Thinking about a new barrel
 

I've got a 12 gauge Remington 870 Wingmaster and absolutely love the gun, but with a 31" barrel, it's a bit of a beast to lug around on long walks and is a bit tough to swing through thick cover. It also doesn't have choke tubes. I use the gun mostly for grouse and duck hunting, but also use it to shoot trap and turkey.

I'm looking to get either a 26" or 28" barrel with choke tubes, but the only ones I'm finding are in the matte finish (my 870 has the polished blue finish). Besides not being the right finish, all of these barrels are $185-$250. Imho this seems a bit steep.

Do you think getting a shorter barrel will noticeably decrease the weight of the gun? I know decreasing the weight will most likely increase the recoil, but when I'm shooting I don't feel it, even when I shoot others' guns with shorter barrels. Any ideas for finding a reasonably priced barrel? I've been watching gunbroker and havent seen anything that fits the bill. Thanks for reading, happy hunting!

Not sure what the cost would be, but you could ask a good gunsmith to cut your barrel back and add choke tubes to it.

http://www.remington.com/sitecore/co...ls-tables.aspx

Call Remington to confirm but I think the wingmaster barrels are polished blue....not sure however

As to length....I'm a big fan of 26" barrels and for trap, hunting, skeet.....you name it

Does it reduce weight?.....Not noticeably.....it's so darn little....but it does IMO improve handling and especially in tight areas.

Price?....bite the bullet and order one direct from Remington....at least you';; get what you want!

26 is my favorite length also that's what I'd get. I've uses 18,21,24,26,28,and30 inch barrels and the 26 is what I use most often Now. I say pay the price get what ya want. Look at brownells and midway also check local gunships for the barrel. Another thing you could do is find a used Remington 870 express with a 26 inch barrel can sometimes getta used one for 175-200 I think that's what I'd do.

Those old 31" fixed choke barrels were meant to be used in a duck blind, not carried around all day. Like Vapodog and Backwoods7, I also prefered a 26" barrel. That was until a couple of years ago when I bought an 870 turkey gun with a 21" barrel, it's my new favorite.

Probably cheaper to get a new 870 express with the parkerized finish than than to find a blued wingmaster barrelalso switching froma 31 inch to a 26 inch barrel really throws off the shooting, at least for me. The 26inchers feel nice but they don'tswing and follow thru like the longer barrels. safety note: Just wanted to remind you that I believe the older wingmasters were all 2&3/4 inch while all of the newer 870's handle 3 and 3.5 inch shells. Make sure that its safe to use 3inch barrel with a 2.75 inch designed receiver. You could end up with a barrel which says good for 3 inch shells while the gun actually isn't safe for them. you may be limited to using 2.75 inch shells. May not be the case but just make sure. take care.

Thanks for the input guys. The gun can definitely handle 3" shells, it's a Magnum receiver and the barrel says 3" on it, and I've been shooting 3" duck and turkey loads out of it for years with no problems. I'm going to look into having the barrel cut down, but I'm afraid they won't be able to tap it for choke tubes as the barrel seems to have a smaller diameter compared to my buddy's mossberg 500. I've seen plenty of barrels for the 870 express, I'm just not sure I want a matte finish barrel with a polished receiver. You all brought up some good points and gave me plenty to think about.

...... If you can get ahold of a recent copy of "Gun Digest", the paper magazine published bi-weekly, it has hundreds of shotgun barrels for sale from various sources. It would be worth checking out. They are generally located towards the rear of the paper, past the guns for sale. www.gundigest.com

the wingmaster is a way better gun than the express by a long shot