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gWebber
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New Forum Member

Post by gWebber »

Hi everyone, new member here.

After lots of research and a ton of searching I finally bought my first shotgun ... a used 870 with a ribbed 20 inch barrel (It had been cut down) for Home Defense. I’d rather a 18.5 Barrel, so that may come later after a few updates to this older 870.

I’ve been researching my purchase and the barrel code is a bit hard to read (poor stamping) but it looks like ZD making this 1983 , I’m assuming 1983 as the Carrier is the older smooth style and gun overall doesn’t look older and gun shop thought the same.

While at the gun shop the barrel and receiver looked pretty clean, But I opted to clean it once home. Good thing too as the magazine tube was SO filthy I had to push the follower out with the spring. It also seemed like someone had put the spring retainer in the tube upside down (I won’t be using the retainer anyway).

So my first mod will be to get a better Follower as this one looks like a worn out plastic bottle cap.

Ok, so that’s my story, first shot gun, but not first gun .. still, be nice to the newbie :D
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Scorpion8
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Re: New Forum Member

Post by Scorpion8 »

Welcome and howdy. Congrats on a great purchase. Note that the barrel date code only confirms the manufacture date period of the barrel, not the actual receiver (the firearm). If need-be, you'd need to call Remington customer service with your receiver serial number for that info.
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gWebber
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Re: New Forum Member

Post by gWebber »

Scorpion8 wrote: Tue Aug 11, 2020 6:24 pm Note that the barrel date code only confirms the manufacture date period of the barrel, not the actual receiver (the firearm). If need-be, you'd need to call Remington customer service with your receiver serial number for that info.
Thanks, good to know.
I’ll be calling them as soon as I can figure out the right parts numbers and such for a few Factory upgrade parts I want to swap.
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Scorpion8
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Re: New Forum Member

Post by Scorpion8 »

Remington has had a lot of "parts store" sales lately, so keep your eyes open. eBay, Amazon, GunBroker are also good sources for parts. Heck, I even got some stuff of Alibaba.... wouldn't stake my life on it, but for a mag tube end cap with swivel, it was marvy.
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gWebber
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Re: New Forum Member

Post by gWebber »

Scorpion8 wrote: Wed Aug 12, 2020 1:23 am Remington has had a lot of "parts store" sales lately, so keep your eyes open. eBay, Amazon, GunBroker are also good sources for parts. Heck, I even got some stuff of Alibaba.... wouldn't stake my life on it, but for a mag tube end cap with swivel, it was marvy.
I was looking at the Remington web store and it doesn’t seem to have a search function (unless I missed it) so slogging through 700+ parts seems tedious.

I did email them hoping to get more info based on the serial number, cause a few things about the gun are a bit unclear.

Example: barrel is marked “for 3” shells” and the barrel has a “M” on it as I recall ... but the receiver isn’t marked “magnum” (maybe per marking era) and my serial number ends with “V” not “M” .. so I don’t want to start shoving shells in this that it can’t handle properly.

So far haven’t found a downloadable exploded view of the 870 or the downloadable parts number sheet.
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Scorpion8
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Re: New Forum Member

Post by Scorpion8 »

Yea, Remington's "storefront" web presence isn't the best. You can specify that looking for "barrels< and then use the drop down to narrow it to "870" but it seems like I have to reset that often, or it gives me everything. Numrich has exploded views that you can purchase, but there are also 8,572,341 YouTube videos on assembly/disassembly and you watch a few and see how easy it is to strip down. Really quite simple, and only 2 hands are needed compared to 5 for a Mossberg 500. :)

Lemme see if I have a parts diagram somewhere, or there may be one on the website home for this forum. La' viola! https://www.rem870.com/remington-gun-pa ... 870-parts/
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gWebber
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Re: New Forum Member

Post by gWebber »

Thanks for the link to the exploded view.

Yes, taking it apart is pretty easy, I haven’t dismantled the trigger set yet , but the rest is pretty simple.

I was hoping the update it’s carrier and bolt assembly
(this one has the older Pre 1984 style) but Brownells is sold out .. Remington might have it .. then there’s the issue that I likely paid a bit more than I should have for the gun to start with (Current demand causing prices to go up).

Anyway, thanks for all the leads on places to shop for parts.
I’ll need to wait a little before I spend 400 or 500 on upgrades on a $ 500 dollar 870 .. and maybe I should get out a shoot if first :lol:
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Scorpion8
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Re: New Forum Member

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gWebber wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2020 2:39 am I’ll need to wait a little before I spend 400 or 500 on upgrades on a $ 500 dollar 870 .. and maybe I should get out a shoot if first :lol:
That's the "excitement" trap we all fall into. We get a nice, basic gun and a little internet insanity and pretty soon we want to turn it into a mega-$$$ thing that we could have bought in the first place. The "must"-do upgrades are usually the Volquartsen extractor, a better follower, and the lifter and trigger group spring assemblies. You can get by with the stock magazine tube spring in most cases. Those upgrades are stuff you'd want regardless if it's intended to be HD or a field/fowl gun. And by all means, get out and shoot it. I got my first 870 because it was, well, a $teal in an Express Synthetic. Then I thought if I was gonna use it, I'd better learn to kill some clays before I try to kill something flying. So I took up trap, which can be done quite effectively with an Express Synthetic up to a point. That was the start of the "upgrade" fever for me, and then came the 870 slug gun, and the 870 20-ga, and the .....
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Vitaly
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Re: New Forum Member

Post by Vitaly »

Welcome to the forum! :)
http://www.Rem870.com - Blog about the Remington 870 Shotgun
gWebber
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Re: New Forum Member

Post by gWebber »

That's the "excitement" trap we all fall into. We get a nice, basic gun and a little internet insanity and pretty soon we want to turn it into a mega-$$$ thing that we could have bought in the first place.
Right now in my area I had to hunt for near two month to find an 870 at any price. I wasn’t keen on buying one through the internet for several reasons.

So far my first “upgrade” was replacing the plastic follower that looked like a run over plastic bottle cap because the mag tube was insanely filthy. For the moment I replaced it with a used Remington metal one I got for a few bucks.

I’ll get into the fancy stuff after I put a few round through.

Thanks for the parts suggestions 👍
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