Modifying a Shotgun Barrel

[LeighC]

I have an old Remington 870 with 30" barrel. It's a little unwieldy and I was thinking of modifying it a bit. I plan to fit a Magpul stock and forend to update the looks a bit and I was wanting to lop a couple of inches off the barrel (whilst staying within Sec 2, obviously). I've done a bit of rudimentary 'smithing on various rifles and the cutting bit isn't an issue, just wondered what would be the best way of fitting the front bead, or is there another option for a fore sight?

What do you all think?

[tackb]

it's a scattergun what do you need a sight for?

[billgatese30]

Fitting a front bead will just be a case of drilling and tapping the rib, from memory it will be a small thread, probably around M2 or thereabouts, I hope you are good with small drills & taps

The only problem with chopping off length will be you will lose the choke restriction.

[saddler]

Does the barrel have a rib?

What sort of sight do you mean; bead or rifle?

Have you seen the magnetic luminous sight units? One of those would just be a clip-on fit to the front of the barrel

There are other sights that can be fitted with an epoxy

[LeighC]

The barrel doesn't have a rib, so drilling and tapping isn't really much of an option. Not too bothered about losing the choke. It'll only be used for clay unless I get my ass down to Shield and start PSG, but then it would need a whole load of other mods anyway. With that in mind, I didn't really want to go down the route of fitting a blade foresight and ghost ring rear, I was hoping to just stick with a bead up front. Would soldering be an option do you think?

[saddler]

The barrel doesn't have a rib, so drilling and tapping isn't really much of an option. Not too bothered about losing the choke. It'll only be used for clay unless I get my ass down to Shield and start PSG, but then it would need a whole load of other mods anyway. With that in mind, I didn't really want to go down the route of fitting a blade foresight and ghost ring rear, I was hoping to just stick with a bead up front. Would soldering be an option do you think?

Epoxy fitting it means less to go wrong & you'll get as good a result.
Drilling & tapping is not as difficult as it sounds; just a case of sticking to the old rule of measure twice, drill once...or in the case of a barrel measure about 10 times!! Make sure that the gun is LEVEL & straight before marking where the upper center is!!
LOTS of videos on the 'net about how to do that.

Been after a dedicated slug barrel for my 870 for a while: Mossberg make a 24" smooth bore rifle sighted barrel for the 870, but it's not easy to find them in the UK.
My next option was to locate a plain barrel (no rib) & add rifle type sights
What it looks like I may be doing instead is convert the 26" ribbed barrel I have by removing the rib, adding a front sight & some sort of rear - either plain rifle or a ghost ring on the receiver (it's a S.1 870 & I only use it for PSG at present!) - then refinishing the barrel.

For your needs have a look at the XS Sights BIG DOT and also at the TRU-GLOW & HI-VIS type front sight units.