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Old June 4, 2013, 08:13 AM   #1
dayman
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Remington 870 crowning question.

So, I'm not sure if this should go here, or in the gunsmithing section, but I think it's more shotgun related than gunsmithing related, so I"m going to post it here.

I recently acquired as part of a trade a Remington 870 wingmaster that someone has bubba'd into a tactical gun.
The barrel is cut down to 20" - I think, but I haven't measured it yet - and it looks like it was done with either a dremel of a hacksaw. Not pretty.

So, my goal is to turn it into a usable and more attractive turkey/HD gun, and I have a few questions.

First and really most important, how likely is it that I can get the remainder of the barrel tapped to take screw in chokes? And, what's that likely to cost? Is it something that the average run of the mill smith should be able to do, or is it something that I should send away and have done by a specialist?
Would is be a better idea to just try to get it re crowned, and find something else for hunting?

Second, since I have no bead anyway, and I like ghost rings I was looking at the XS banded front sight. Does anyone have experience with it? It seems sturdier than the soldered versions, and would certainly be easy to install. They're not exactly cheap, but trijicon would probably be useful for hunting in the woods, and it would certainly work well for use as an HD gun.

Lastly, is has an atrocious hard plastic pistol grip stock on it right now. I was planning on finding a classic looking set of wood stocks, but if I'm planning on hauling it around the woods all day would something synthetic - like magpul's new stock - be preferable. In looking at the new guns it seems like most of the turkey guns are synthetic, so I assume there's some sort of reason.

Thanks in advance, and I'll be sure to post some pictures once I have some "afters" to go with the "befores".
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Old June 4, 2013, 08:35 AM   #2
jaguarxk120
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For the chokes, send the barrel to Mike Orlin. He can be found at www.shotgunworld.com in the gunsmithing section in the stickys.

Sights, he may be able to help you.

Stocks go to Midway or Brownells, they have replacement sets from most if not all the major stock mfgrs.
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Old June 4, 2013, 09:41 AM   #3
PetahW
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.

IIRC, any choke tube installer's going to need to know the remaining bbl wall thickness @ the muzzle, to see if the tubes they use will have enough meat for threading.

I would install a saddle-type scope mount that uses the TG pins, to hold a red dot for Turkey hunting.

Good/used 870 barrels aren't hard to find, nor expensive.



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Old June 4, 2013, 10:19 AM   #4
chewie146
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Why not just get a Wingmaster deer barrel with the removable chokes? I bought one for about $180, and it has the rifle sights, etc. It would probably be cheaper and quicker. For a stock, I like the synthetics from a variety of makers. I bought a factory Remington camo stock, I believe. The barrels have gone up a bit.

http://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/p...6+Rifle+Sights
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Old June 4, 2013, 10:20 AM   #5
Dreaming100Straight
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Measure that barrel length, before doing another thing, to ensure it is lf minimal legal length and will still be legal after enough is trmmed to clean up the ragged crown.
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Old June 4, 2013, 10:56 AM   #6
dayman
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Yeah, I'd certainly measure it before having it sent off (both length and thickness) but I'm fairly certian it's well over 18" It has a 2x magazine extension put on it, and the barrel extends a couple inches past that.

The thing is I'd really prefer to have aperture sights to either rifle sights, or to a red dot. My first thought was to buy a barrel, but I couldn't seem to find a ~20" barrel with removable chokes.

I did find a 21" vent rib barrel with rem chokes on midway, but I wasn;t sure how you'd go about attaching a sight ramp to a vent rib.
Also, it's close to $200, which would come close to getting me a whole used gun.

EDIT: I was also looking at the trijicon ghost ring set. I don't have a front post for the front sight to attach to, but is there any reason I couldn't weld it to the barrel?
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Last edited by dayman; June 4, 2013 at 01:17 PM.
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Old June 4, 2013, 03:23 PM   #7
Grant D
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Send it to Briley.
They shortened, ported, choked, and put double beads on my Remington 1100 for me, and it works great.
They can do anything you want to a shotgun.
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Old June 4, 2013, 07:38 PM   #8
dayman
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I had a chance to look it over better today.
I got it as part of a package deal, and I hadn't realized before that it could only take 2 3/4 shells.
As such, it's perfectly adequate for home defense/general purpose (I can't imagine 3" magnums are fun to shoot in an enclosed space), but probably wouldn't make for a great turkey/deer gun.
So, I'm not going to put a ton of money into it.
To deal with the lack of sights I ordered a "hiviz" snap on sight that I can epoxy on. Not the classiest option in the world, but that's okay.
I'm just going to cut it down to 18.25" (it's 20.5" at the moment), put a cheap mag extension (though not as cheap as the over-sized plastic monstrosity that's on it now) and a houge stock on it, shoot it with some duracoat, and keep it as a dedicated bump-in-the-night gun. Or maybe I'll sell it, or give it to one of my nephews.
All told it should cost me like $100, which is less than either the choke, or the night sights I was looking at originally.
Then I'll save my money and just buy a turkey gun that's already set up.

I'll definitely post pictures of whatever I wind up with, but the dream-shotgun project is on hold for the time being.
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Old June 4, 2013, 07:57 PM   #9
Lee Lapin
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Sounds like a perfectly reasonable approach, given the new information.

But just to complicate things...

Keep in mind, if there's enough 'meat' in the barrel to have choke tubes installed, there's probably enough to get the chamber lengthened to 3" too. You didn't mention where you were located, I've always been happy with the shotgun barrel work the folks at http://www.colonialarms.com/ did for me.
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