Trying to find a tritium front bead for 870 Home Defense???

[Jae-Hova]

I recently purchased a Meprolight front bead with a 6-48 thread for my 870 only to find out that the front bead on the home defense models are press fit not threaded. After checking various websites trying to find more information on the subject I found nothing other than opinions and very few people that had actually installed after market bead on there shotgun. I called a local gunsmith and he told me the original bead can not be cleanly removed and even if you got it out the hole would be too big to tap it in 6-48 thread. So now I am considering a XS Night Sight that epoxies over the existing bead, but I am not to fond of the idea and question how well the epoxy will hold. My model does not have rifle sights and I do not want to spend the money on a new barrel with rifle sights. I have also seen some that stay on with magnets but they are significantly longer than the pedistal on my barrel since they are made to go on a ribbed barrel. Is there anyone out there that has found a product they would recomend? If so, please post pics.

[frankhenrylee]

I have read many comments from gunsmiths that say the XS holds well with epoxy, and if it does get knocked off you will still have a bead unlike some other types. I also got the Meprolight only to find out that it doesn't fit so well. I hear that a good fiber optic sight works well if you have a light mounted and thats what I'm going with next. Probably, the Hiviz Tricomp or Flashpoint.

[RichNZ]

I fitted the exact same bead... but used it as an excuse to chop off a few inches of barrel and thread a hole for it to fit Do love the tritium.

[Jae-Hova]

RichNZ,

I saw the pic you posted in another thread, looks good. Unfortunately, I think my barrel can't "legally" get any shorter and even if it could I'm not confident enough to do it myself nor do I wanna spend the money to have a gunsmith do it. Just out of curiosity, did you drill all the way through the barrel to install the bead?

frankhenrylee,

I have seen the Hiviz sights you are talking about, but I belive they are made for a ribbed barrel. I also have a couple of concerns; First is that I think they are visible from the front and side in the dark? Also, I think they are longer than the pedistal and will hang off one side? And again, not sure how I would mount it since my bead is press fit and not threaded? If you have any pics of one installed on a standard barrel I would like to see it.

[RichNZ]

Yup, drilled all the way though. Had to file the threaded part of the bead back so it was perfectly flush with the bore.... a little bit of extra work, but nothing too challenging.

Hear you on the legal length. Luckily over here it's all about 'total length' rather than 'barrel length'.... gives us a bit of room to play with the shorter barrels.