RedBeard’s Curious Life

After enjoying my two rifles (the .22 and AR-15) for a couple of months, I felt compelled to own a shotgun. The selection of shotguns is quite broad, with different calibers, barrel lengths, and action types, all with somewhat specific purposes in mind. Longer barrels are appropriate for longer-range shooting, and semi-auto actions are good for rapid fire while pump action is meant to be utterly reliable. My intention was to own a shotgun with a primary purpose of home defense, and a secondary purpose of fun at the range.

I ended up settling on a specific model of Remington 870, mainly due to the tacti-cool appearance and the feature of a rear ghost ring sight, similar to the iron sight on my AR-15. It also has a picatinny rail ahead of the ghost ring sight, but I haven’t found much need for that yet. I decided on 12 gauge due to the wide availability of ammunition in different sizes of shot and the well-known reputation for stopping power.

I’ve since learned that there’s a model of Benelli Nova in an 18-inch “tactical” model with a ghost ring sight. I would strongly consider this as an alternative to the Remington 870, as Benelli has an outstanding reputation and the Nova has a feature or two that the 870 lacks. The primary bonus feature is the “shell stop button” on the pump forend which allows you to unload the chamber without pulling a round from the magainze, thus allowing you to insert a specific type of ammo without having to cycle it throug the magazine.

Back to my Remington 870… This particular copy actually has an issue with the ring sight that I haven’t yet rectified – one of the windage adjustment screws is frozen in place, which means I can’t adjust the sideways motion on the sight; this wouldn’t be a problem if the gun shot straight, but currently the point-of-impact is a bit right of point-of-aim. The elevation is also way off at the moment, but I blame that on my lack of slug ammo and range time with this shotgun, which is partly because of the expense of slug ammo (close to $1 per shell) and the lack of availability of ranges that allow you to shoot shotgun slugs on a fixed-target (rifle) range. I will try soaking the rear sight module in some solvent to loosen it up and post an update if that works… if not, I’ll call up Remington and see if they can help me out, which worked out fine when the magazine on my old-stock 597 was jamming up. I must also mention that the pump action seems not quite utterly reliable, as I’ve had a few instances of spent shell cases getting caught on their way out of the ejection port; I don’t recall whether I was able to load the next round without fiddling with the dangling casing, but I would call that a failure to eject.

The shotgun is generally regarded as the most powerful short-range weapon available, and I am inclined to agree. After my first range outing, where I shot about 10 rounds of 00 buckshot and four 1oz slugs, my shoulder was sore for 2-3 days. I subsequently bought a Knoxx SpecOps recoil-reducing pistol-grip replacement stock, and my next range outing was far less punishing on my tender flesh. The cantaloupe melon that was on the receiving end of one of those slugs was almost completely obliterated in a single shot, which is a far more devastating reaction than any of the .22 or 5.56mm I’ve shot at fruit or vegetables. 00 buckshot had a similarly devastating effect on a small pumpkin at 10 yards or so, although it fell apart rather than exploding into a shower of goo. My overall cost to acquire, outfit, and shoot this shotgun has so far totalled somewhere close to $700, making it the second-cheapest member of my collection.

I don’t have any pictures of my 870 in action, but here’s a picture of my collection so far. From top to bottom: Remington 870 12ga, Stag Arms AR-15 model 2T, Remington 597 SS. I’ll post more shotgun pictures if any surface from my recent shooting pit outing.