Hunting Upgrades

[msgthelm]

Just joined the forum and have looked through the 870 Guide. What upgrades should I consider my a hunting shotgun? My 870 (20 gauge) is only a year old so I'm not planning on buying parts that don't need replaced yet. But will keep them in mind if I start to see failures. Most of the upgrades I've seen seemed to be directed towards home defense/tactical.

[MStarmer]

Just joined the forum and have looked through the 870 Guide. What upgrades should I consider my a hunting shotgun? My 870 (20 gauge) is only a year old so I'm not planning on buying parts that don't need replaced yet. But will keep them in mind if I start to see failures. Most of the upgrades I've seen seemed to be directed towards home defense/tactical.

It's an 870, you should see no failures. The only "upgrade" that is mandatory is polishing the chamber to aid in extraction of the cheaper low brass ammo. Now upgrading because you want to is a different story . Not nearly as many goodies for the 20's as the 12's depending on if you have a small or large receiver, but still stuff to be had.

[Synchronizor]

For both defensive and hunting guns, upgrades and accessories aren't really about "fixing" the 870, because there's really nothing objectively wrong with the design. They're more about adding features to better help it perform in its intended role, or to just satisfy a personal idea of what's cool.

For hunting, some things people will do with their guns include upgrading finishes to be more resistant to the elements, choosing furniture to make the gun fit and handle well for the hunter, and selecting the combination of barrel, choke, magazine capacity, & sights/optics best suited for the type of hunting the gun will be used for.

If you want some specific ideas; what type of gun do you have, and what do you intend to hunt with it?

[msgthelm]

I have the Express Combo. I pretty much only use the rifled barrel. I hunt deer in southern Iowa. I also hunt squirrels but mostly use the Mossberg 500 in 410 the wife gave me for Christmas. Like I stated ealier this weapon is only about a year old snd I have fired about 3 dozen rounds through it. I shoot Winchester slugs.

[Synchronizor]

Well, if you've got some extra money to spend on your gun, there are a handful of things I can think of:

For slug shooting, there are ways of improving the trigger on the 870. If your gun came with the standard sear spring used in other Expresses (you can determine which sear spring you have by its color), a different sear spring would lighten the trigger pull, and could increase your accuracy. This would be a cheap, easy upgrade; sear springs are just $5 from Remington (the yellow 3lb competition spring would probably be the one you'd want to use), and changing sear springs can be done in seconds with no tools other than something to knock out the trigger pins. I change mine all the time for different roles, using a light spring for target and clay shooting, and a heavy one for defensive builds.

If you want to further clean up your trigger pull, you can probably find a gunsmith in your area that will do a professional trigger job for a reasonable price. Skip do-it-yourself kits like the Timney Trigger Fix; they're grossly overpriced and not worth it. It should go without saying, but apart from simply changing out parts like the sear spring, do not attempt to modify your trigger assembly or any of its components yourself (unless you yourself are a professional gunsmith); people have ended up injured or killed by doing this.

If your 870 has one of those basic, solid rubber buttpads, an upgraded recoil pad could make it more comfortable to shoot. Those hard rubber pads are more of a detriment on a 12ga, but a locked-breech 20ga can have some decent kick, especially with a lightweight build and heavy hunting loads. You may have to do some looking depending on what type of stock you have, but there should be something decent out there.

You could also look into upgraded sights (assuming your rifled slug barrel is the type with iron sights that Remington's website lists for their 20ga combo guns). I've heard from competition slug shooters that the right aftermarket sight elements can make the gun a lot more precise than the factory sights. There are also several ways to mounting a scope on an 870, if you shoot at long enough ranges to make it worthwhile.

Though the oxide finish used on Express models is more weather-resistant than a lot of people give it credit for (provided the user does their part in caring for the gun), upgrading the finish would make the gun even more resilient. Parkerizing is a phosphate conversion finish that Remington uses on some of their military and LE 870 models, and it shouldn't be tough to find a gunsmith that can Parkerize your gun for a reasonable price. There are also various paints and coatings like Duracoat and Cerakote (which can offer some cosmetic options, such as a camouflage patterns), and options for plating the steel with various metals or other materials. Again, the basic Express finish works well enough for most roles if you take care of it; but a higher-end finish would make things more forgiving if the gun really gets soaked somehow, and you can't take it apart and dry it out for several hours.

While you don't seem to intend for this gun to be a HD weapon, if you don't already have a defensive firearm in the home, a 20ga shotgun is an excellent choice. The single most useful item for tailoring your gun for HD would probably be a shorter barrel. You can find 18-20" barrels new or used, or you could cut down your current vent-rib barrel, if you really never use it. There are also a few magazine extension kits for the 20ga.

A final way I can think of for spending money to improve your shotgun's performance would be ammo testing. Slug guns can be individuals sometimes, and certain loads will be more consistent and accurate than others out of a specific gun. Buy a bunch of sabot slugs of different types, brands, and in both 2.75" and 3" versions if you like, and spend a day putting them through paper at a properly equipped range. This isn't exactly an upgrade to the gun itself, but there's a benefit to identifying the load that performs best in your gun, at the ranges you hunt at.

[msgthelm]

Thanks for the info. I have considered changing the buttpad will also look at trigger springs. I have been to stay with one brand of slugs as barrels don't like change but this doesn't make sense to me. Plus the Winchesters are what's available around here off the shelf. As new hunter I'm staying with closer ranges for deer and not ready for a scope and the original sites seem pretty good at about 30 paces.

[Synchronizor]

I have been to stay with one brand of slugs as barrels don't like change but this doesn't make sense to me.

Meaning the barrel will somehow acclimate itself to a specific slug, and performance with others will worsen? That doesn't make sense to me, either. I can understand sticking with one load for the sake of consistency, but doing so shouldn't have any effect on the gun's performance using other loads (apart from the sights possibly needing to be adjusted). With sabot slugs, the slug doesn't even make contact with the barrel, it's surrounded by a plastic sabot until it leaves the gun.

What slugs are you using, specifically?

[msgthelm]

Winchester Super X rifled slugs 2 3/4"

[Synchronizor]

Wait, you called it a rifled barrel earlier, but is it actually a fully-rifled slug barrel, or a smoothbore barrel? If it is a rifled barrel, you should be using sabot slugs. Foster slugs (also called rifled slugs) are meant to be used in smoothbore barrels. You can shoot Fosters in a rifled barrel, but doing so will cause lead buildup in the rifling, which is designed to mate with a plastic sabot, not a solid hunk of lead.

[msgthelm]

It is a rifled barrel and the slugs are also rifled. Is there a specific cleaner I should use? I will have use the remainder of my rifled slugs.