The Firing Line Forums

Go Back   The Firing Line Forums > The Hide > The Dave McCracken Memorial Shotgun Forum

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old April 22, 2007, 10:18 PM   #1
phantom_890
Member
 
Join Date: December 25, 2005
Location: FT. Drum, NY
Posts: 32
Remington 870 18'' barrel and capacity question.

I have a Remington 870 HD with an 18 inch barrel and a stock factory mag extension which brings the capacity up to 6+1. My question is why do other shotguns such as the Winchester 1300 and Mossberg 500's with the exact same barrel length hold 7+1 with their factory magazine extensions? I have seen after market +2 extensions for Remington 870's with 18 inch barrels and I wonder why Remington doesn't use these. And I was also wondering which of these aftermarket extensions you guys would recommend.
__________________
Proud owner of both a Safari Arms Matchmaster 1911 and a GLOCK 26. I am a house divided.
phantom_890 is offline  
Old April 23, 2007, 12:19 AM   #2
Dfariswheel
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 4, 2001
Posts: 7,477
Capacity is a matter of the design of the receiver and magazine tube.
The Remington will ALMOST handle another shell, but not quite.

In extensions here's the best:
The Remington factory.
Has the best barrel clamp design, and it is held in position on the extension by the screw which interlocks with the groove in the extension tube.
This means the clamp will stay in place under recoil without having to tighten the screw so tight it might strip.
Expensive, and harder to get, but the best.

The Choate.
It's the best for price/quality/availability.
It comes as a complete kit with tube, spring, heavy-duty magazine follower, barrel clamp, and forward sling swivel.
It comes in a satin black sulfate or dark gray parkerized finish, in lengths to fit guns from 18" to 26" and for many brands of shotguns.

The Wilson/Scattergun Tech.
Very good quality, but doesn't come with a barrel clamp.
Some people don't like the sling swivel setup.

The Hans Vang.
Extremely good quality, but again, no clamp.

The Tank's Rifle Shop.
A very high quality, very close copy of the Remington factory extension, only the clamp screw doesn't interlock with the tube.

The Tac-Star.
Also comes in blue or parkerized, and in several lengths.
Only the longer models have a clamp.
Tac-Star does have a past reputation for some quality problems like tubes out of line and out-of-round mounting collars.

The AT plastic unit.
I don't recommend this one. It's a plastic tube cast around a steel mounting collar.

If the unit you buy does not have a barrel clamp, buy one.
It makes NO difference how strong the extension is. It can be a solid steel bar.
The weak point is the gun's magazine tube which has wide, deep threads that weaken the already thin tube.
A bump can knock the extension off the gun if there's no supporting clamp, and this almost always damages the gun's magazine tube.
This means a trip back to Remington to have a new tube brazed in and the gun refinished.

An unsupported extension is a handy lever that can break the extension off the gun.

USE A CLAMP.

My personal preference for extensions is the Choate.
It's a very good quality, and Choate has been making them for many years with no problems.
They come as a complete kit with nothing else to buy, and they give no trouble.
Dfariswheel is offline  
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:50 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
This site and contents, including all posts, Copyright © 1998-2021 S.W.A.T. Magazine
Copyright Complaints: Please direct DMCA Takedown Notices to the registered agent: thefiringline.com
Page generated in 0.05307 seconds with 10 queries