The Remington 870 for Home Defense: Part 1

the Remington 870 is by far the most popular repeating shotgun ever made there's something like 10 million up from out there they've been used for hunting for a competition by police and military and today I want to talk about setting up a 12-gauge 870 for use as a home defense gun there have been hundreds of different versions of 870 released over the years and it can be kind of confusing to figure out which one to use as a starting point so if you've got like an old 870 that your granddad had sitting in the closet for years can you turn that into a home defense gun or do you need to go to the store and get a brand new 870 tactical with all the cool black plastic stuff on it there's a lot of different directions you can go with it but in the end you probably want a shotgun that has some of the six key features that I talked about last week for any good home defense shotgun those are a short barrel a short stock an extended magazine tube a shell carrier sights and a white light now you don't necessarily have to have all six of those things but it's a good starting point especially those first three so you can get any of those things on a brand new 870 or you can modify one but before you start shopping there's a few things about the Remington 870 you might want to know most Remington 870 s are based on one of three basic models the 870 express 870 Wingmaster and the 870 police the Express is Remington's budget model now that has meant different things over the years but in general the Express models are not quite as robust or refined and not subject to the same degree of quality control as the other models most of the new tactical models that Remington makes today actually say Express tactical if you look at the receiver so even though there might be five hundred dollars worth of crap bolted on to them the base gun is actually the budget version of the 870 so something you want to keep in mind the wing masters are the premium hunting shotguns they usually have a nicer finish and nicer stock than the Express models especially the older ones they were really nice looking shotguns and there was no mistaking a wing master and some of the internal components are a little better as well the 870 police is built to higher overall standards with some small changes to the internal parts and some stronger Springs to make sure that it will function reliably and can take a lot of abuse in addition to those three models there are also eight seventies marked as Magnum so like express Magnum or wing master Magnum that just means that the shotguns are chambered to use the three-inch shells and addition to the more standard two and three-quarter inch shells newer 870's are all chamber for Magnum shells and eventually Remington stop putting the Magnum designation on the receiver if you have any doubt as to whether an 870 can take Magnum shells just look at the barrel and assuming it's the barrel that came with the shotgun it'll tell you what size shells it can take but really none of that matters all that much for a home defense shotgun because any of the good defensive buckshot loads that are out there are just 2 and 3/4 inch shells now Magnum or not ideally your home defense shotgun would be as rugged and dependable as an 870 police model but you don't necessarily have to use one of the police guns if you've got an old wing master or you can find a used one for cheap those are an excellent starting point for a home defense shotgun I would even say that the Express models are pretty good if you don't intend to shoot it a whole lot but you also have to take into account the fact that the quality of the 870s has changed over time any of the overt 870s no matter which model you're talking about they're probably going to be better quality than any of the ones made in the last decade or so this is especially true for the Express models the ones made in the last few years are notorious for rusting really easily they just have a really weak finish and the chambers can also be really rough which can actually cause shells to get stuck now any of these problems can be fixed but it's probably a better use of your money to just start with an older 870 that doesn't have these problems you can find used Express models and masters at pretty much any pawn shop in the country and if you do some searching there are also a ton of surplus 870 police models out there they're not always really easy to find but if you're patient every so often a large police department will sell off all their old shotguns and then the used market will just be swimming in really nice $300 870 police models for a while so if you really want the best bang for your buck keep an eye out for one of those deals my 870 started out as an old police model that I picked up for $250 with no barrel and even after buying a barrel and a front sight and a new four end a new stock and a sidesaddle I spent over $100 less than I would have on a new express tactical with similar features it's got a really smooth action it's nice and broken-in and because it's a police model I can have confidence in its long-term durability so with the 870 it really pays to kind of shop around and consider all your options before you just decide to go out buy a new one so if you're interested in using an 870 for home defense at this point you might be wondering how to actually do these modifications are you going to have to take the gun to a gunsmith or can you do them yourself well the short answer is you can probably knock out most of it yourself but that is going to be the topic of part two I'm going to be explaining some of the specifics of how to actually fix up your 870 so keep an eye out for that video coming soon you

Channel: Lucky Gunner Ammo

Views: 602,402

Rating: 4.894186 out of 5

Keywords: Remington Arms (Business Operation), Remington Model 870, shooting, home defense, personal protection

Id: 2ipA86ri5C8

Length: 5min 48sec (348 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 10 2015