Rem 870 Question

[Garrett213]

I currently shoot a rem 870 20 gauge with a 26" barrel. Shooting 7.5s/9s blend through a sumtoy .562
It shoots great. I was thinking about getting the barrel shortened and rethreaded. Do y'all think shortening my barrel is going to affect my pattern much? I don't want to mess up what I got going on, but would also like a shorter gun to pack around.

[USMC0331]

My 21 inch barrel 870nwas very picky on choke tube. 7th one I tried is the one I currently use. On my BPS 26inch barrel it did not like any brand .555 to 565. I have a 585 in it . Sorry it is not exactly what you were asking but I thought it might help.

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[DMTJAGER]

If I were you I would think VERY hard and VERY long before I changed ANYTHING about a great performing firearm.

I'm 6'2" and quite wide so getting around in the overgrown spring turkey woods can be difficult add on to this I carry a Browning square folding turkey chair, a turkey vest and a 870 ESM with a 26" barrel and things at times can get a bit more than challenging finding my way through overgrown springtime underbrush. But my gun, my chair and my vest all work so unbelievably well I refuse to change anything about any of them. And my 98% success rate (100% shot opportunity) on spring turkeys in two different states in the last 30 years is proof I should leave well enough alone.

I do have 21", 23" and 26" barrels for my 12ga 870's both 3" and 3.5" chambers. I shot enough lead turkey shells trying to find the best shell/barrel/choke combo to pay for another 870. What I found and I have no explanation as to why, but consistently my 26" barrels gave significantly better patterns from 45 yards to 60+ yards than my shorter barrels but especially were better than my 21" barrels.

No offence but in my opinion a 20ga 870 is already a pretty light gun to begin with and I personally again this is MY opinion don't see what you could gain by shedding literally 3 MAYBE 4 ounces and 2-3 inches could be possibly worth risking screwing up a great performing gun.

And unless you have a considerable stock pile of TSS or reload, current TSS shell prices even for 20ga are north of $12 a shell, so patterning and sighting in could become quite costly especially if your new shorter barrel is finicky and doesn't like the chokes you currently use. 

As I said I'd give it a good deal of thought before I changed a great pattering gun for what is in MY OPINION minimal gain.

[lowoctane]

 
To continue this thought process, shortening a Remington barrel will force you out of Remchokes as all Rems have their choke ends slightly swaged from their factory to accommodate their tubes so if you do have the barrel cut you'll end up using TruChokes. Just the way it is...

[BandedSpur]

Personally, I would never even entertain the notion. For me, 26" is the perfect barrel length on a repeater, and you risk spending a lot of money for no improvement, or worse. If I thought I had to have a shorter barrel, I would buy another barrel.

[Ozarks Hillbilly]

If you want a shorter barrel I would purchase a shorter barrel before I would cut off the 26" you currently have. 

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[Garrett213]

Thanks for the replies. Y'all have convinced me to leave it the way it is.

[Turkeytider]

Thanks for the replies. Y'all have convinced me to leave it the way it is.

Smart decision. As was said, you`d be better off just buying a shorter barrel than running the risk of screwing up one that shoots well.