I don't know many people who consider Remington 870's and Mosssberg 500 series shotguns top shelf. If they do it's only because they haven't been around real quality.

Me, I grew up on a trap range. We literally had the only one for 100 miles in any direction and it was right in our back yard. There were people that came there that would consider a High Standard a low budget shotgun in every way.

People brought shotguns they paid thousands of dollars for to our house. It was 1961 and 1962 when we had the trap machine. They were rare at the time. Dad kept it for a couple of seasons then sold it. He bought it to impress his bosses at work who were big into quail hunting and it worked too. They came to our house to practice for shooting quail.

The really expensive shotguns weren't shot. They were there to look at. They would leave them on our kitchen table where I got to look at them and handle them as long as I followed one simple rule - don't touch the metal for any reason. I was 5 years old and I was drooling over some of the most expensive shotguns made. Some cost as much as $3500 and that was in 1961 dollars. Multiply that by 10 for today's prices.

So whatever shotgun you look at remember there's always a better one around. They get to be so good and so expensive that you might as well have an 870 because you can shoot it without worrying about it. Lots of people shot single shot shotguns in fact. And there was a thing where if you were quail hunting everyone expected you to have a single shot, break down shotgun. They expected you to walk with it broke down so no one ended up getting shot if the guy down the line fell down.

The point of all this is that value is relative. Personally I like 870's even though I have no delusions that it's the best shotgun made. Not even close. But it works and it doesn't cost a fortune. That was always what made the 870 popular. Remington undercut the prices of Winchester in particular and sold an entry level shotgun - the 870.

Today we see clones of the 870 coming from China. I've had two of them. I still have one. I gave one to my daughter's boyfriend. Both have always worked flawlessly. They may not be beautiful but isn't the real point whether they will go bang when you pull the trigger and then send buckshot into a reasonable pattern at the target? Because they have both worked perfectly in that regard. Yes they were cheap. That doesn't make them bad shotguns. It just makes them inexpensive shotguns. They are actually made by Norinco. Remington saw them as such a threat they bought the factory where they are made. Now instead of being sold as Norinco brand shotguns they are sold as NEF shotguns, which ic another brand owned by Freedom Group.

I just don't see how you can get better than "works every time". They aren't hard to operate. They don't jam. And they shoot a good pattern. If what you want is a shotgun that works they are a great choice. FWIW you can get a Mossberg 500 for just a little more money and those are also fine shotguns. It's like buying a Marlin 60 .22. It's cheap but it works well. And because of that they have sold way north of 10 million of them. People like inexpensive stuff that works. Not everyone is a collector. And BTW I don't see any prices on High Standards that come close to the price of those Chinese shotguns where I live. And I've looked at a lot of guns at gun shops in the used racks and at flea markets etc.. Used shotguns are not cheap here. A Wingmaster from their classic period sells for $500 or more. It's because you can only hunt deer with slugs or that was the law. You can hunt with smooth bore rifles now but I've never seen even one of those in a local shop.