Remington 870 Customization

As we look at a stock Remington 870 we see a traditional shotgun. Long length of pull, simple forend, iron sights. No issues, right? It’s reliable and has proved itself since 1950. Well, like anything, guns, shooters, and uses all evolve. The uses for the Remington 870 has heavily evolved from being used during the response to Katrina, to now being ran in 3 Gun matches faster than a semi-auto shotgun.

It is a trusted gun that with just a little tweaking can be made into a fast and ergonomically friendly shotgun. "Fast and ergonomic" usually means adding ared dot to the gun instead of running just the front sight bead. Nowadays, many 870s that we see on the market will have pre-drilled screw holes, however, the project gun I’ll show here did not. It was a straight Remington 870 Express Tactical with a nondrilled receiver.

When it comes to adding an optic to a gun the first two questions always need to be, "What type/ types of optics do I want?" and "What type of mounting surface do I want?" There are multiple rail options that you can choose, such as mounts that are dot specific or a standard 1913 Picatinny rail which enables you to play with different optics. For example, the Trijicon RMR (Ruggedized Miniature Reflex) mount from Scalarworks is a very well made mount that mounts directly to your drilled receiver.

However, it is a specific to the RMR sight. While the Trijicon RMR is a perfectly viable option for a shotgun red dot, if you want the freedom of playing with different optics you will want to go with a 1913 mounting surface. A Picatinny rail allows you to play with both carbine and pistol type optics. The main thing when it comes to shotgun optics is durability. There is a lot of recoil that this electric box within glass is going to need to withstand.

Meaning, you may not want to go with a non duty-rated optic such as the Trijicon SRO (Specialized Reflex Optic). While it may be a good optic with a large window, it is simply not strong enough for how some run their shotgun. To continue on the mounting surface, let’s say that you didn’t want to Far This is due to the top of the receiver having more meat and it thinning out towards the end.

drill your receiver. No worries. If your 870 is not pre-drilled you do not need to drill it to be able to place a dot on the receiver. There are other options such as mounts that attach through the takedown pin holes, commonly called saddle mounts. These come in both metal and polymer and during installation the takedown pins will likely be replaced by mount-specific screws.

Keep in mind if going with a saddle mount that polymer can bend/ break depending on how the company makes it, but metal can cause rust on the gun or scratch the finish. It is a give and take with both. For this project I mounted a dot on a non-drilled Remington receiver using a EGW Remington 870 Shotgun Picatinny 0 MOA Rail and Vortex SPARC Solar Red Dot.

The goal with installing a 1913 rail for ared dot is to get a properly machined rail with strong screws as those are going to be the main stress point during recoil. It is also imperative that it be lined up straight and that the placement be where one screw A Picatinny rail to mount the Sparc on was chosen due to wanting to have the option in the future to try out different red dots. is in the rear of the gun. The 870 is built with more meat in the rear of the receiver and it thins out as it goes on.

Due to this, drilling one of the screws in the rear meaty portion of the receiver will help it stand up to recoil much better as the screw has more material to grab on to. This project was done the simple way: throw the receiver in a vise, install the EGW rail onto the receiver, line it up straight as best as your eye sees. Remember, the reason you are putting a dot on it is for fast acquisition once the gun is up. That dot will "float" inside the optic.

The rail placement doesn’t need to be perfect but it does need to be straight enough when that gun is in your shoulder with your head up on the stock. It also needs to be straight enough that you can have enough adjustment in the optic to get a proper zero. The more crooked the rail is the more that dot won’t have room to get lined up to center. After finding the straight placement spot, take a thin marker or paint pen and cotton swab and place it through the two holes to mark where to drill.

They were different distances apart. You can mic it and measure the distance between the two holes on the rail but this way is more simple. Now time for the mill. Throw it up in the mill and find your bit—sized down if you are questioning the correct bit to use. Drill through one hole and then tap it immediately, putting the rail on with the screw without Loctite yet. While keeping the rail installed, drill and tap the next hole. Take your time tapping as these are small screws and threads.

Leaving the rail installed while drilling the second hole helps you visualize and ensure everything is straight before drilling the last hole in the front of the receiver. Now that everything is drilled and tapped, ensure that both screws can thread in with no issues before applying Loctite. Due to these screws having to hold up to a heavy amount of recoil, I used Loctite 271 on the threads of the Torx screws.

On the EGW rail specifically, there were some gaps on the side of where the rail wraps around the receiver. Going back, I would have done more research on what company to buy the rail from, however, the Remington may have been machined imperfect as well so it is tough to match that up. Don’t get too frustrated if the receiver doesn’t perfectly fit to the rail as you can fill those gaps if you’d like.

