Blueing was well worn, but was in otherwise pretty good shape. 20 inch cylinder barrel. Wood furniture. All metal (except the follower)
After I got it home, I emailed Remington and found out that it was made in December '89.
The plastic follower being the only plastic part on the whole gun irritated me. So, I made one from 6061 Aluminum on my lathe.
Refinished the reciever and barrel with Norrells Moly Socom black. While short of encasing in carbonite, the steel should be quite well protected
After shooting the gun a while, it bugged me that it was shooting several inches above the point of aim, so I installed a taller front bead, and since I was replacing it anyway decided to use a Meprolight tritium front. I don't have any closeup photos of it. But the most important thing is that it shoots right where I want it to at 20 yards now.
While I normally load my own buckshot and slugs, and I usually load them to "low brass" velocity to reduce the recoil, faster followup shots and reduce over-penetration somewhat for the short distances that I use it at, I did put on an Airtech limbsaver pad. It's not really necessary for the managed recoil loads, but it does make it more comfortable to shoot for extended periods of time anyway.
The only other changes I have made to it to suit my needs was to add an Aim sports 6 shell side saddle, and a Choate extended mag tube. The only thing that I haven't done (yet) is add a weaponlight for night duty, but I have a Winchester 1300 speed pump geared up for that right now so I'm not in a rush to put another elzetta mount on the 870.
Since the 870 is "the work horse", I find myself grabbing it when going up to the cabin to discourage coyotes or bears, and I've been using it a lot on the front of the 4 wheeler too.
I've been real happy with it so far.
Without the limiter, it was 4+1 too.
