Picked up a Remington 870

I bought a Mossberg Mariner a couple of weeks ago, and earlier this week I got a LE trade-in Remington 870. I think I got shotgunitis. :-)

I traded off a Mini-14GB which didn't meet my reliability requirements, and got the 870 (plus some store credit). It has a 20" barrel, wood butt with recoil pad, wood corn cob forend, and a 20" barrel with rifle sights. It has the regular 4 round mag, no extension.

The bluing has some dings and marks. There are a few dings on the wood but not too much. I field stripped tonight and it was very clean on the inside with only a few wear marks.

According to Remington it was made around 1951, based on the serial number. This is a very early 870. I don't believe that 20" rifle sighted barrels were available then, so it's probably not the original barrel.

There are a couple of pics of the gun here.

Today, I installed a Fortman's left handed safety conversion. This took about 10 minutes, including getting out my set of gunsmith's punches. I still prefer my Mossberg's tang safety but this makes the Remington a lot more user friendly for me. The only other accessories I'm planning are a butt cuff or side saddle for extra ammo, and a sling. I considering maybe getting a magazine extension, since the gun hold only 4 rounds in the magazine. I may hold off on that and get a longer sporting barrel instead. In any event, I'm going to shoot it before I add anything else.

Along with the LH safety from MidwayUSA, I got a five boxes of Federal 2-3/4" low recoil 00 buckshot, and two boxes of the low recoil Tru-Ball slugs. The latter worked very well in my Mossberg Mariner, and I expect even better results in the Remington, with its rifle sights.