Iron sights. Need your suggestions/recommendations!

[dailomkm]

New owner of a tactical express #25077 (in jail). However, I think it is just an express and not tactical as it did not come with the picantinny rail and I think its a fixed cylinder so choke tubes cannot be installed. While the shotty is waiting for parole, I've ordered the following mods:

- Magpul stock
- Magpul forend
- Magpul forend hand grip
- Inforce vmlx

I decided against getting any red dots, but want to upgrade the iron sights. My question is, I can't remember if there were pre-drilled holes for the rear sights. I'm pretty sure there wasn't.
I've read mixed reviews on the XS big sight and have been reading on the truglo. Are there are rear sights that do not require drilling?
What iron sights is everyone using and what has been your experience?
Thanks in advance for your help! Will post pics in about a week!

[Synchronizor]

The Express Tactical 870s are a subset of the Express line. Hence the name. The #25077 is the bare-bones Express Tactical model; pretty much everything you really need in a utilitarian combat/defensive shotgun (with the exception of a good recoil pad, unless something changed very recently), without any of the more-cool-than-practical stuff like a receiver rail or a breacher choke. It doesn't have a tapped receiver; you'll probably need to take it to a gunsmith if you want to add sights or a rail.

But speaking of sights, what are you going to be doing with this shotgun? For a close-to-mid-range defensive shotgun, just a front bead is very fast, and more accurate than you might think. It's what I use for HD. You can get tritium front beads if you really have the itch to upgrade.

[dailomkm]

Thanks Synchronizor. Will be using it for HD and range practice. I guess I'll decide after a couple hundred rounds if I'd want to get it drilled. I know I'm already leaning towards putting front and rear sights on there, but want to keep it as light as possible as the wife will be using it too. You have any recommendations on sights?

[Synchronizor]

Getting to know your 870 before dropping a lot of money on add-ons is a wise move. 870s are good guns right out of the box, and they become great once they're broken-in. Certain accessories make sense for tailoring a gun to a specific user or application, but a lot of the stuff people hang on their 870s is counter-productive for practical applications.

As for sight recommendations, the barrel I use for HD has a simple bead sight on a pedestal, exactly the same thing your gun comes with. It works great for me; I may upgrade to a tritium bead at some point, but part of using a bead sight is establishing a consistent cheek weld & sight picture, so even in the dark, I can pretty well put shots where they need to go.

I also have a Rem-Choke barrel with adjustable rifle sights (both front & rear sights are mounted on the barrel so that I don't have to have anything on the receiver). It works great for slugs, and I plan to use it for some turkey hunting one of these years, too. I've tried it for HD, but found that the bead sight was a lot faster and easier to use, and plenty accurate enough for human-sized targets even at longer ranges.

RS barrel S.JPG (44.94 KiB) Viewed 4521 times

870 rifle sights_C50.JPG (45.28 KiB) Viewed 4521 times

[dailomkm]

You are right synchronizor, I'm going to put a couple hundred rounds of birds, bucks and slugs through it this weekend and see if a different sight is necessary. Rather not have to do any gunsmithing or change the new barrel to accommodate something that the factory bead cannot do for me.

[AJ323]

How was you session at the range?Did you find that the bead sight was off and you had to compensate? Your same thoughts have gone through my mind and wanted to know your experience, thanks.