Help selecting Remington 870 20 gauge

[mountainhunter1]

Get an older one if you can. I have seven 870 and two of them are the newest of the old when they added the safety lock. All of them function perfectly. I have heard some not good reports on the new ones.

While 10th is spot on correct that they did have some major issues in recent years with quality control - I think that Remington as far as the 870 is back on track and a great gun once again. They have been under new ownership for several years now and have even changed the name of that gun trying to separate themselves from what had become a problem with the 870 during the final years of the previous ownership (now called the Fieldmaster). The wood is a bit better, the finish is much better and the action is noticeably better. And - still has that wonderful solid steel receiver. Have seen two of the new ones go through plum torture tests and have yet to not fire when the trigger was pulled.

For your purposes, I would suggest a 870 Fieldmaster Compact 870 with the 21" barrel (same gun most call the youth model) in a synthetic configuration for the stock and forearm. The gun weighs right at 6 pounds. You can get it dipped, cerakoted, or just spray can it if the black bothers you. And yes, the new 870 Fieldmaster is drilled and tapped for sights (praise the Lord for that). Even better - the compact synthetic version comes with a fully adjustable LOP system which is killer! Also uses the Remchoke system so that you can pick the choke that you want.

Sounds like you wanted to reduce recoil - maybe start out then with a Burgess Creek 2 3/4 shell with a 1 3/8 load of either 8's or 9's. Great load that will kill turkeys further than we need to be shooting. Satties Fatties and Windy Hill both make similar loads, as well as the Apex 20LT which is also a lighter load. But unless you are loading your own shells or have a buddy who can make you a lighter load, I would probably start with the Burgess Creek. Get you a Trulock .575 or .585 and you should be very happy no matter which load you decide to go with.

All that said, if you are not convinced and want to go with an older 870 Express, any gun you can find from the 1990's (and they are fairly readily available), will outlast either you or myself. the 870 Youth Model back then also had the 21" barrel with Remchoke system so you can pick the exact choke that you want. Those guns were tanks. But - they are not drilled and tapped and will need to have that fixed. And you will lose the ability to fine tune LOP as you can with the new Fieldmaster.

This is exactly what I did when the Fieldmasters first came out. I put a Magpul stock on mine and got it dipped/cerakoted.

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Very Nice!!

[Pelican]

Guys, looking to put a set of truglo gobble dots on this 20ga 870. What would be the correct rib size?

[runngun]

If you are able to find a Remington 870 20 gauge Youth/Compact with 21 inch barrel. I believe that you will be more than happy. I have one that I have been hunting with the last several years. It's an Express that I did some work on. I changed the foreskin and stock to Magpul. I put a Wolf mag spring and new follower, changed firing pin spring, and changed the extractor.  Also changed all of the trigger group springs. Oh and I installed a LEFT HANDED SAFETY. Was all of this needed?  Nope! But I feel better about it and I now have CONFIDENCE IN IT!!! It's not the only way but now it's my way.
Have a good one and May God bless y'all, Bo

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[Goat boy]

"Changing the foreskin"mentioned in the above post sounds like a painful modification   

[cofetid167]

Bump

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