Are the modern 870's junk?

[Dirtman]

In my thread about henry rifles it was brought up how marlin rifles went to crap when they were bought out. Well Remington is owned by the same people now so anyone know how the quality of their shotguns is anymore? I have a fairly old 870 which is indestructable. I wanted to get a new one to build into a tactical defense toy but now I'm curious if a new one will be as reliable.

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

In my thread about henry rifles it was brought up how marlin rifles went to crap when they were bought out. Well Remington is owned by the same people now so anyone know how the quality of their shotguns is anymore? I have a fairly old 870 which is indestructable. I wanted to get a new one to build into a tactical defense toy but now I'm curious if a new one will be as reliable.

I made the switch from Remington to mossberg.

Look up black aces tactical if you are looking for an "Oh shit" gun.

I went with their setup on my mossberg shockwave.

Couldn't be happier.

 

[Dirtman]

They have some cool looking guns. But I wanna build it myself off a basic 870. I've had bad experiences with the mossberg 500's. Never had an actual problem with one but they just seem sloppier than the 870. (Well the old ones anyway). Both seem just as reliable but the Remington seems smoother and tighter.

 

[sgtsandman]

From what I’ve seen, the new 870s aren’t junk. They do need a lot of break in though unless you know where to smooth and polish to speed up the process (I don’t). Sign up for some turkey shoots or something that doesn’t require speed shots and give the action a good work out for a good number of months. Hell, while there, let people borrow it to speed up the process.

The Mossberg recommendation isn’t off base either. They have gotten a lot better over the years. The same with the Maverick88.

You really can’t go wrong with either now days.

 

[Bird76Mojo]

The modern 870's don't hold a candle to the old ones. I traded a Taurus Judge that I hated for a Remington 870 Tactical II with folding stock. The stock beat the shit out of you, so I swapped it out for a nice Magpul buttstock, which I love. Completely changes the gun.. The adjustable length of pull is a nice feature too.

Then I noticed all of the drilled and tapped holes on top of the receiver were off. They're in a straight line, but that line isn't in-line with the barrel. So mounting a rail using those screw holes to mount an optic would be useless..


Same model I traded for:

Mine is black, but this shows the stock well, with the factory (forearm) pump handle, as mine is configured..

I still prefer my Vepr12.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Most of Remington's line up is tailored towards mass production... which the design of the Marlin is not. 870/700 etc is easy, slap it together and put it in a box.

I think a lot of Remington's problems with Marlin was firing all the Marlin staff and then trying to automate mass production of an 1800's design that was designed to be hand fitted during final assembly. For added entertainment they used people that had never built them before... and I think they made them wear oven mitts while they put them together in a dark room too.

 

[sgtsandman]

I think they moved the tooling out of state to another factory as well and lost a lot of the experienced employees that way too. Not totally sure on that one but I do think that is part of how the story goes with Marlin.

 

[Biggfoot44]

Short Answer - Current 870s aren't junk .

Long Answer - In recent decades , the Rem 870 and Moss 500 ( & related families of 590, 535, 835 ) have been competing for market share . The 870 Express is the value priced product sub line . Plainer finishes , a few synthetic internal parts .

Hard core Remington cork sniffers will extol older Wingmasters . ( Yes, I like mine .) Modern purists will point with glee to the Police Magnum . But 99 % of users will be perfectly satisfied with an Express .

Likewise , the Mossberg is perfectly satisfactory , and the prices of upscale Mossys and basic Express will overlap .

The two potentially deciding differences : Moss has tang safety , left handed friendly , and many righties prefer them also .
The Moss weighs less . This isn't automatically advantage or disadvantage , just different .