Even with some small gaps, this rail and optic has withstood 500 rounds in a day, has a current round count of around 2,000 overall, and still has zero play. Ergonomic and fast also means adding some different furniture to the 870. With anything, if you put the time and effort in you can get efficient with any type of equipment. Look at Jerry Miculek, running a factory pump gun faster than dudes with every aftermarket accessory they can throw on a semiautomatic.

It is possible, but today we have the capabilities of simply making our guns easier to manipulate. The factory furniture on a Remington 870 involves a few things that hinder technique. First, the forend. The factory Remington 870 forend is a simple ribbed design; nothing wild, but

nothing really helpful either. When running a pump gun fast you need something that is easy to reach and easy to grip, push, and pull. Even more so now that the pushpull technique as taught by Rob Haught is becoming so popular. Magpul now offers their MOE M- Lok Forend for the 870. It screws on the same as the factory forend would on the action bars and even comes with the tool for the installation and removal.

This Magpul forend in comparison to the factory is longer, made out of polymer, and has M-Lok slots to add accessories such as a handstop or lights, just as you would use on a rifle. It also has a machined in front and rear hand stop and squared off panels for better purchase instead of the factory rounded-off ribbing which can become very slippery if you’re sweaty. To go even further, during this project I decided to stipple it. As always, personal preference.

An easy hour with the Dremel and the grip was drastically improved. Note though, after a 500 round shotgun class the stippling did start to eat up my hands but this is a non-issue with a defensive shotgun that will typically have a much lower amount of rounds through it. Now, the stock.

Length of pull (LOP) and cheek weld are huge when it comes to being comfortable Shooters are now able to keep their head up due to an optic and can be squared up to the target due to a shorter LOP. on the gun, especially with ared dot mounted. Here is a little history lesson to support this.

When you watch old videos of firearms technique with shotguns, say the Gunsite videos made in the 1990s, these videos show the operator blading to the target with the firing elbow severely up or "chicken winging." We now know this technique is obviously not the most efficient when it comes to defensive shotgun but due to the typically too-long length of stock there wasn’t really any way around it. Now when we look up technique we see the shooter squared up to the target with the firing elbow pushed downwards.

This is due to more readily-available aftermarket parts such as the Magpul SGA Stock rather than needing to chop a stock down. The Magpul SGA Stock for the Remington 870 is another easy to install piece that will fit all body types. The stock comes with both LOP spacers and additional cheek risers, allowing shooters with shorter arms to remove spacers as needed and those with longer arms to add them.

The cheek risers aid in getting your head up to mount it behind the dot as now you will be needing to look higher with an optic. The stock also has both a push button sling mount and a thread through. Installation is as easy as three screws and comes with a hex wrench. Let us not forget about a very important aspect to running the shotgun: carrying additional ammunition for efficient loading. During the first World War, U.

S. military personnel using shotguns were issued the M1918 Shotgun Ammunition Bag which could hold 32 shotshells in four horizontal rows of eight loops. Soldiers also slipped shells into a belt or even stock bandoleers. These days we even see extra shells getting thrown into the PALS (Pouch Attachment Ladder System) webbing of a MOLLE (Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment) plate carrier.

For a defensive type shotgun, extra ammunition carriers made to be put on the gun can come in both fabric and plastic form and can be slapped onto the receiver by hookand-loop fasteners such as Velcro or slid over the buttstock. With anything, there are pros and cons to both and it all comes down to how you want to run your shotgun. As far as ergonomics, the fabric shell carriers or "shotgun cards" such as from HSGI or Esstac can be flipped for both over or under loading on the fly.

Once expended they can be ripped off and anew card slapped in place during a firing engagement. There are also plastic side saddle carriers such as the Tac Star Sidesaddle and a variety of 3D printed versions. While the plastic saddles may be easier to stuff shells into due to the conformed shape, they tend to stretch faster than the fabric cards do.

It is good to note that plastic shell carriers can be easily chopped down from a six to three shotshell capacity depending on what you want for weight and ergonomics of your loading. Shotgun cards can be also be placed into mag pouches on your belt for faster placing of the entire card. Both types of shell carriers are expendable and it is up to you to make that choice based on type of loading, locating on the gun, weight of the card on the gun, and price.

All in all, shotguns have come along way in being more modular and customizable. Remington 870 pump shotguns are not to be scoffed at and with a little practice and maybe some additional customization they can be a very fast and ergonomically advanced pump gun. AG