I’m back from Idaho. Got in 11:30 sunday night and was busy most of yesterday.

My Uncle Kevin, a policeman, has tasked me with kitting up an old Remington 870 into a ”tactical” home defense shotgun. He gave me a $150.00 budget and gave me a rough idea of what he wanted.

I’ve so far ordered a ProMag collapsable (M-4 style) stock and tri-rail forend from CheaperThanDirt, and a Choate 3-round magazine extension (adds capacity from 5 shells in the forend tube to 8 rounds in the extended tube), Vang Comp ”Big Speed” safety (a bigger, dome-shaped crossbolt safety to replace the tiny factory one), a fiber-optic bead, and some AlumaHyde II (I’ll write a separate post on that later, but it basically paints and protects firearms from rust), as well as the stencils for ACU (digital camo) from Brownell’s.

ProMag Stock on otherwise stock 870

Choate 3 round extension

Vang Comp “Big Speed” safety

Red fiber-optic bead sight

Additionally I won a GunBroker auction for a slightly used factory Remington 18” police barrel, as opposed to the 20+” barrel on a hunting/skeet style 870 like Uncle Kevin has.

18” barrel

26” barrel

When I say Uncle Kevin has an ”old” 870, I mean really old (for a Remington 870). My dad bought an identical one used from the same gun store at the same time in the ’70′s. According to worldguns.ru, the 870 was introduced in 1950. I’ve yet to see the gun, as Uncle Kevin hasn’t done the transfer yet, so I’m not sure how old it really is. I don’t think it’s a collector’s item, but who knows? Also, I’ve been watching videos on YouTube of installing after market parts on 870′s. Unsurprisingly most of the ”tactical” stocks are designed for the newer 870′s, seeing as how this (plus a few extra bullets)-

-was the average police officer’s duty rig back in the ’70′s. Nowadays many patrol officers (not SWAT) are carrying AR-15 rifles like this in their patrol cars.

Rock River LAR-15 made for the Drug Enforcement Agency

I’ll post more on the 870 and maybe about a Ruger 10/22 I did some work on later.