this was the first time the fore end and butt stock had been removed. Finally, I added a small amount of shim on the right side between the stock and receiver to make my cheek weld line up properly with the sights. This, in my opinion is what a fighting shotgun should be. Short (I'm a little shy of 5'8", and I can hold the gun by the pistol grip, and the barrel clears the ground by about 2"), fairly light, super maneuverable.

Can't wait to hit the range.

Well, Lee we are pretty much on the same page here. I bought a sling swivel set to install on the magazine cap, but when I got it home and opened it up the stud that the swivel attaches to was broken off...back to Cabelas. The stock came with a Remington branded Limbsaver pad so I'm good to go there.

As far as sidesaddles are concerned, I'm not a fan. I just find them awkward and they seem to always be in the way for me. So, maybe the +2 extension is a good idea.

Now the light arrangement is interesting. I will look into that.

As far as my wife using the shotgun...forget it. She is a pistol gal, and pretty proficient with it. LOP is 14", which is just about perfect for me. I have had a twig get between the back end of the fore end and the receiver keep me from cycling the gun. While this can still happen with the corncob, you have a couple of inches more travel that makes it a bit more forgiving. My wife is only about 1" shorter than me, so she could use it ok as it is if necessary.

Thanks for the input.