ConvertIng 870 express to short home defense

[jimmyj]

One of my officer had a M870 with a slug barrel and it would not throw buckshot well enough to qualify with.

 

[Bumpus13]

Standard buttstock & an 18” Barrel will absolutely do what you need.

If corners are too tight in your house for this setup to work, you should be wielding a handgun anyway.

 

[Univibe]

Express ars I reliable junk. I've seen them fail right out of the box. Get the 870 police model if your life depends on it.

 

[alwslate]

Express ars I reliable junk. I've seen them fail right out of the box. Get the 870 police model if your life depends on it.

Good Rum huh? Same old stuff, different day I've shot Trap
with an Express with never a malfunction. A hunting companion
has one as his only hunting shotgun, virtually no finish left on
the receiver and still going strong. The 870 Express is probably
the best shotgun buy on the market

 

[Frank46]

Some years ago when the flood of used 870 police turn in shotguns were on the market I bought two. One had a 18" barrel,the other a 21" barrel. Brass bead front sight. I figure if they worked for the officers who'd been carrying them,then they should work for me. Price for one was a whopping $195 and the other was $225 so in essence I got two tested 870 pump action shotguns. And both came with the two shot extended mag tubes. Got bored one night and stripped the wood on one and sanded the wood down. Sealed the wood with sanding sealer. Then lightly sanded the wood and about 6 coats tru oil. Like working with my hands and both the buttstock and forend came out nice. Found two small limb saver slip on butt pads. The origainal butt pads had ossified into rocks. On went the limb savers. Tests with both 4/0 buckshot and 1 ounce slugs showed me that the limb saver butt pads were worth the money. Frank

 

[JayFramer]

Every single trainee I have ever had (hundreds of professional warfighters) have fired one full magazine out of a pump 12 gauge with a pistol grip and put the stock back on. Every single one

You mustn’t of tried the Birdshead?

The one on the Mossy Shocky Shorty Shotty (MS3, AKA Mossberg Shockwave) tames recoil of even full power buck. It delivers the driving forces in a lateral movement against the power of both arms, not directly into the palm as a standard pistol grip. It’s very controllable, and reduced recoil loads are *****cats.

There is also the Op Sol mini shell adapter that lets one use the very low recoil Aguila Mini Shells and there are buckshot ones available. It increases the onboard capacity of the shotgun by almost twice, and still delivers more knock down than any handgun round.

A red dot, side saddle, and Surefire tactical light forend and that would be the best defensive shotgun rig yet!!

 

[JayFramer]

Some years ago when the flood of used 870 police turn in shotguns were on the market I bought two. One had a 18" barrel,the other a 21" barrel. Brass bead front sight. I figure if they worked for the officers who'd been carrying them,then they should work for me. Price for one was a whopping $195 and the other was $225 so in essence I got two tested 870 pump action shotguns. And both came with the two shot extended mag tubes. Got bored one night and stripped the wood on one and sanded the wood down. Sealed the wood with sanding sealer. Then lightly sanded the wood and about 6 coats tru oil. Like working with my hands and both the buttstock and forend came out nice. Found two small limb saver slip on butt pads. The origainal butt pads had ossified into rocks. On went the limb savers. Tests with both 4/0 buckshot and 1 ounce slugs showed me that the limb saver butt pads were worth the money. Frank

What is 4/0 buck?

I think what you were trying to say is #4 Buckshot? Or were you in fact shooting 0000 (quadruple aught) loads? Interesting if so.

 

[S-W4EVER]

Standard buttstock & an 18” Barrel will absolutely do what you need. If corners are too tight in your house for this setup to work, you should be wielding a handgun anyway.

+1. We seem to be in the minority these days, given all the interest in those Shockwaves and TAC 13’s & 14’s.

I tried shooting one of those 870P’s w/ 14” bbl. at work and didn’t like it either. Most of my shotguns (both autoloaders and pumps) have a full stock (some w/ Pistol Grip full stock) and 18” IC bbl. One of my 870P’s and my 11-87P have Surefire Weaponlight forends.

I think rather than walking around my house with a shotgun I’d set up a hasty ambush and let the bad guy come to me.

 

[Mule Packer]

I'm gonna have to go with squidsix, murphydog, S-W4EVER and others who highly recommend keeping your standard stock and just adding an 18-inch improved cylinder barrel to your 870. Mine has the Tru-Glo sights. I also added a sling and a butt cuff.

Is it tacti-cool? Nope. Does it work? Yep. Sometimes one has to sacrifice coolness for function.