870, or 887?

[The Annoyed Man]

I'm not very familiar with the Remington shotgun line, and I'm seeing a 870 Express Tactical and a 887 Nitro Mag Tactical for the same price of $499 at Gander Mountain. I'm not yet serious about buying, but I've been kind of kicking the idea around for a while of replacing my Stevens 350 Tactical pump action (based on the Ithaca design with bottom ejection) with a Remington pump action — motivated primarily by things like availability and commonality of parts and ease of servicing. The Stevens works just fine and is more than adequate for my needs, so there's nothing wrong with it at all..... except that the aftermarket just isn't there like it is for the Remingtons.

Anybody have any thoughts regarding the 870 vs the 887?

[Middle Age Russ]

Aftermarket accessories for the 870 are numerous and easy to find. I don't know that the same can be said for the 887. Of course, my household has multiple 870s and no 887s, so I haven't really beat the bushes looking for 887 accessories.

[Taypo]

I had the same questions last year...the 870 appears to be the platform of choice for HD and tacticool uses. The 887 seems to be a hunter-centered shotgun.

I tested em both, the 870 Express Tactical just handled better for me.

[LittleGun]

I like the 870. It has a long and good history.

[puma guy]

I've read that the 887 is based on the 870, but they look like two different designs when comparing the bolts, trigger assembly and internal design of the receiver. I would stick with the 870 given the vast array of accessories, availability of barrels and parts; original and after market. I pickup up a nice Model 870 Express at a pawn shop for $140 drive out a couple of years ago that I was going to start modifying for a defense SG but I got a Win 1300 Defender and haven't done anything with the 870. I was looking at a NEF/H&R Pardner Tactical (870 clone) and also the Savage/Stevens 350 (Ithaca 37) clone as an inexpensive alternative with my youngest son-in-law and both looked well made and reviews I read od both are favorable for the most part. The Savage/Stevens 350 is a bottom eject which would be a plus for a lefty.

I just remembered Andy C posted about an 870 Clone he bought . I think it was the forerunner of the NEF , maybe Interarms??? I'll try to find the post.

Found it!
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=61344&p=772699&hilit=clone#p772699

[MONGOOSE]

870.....YOU WILL WANT TO USE 2 3/4 SHELLS FOR SELF DEFENSE.....NO NEED FOR A MAG ( 31/2" ) CHAMBER. MORE MODS FOR THE 870 ANYWAY.

[Taypo]

The 870 Express is poor quality these days; I'd pick that one of the two choices but I'd expect to be prepared to do some work on it to get it reliable; not much of a problem in your case, of course.

Here's a comparative review:

I just remembered Andy C posted about an 870 Clone he bought . I think it was the forerunner of the NEF , maybe Interarms??? I'll try to find the post.

Found it!
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=61344&p=772699&hilit=clone#p772699

The Interarms/Norinco Hawk 982, yes. That pic is a little old - I added an extended mag-tube (Choate) to it:

Id heard the same thing about quality issues, but I'm guessing I got one of the good ones. Probably 1000k rounds on it this year (relatively low, I know) with no issues whatsoever. Only thing I've done to it is replace the forearm with a Magpul version (needed the handstops)

[The Annoyed Man]

The 870 Express is poor quality these days; I'd pick that one of the two choices but I'd expect to be prepared to do some work on it to get it reliable; not much of a problem in your case, of course.

Here's a comparative review:

I just remembered Andy C posted about an 870 Clone he bought . I think it was the forerunner of the NEF , maybe Interarms??? I'll try to find the post.

Found it!
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=61344&p=772699&hilit=clone#p772699

The Interarms/Norinco Hawk 982, yes. That pic is a little old - I added an extended mag-tube (Choate) to it:

You got your Norinco about the same time as I got my Stevens, as I recall. In fact, we spent part of an afternoon patterning them both at various distances, with buckshot and slugs.

It is true that the bottom eject (and loading) on the Stevens ought to make it more lefty-friendly, but I find that it turns out to not make that much of a difference really...... and for a couple of reasons. The first is reason is that the controls are still all right handed, including both the safety and the rather clumsy-to-operate slide lock, so in the end the gun isn't really any easier to operate. The other reason it doesn't matter so much is that bottom-ejecting just isn't that big of a deal to me. I either own or have owned several AR15s, an AR10, an M1A, and a SCAR 17S — all of which eject out the right side of the receiver — and it turns out that right side ejection just isn't that big of a deal for me. So I don't think it will be a problem to live with either of these shotguns based on which side they eject toward. In fact, it actually makes it easier for me to keep track of where my spent brass/hulls are going. When we were dove hunting last week, that was one of the things I noticed about my left-handed Benelli SBE II. The fact that it ejects out the left side of the receiver made me so unaware of ejection that I often had no recollection of shells having been ejected at all until after the shooting was over and I saw them on the ground. Fortunately, it didn't throw them too far.

Anyway, I think that your video pretty much made up my mind for me. I think I'll go with an 870 when I get around to replacing the Stevens.

[schufflerbot]

having owned both, I can offer my two cents;

My 870 was incredibly reliable, never had a single issue with it. Ate everything I threw at it and it was plenty accurate for a shotgun.
My 887 Nitromag, however, was a plastic toy in comparison. I only put about 150 rounds through it before I'd had enough and got rid of it. It would bind up internally, it would fail to eject properly and overall it just felt cheap. The only reason it made it to 150 rounds is because I refused to admit that I'd sold something reliable and purchased a piece of garbage to replace it.

After doing some searching online I found that my problem was not unique and I went ahead and sold the shotty for a loss.

[nyj]

499 for an express? No thanks. Get yourself a 590a1.

[The Annoyed Man]

having owned both, I can offer my two cents;

My 870 was incredibly reliable, never had a single issue with it. Ate everything I threw at it and it was plenty accurate for a shotgun.
My 887 Nitromag, however, was a plastic toy in comparison. I only put about 150 rounds through it before I'd had enough and got rid of it. It would bind up internally, it would fail to eject properly and overall it just felt cheap. The only reason it made it to 150 rounds is because I refused to admit that I'd sold something reliable and purchased a piece of garbage to replace it.

After doing some searching online I found that my problem was not unique and I went ahead and sold the shotty for a loss.

Good to know, thanks. I'll probably sell my Stevens when I get the 870. It's only had about 30 rounds or less down the pipe and it is in very good shape, has a ghost-ring rear and high-viz front sights.....the front is protected by two uprights.....so I might be able to come close to what I paid for it. Cabelas has it for $30 more than I paid for it from them.

This is exactly the model I have:


Another Question..... How does the Mossberg 590A1 compare to the 870 Express Tactical?

[Pawpaw]

Another Question..... How does the Mossberg 590A1 compare to the 870 Express Tactical?

The 590A1 has been the US military's pump shotgun of choice for quite a few years.

You will probably find the 500/590's tang mounted safety much more lefty-friendly than the 870's trigger guard mounted button.

The slide release might be a bit awkward, but there are a couple of companies making replacements of varying lengths at a reasonable cost.

The aftermarket business for the 500 and 590 is almost as big, if not equal to, that of the 870. With only a few exceptions, pretty much anything that works on a 500 will work on a 590 and vice versa.

The best online resource for all things Mossberg is http://www.mossbergowners.com. The folks over there are almost as friendly as they are here.