Greetings from Georgia

[Java]

Hey, all. I'm Tom, and I bought an 870 Express Magnum back in the early 90's as a Trap gun. It has also been doing duty as my bedroom gun since then, complete with it's 28" vent rib barrel. I was fine with this for 2 reasons; 1- my house was roomy, with wide hallways and 2- if heaven forbid I am ever handed the gun in front of a (non-gun owning) jury and asked if it's mine, I don't want it to make me look like Rambo, hoping for an intruder. I want it to make me look like Elmer Fudd. Fast forward 24 years, I've moved into a much "tighter" house. I want a short barrel, and I want to go through the old girl and fix her up a bit. This looks like an outstanding place to learn to do that. It also looks like a place full of enablers that are going to make me get carried away with it. I look forward to spending way too much time here........

[Synchronizor]

Welcome to the forum.

An 870 from the 1990s should have pretty much all the design updates that Remington has made to the 870 since it launched in the 1950s. Unless you have some worn parts that need replacing, or you want to install some add-ons for the HD role, you should be pretty good to go.

Are you wanting to add a magazine extension as well, or just the short barrel?

[Java]

I want to try to control myself on the upgrades. She's always been as reliable as a brick, and I don't want to do anything to change that. The delrin spring followers in bright colors with the finger-check hole in them look like a pretty good idea. And I'm seriously thinking about a magazine extension. 7 rounds are always better than 5, right? Having the extension also seems to make it easier to find a flashlight mount. I've got the tools and the talent to drill out the dimples in the tube, but .........over the years I've grown to really like how handy that factory spring retainer is. Building an 870 is pretty much like playing with Legos except for those dimples. Once you've drilled them, you can't "undrill" them. You're right, though. All this stuff is fun to plan out, but as soon as I score that short barrel, she's good to go, and back on bedroom duty.

[Synchronizor]

I use the S&J Hardware Delrin followers myself, in large part for the tactile mag check feature. It's really convenient to be able to check the gun's magazine that way. I would suggest their Type 3 follower if you're sticking with the base 4+1 capacity, or either the Type 2 or Type 3 if you're using an extension. Different follower styles work better with different extension tubes & springs, so which follower you use would depend on what extension kit you're considering.

As for the spring retainer, I agree that they're really nice to have; and the new-style plastic retainers that require the mag tube dimples are much more usable than the old-style press-in retainers, which I consider to be more trouble than they're worth.

However, for guns that have no dimples, or that have had their dimples removed, a press-in spring retainer from certain Benelli shotguns an be used in place of the factory Remington retainer. The Benelli part is much better thought-out and far easier to use.