Hi all,
I am moving from home to Ohio, and leaving all but my handgun at my parents house when I leave. I would like to get an 870 and use it primarily for home defense, but then change it up for deer season. Anybody have any ideas on the best setup/accessories for this and what changes I should make going into season?
Thanks!
New 870 for home defense and deer hunting
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Synchronizor
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Re: New 870 for home defense and deer hunting
Welcome to the forum.
Are you planning to hunt deer with buckshot/smoothbore slugs, or do you want to use sabot slugs and a fully-rifled barrel?
If you want to keep things simple and inexpensive, a 20" or so smoothbore barrel with iron sights and a light fixed choke or interchangeable choke tubes would work well for both HD and slug/buckshot hunting. When you're not hunting, you can swap on things like a magazine extension or light, if you want them.
If you want to use a rifled barrel and a scope to hunt with sabot slugs, get a HD 870 with a standard magazine tube and a separate extension - not one of the specialized ones with a long, single-piece tube (I can show you what I mean if you're not sure). Then pick up a rifled cantilever barrel, a scope, and a magazine cap & shorter mag spring. The cantilever scope mount will let you swap barrels for HD and hunting without losing your zero or having to monkey with a receiver-mounted scope (which is less accurate unless you have the barrel pinned).
You could also pick up a slug 870 model with a cantilever barrel, and then get a HD barrel and a magazine extension for it; but the nice thing about starting with a tactical model is that they're set up from the factory with an extension. Hunting models need some modifications before they can accept magazine extensions (assuming you want a magazine extension).
Are you planning to hunt deer with buckshot/smoothbore slugs, or do you want to use sabot slugs and a fully-rifled barrel?
If you want to keep things simple and inexpensive, a 20" or so smoothbore barrel with iron sights and a light fixed choke or interchangeable choke tubes would work well for both HD and slug/buckshot hunting. When you're not hunting, you can swap on things like a magazine extension or light, if you want them.
If you want to use a rifled barrel and a scope to hunt with sabot slugs, get a HD 870 with a standard magazine tube and a separate extension - not one of the specialized ones with a long, single-piece tube (I can show you what I mean if you're not sure). Then pick up a rifled cantilever barrel, a scope, and a magazine cap & shorter mag spring. The cantilever scope mount will let you swap barrels for HD and hunting without losing your zero or having to monkey with a receiver-mounted scope (which is less accurate unless you have the barrel pinned).
You could also pick up a slug 870 model with a cantilever barrel, and then get a HD barrel and a magazine extension for it; but the nice thing about starting with a tactical model is that they're set up from the factory with an extension. Hunting models need some modifications before they can accept magazine extensions (assuming you want a magazine extension).