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I'm thinking about getting a Remington 870. Are new ones as good as old ones? I'm after something I could use to clobber birds after our corn. They get in there and strip top of ears in the green stage, after which the rest gets taken by aphids or mold. Possibly hunt deer, too, as the closest area is shotgun only. I think I want replaceable chokes, which used guns often don't have. Unfamiliar with shotguns. Have never fired one. :s0071:
 
I'm thinking about getting a Remington 870. Are new ones as good as old ones? I'm after something I could use to clobber birds after our corn. They get in there and strip top of ears in the green stage, after which the rest gets taken by aphids or mold. Possibly hunt deer, too, as the closest area is shotgun only. I think I want replaceable chokes, which used guns often don't have. Unfamiliar with shotguns. Have never fired one. :s0071:


This is a Ford Chevy question lol.

I 100% think 870's are better then Mossbergs.

I have an older one and a newer one.

Older is heavier with all metal trigger assembly. It's my HD gun.

Newer one is lighter, has removable chokes and is my woods gun. I use it for birds but would not hesitate to grab a deer with it as well.


My only advise would be to search for one used as 99.99% of people will not put enough use on a shotgun in 20 years to make much of a difference.


Plan to have to adjust it a bit depending on your frame - the right length of pull makes a world of difference.

Also limb savers can help with recoil but add length that might nessecitate a stock cut or adjustment.


If you handle a pistol or rifle then a shotgun is that much easier as there normally isn't much too learn with the function, just more follow thru if tracking a moving object.




I love shotguns
 
870s have come out in a few different grades over the years. Basically, the "Express" is a very basic no-frills version with a flat finish and some cheaper small parts. The "Wingmaster" is a higher quality version with blued steel and more metal small parts. It also has nicer wood.

Any current version you buy with a vent rib barrel of 24 inches or longer will have RemChokes and a wrench to switch them out. Barrels are easy to find if you want to hunt birds one day and then hunt deer the next. A 26 or 28 inch barrel for bird shot and a 20 inch barrel with sights would be a good combo. There are rifled barrels, but I prefer a smooth bore for the use of buck shot or rifled slugs.

As an example of Ford vs Chevy, I wouldn't buy a new 870. Ive broken the last three Ive owned (one of which was a sweet 20 gauge). The new express versions have cheesy plastic trigger guards, a porous flat finish that rusts really easy, and lots of cheap small parts like the extractor.

I'm a convert to Mossberg. I like the position of the safety better, the slide release can be operated without changing grip, it uses double extractors that have been 100% reliable for me.
 
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Newer one
IMG_2159.JPG

Older one
IMG_1933.JPG
 
This won't answer your question, but I prefer a 17hmr for birds in the crops. Spraying shot into the corn makes for tough eating. Plus your range is extended three fold. Wave a shotgun around in an open crop field and you probably won't get you a shot. Just my $.02 .....
 
So i know the new new 870 are getting better but for the birds i would get a 17 and for the deer i would find a savage modle 212 ... But you can't realy go wrong with the 870 if you want a shotgun
 
So i know the new new 870 are getting better but for the birds i would get a 17 and for the deer i would find a savage modle 212 ... But you can't realy go wrong with the 870 if you want a shotgun
Ya caught me. Yeah, I really do want just wanna shotgun. Fact is, my vision has deteriorated to the point where it's hard to see the sights on my handguns. I'm in the process of retraining myself to shoot my 629 8 3/8-inch exclusively by whole gun aiming. Am learning using laser cartridges. It's actually outrageously fun. I use the front sight and line it up the right amount below my line of sight. Below the line of sight so I can use straight arms rather than cocked wrists. It's the entire top of the gun that's serving as back sight. That is, with my old eyes, I'm finding it works better to shoot a long-barreled revolver as if it's a shotgun.

So then I suddenly think, hey, SHOTGUN! They are actually designed to shoot using just a front sight and the plane of the top of the gun for a back sight. !!! Maybe here's a whole new shooting game I could learn and enjoy. And I can even think of some practical reasons for having a shotgun. And its true the one good place to hunt nearby is somewhere I can't hunt with my .44s. But the bottom line is, girl just wantsta have fun.
 
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For those recommending .17hmr for her bird problem... Have we considered that the birds are at the top of 4'-7' cornstalks? What is behind, what is the backstop, where are the houses, where is the highway... did i miss something?
 
For those recommending .17hmr for her bird problem... Have we considered that the birds are at the top of 4'-7' cornstalks? What is behind, what is the backstop, where are the houses, where is the highway... did i miss something?
Right. It would not be safe to shoot a rifle at the birds in the corn. There are open fields and pasture behind the corn field, not a backstop. (But not a highway or houses either.)
 
In 2007 Remington was purchased by Freedom Arms group who cut the quality control at Remington pretty dramatically to reduce costs. Which obviously led to quality issues with the firearms. So buy pre-2007 if you're gonna buy a Remington.
How can you identify a pre-2007 Remington 870 Wingmaster? (Sounds like that's what I want.) By serial number only, or some other way?
 

The older ones also have metal trigger guards but I don't know what year they switched to plastic.

I'm a Mossberg convert myself. Too bad, the 870's used to be really good.
 
I wonder if I should be considering a semi-auto instead of a pump shotgun as a matter of recoil reduction. ??? I'm apprehensive about recoil, having never fired a shotgun. Shot Winchester Model 94 30-30 as a kid and didnt mind recoil. Tried one again decades later, and found the recoil too unpleasant. And shotguns are notorious fir veating up shooters, and 30-30s arent. I dont mind recoil of my .44 mags, but mine are heavy, not light guns, and they just move my arms, not punch me in the shoulder. Only occurred to me later, though, that as a kid, I was wearing a heavy padded shooting jacket when firing the Model 94, but as an adult, ordinary outdoor clothes. And the gun had no recoil pad. However, I suspect it behooves me to do all I can to mitigate recoil. The suggestion of a Limbsaver recoil pad was really useful.

Do you get a serious reduction in recoil from a semi-auto vs a pump shotgun?


And apparently some here prefer 20 gauge shotguns. Is that because of recoil? Is it just a little harder to hit with a 20 gauge as a 12 gauge, or a lot harder?
 

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