Picked up my new 870 Express Tactical last week and am very happy with it so far. Went to the range to get the feel for it then spent the afternoon at a buddy's farm shooting clays. He bought the same gun about a week before me. My thoughts were that it is a very versatile shotgun. It was fine at the range from short distances (which I figured it would be), but I was very surprised how well it picked off clays, even from a distance. Put roughly 100 shells through it in 2 days with not a single issue. After all the reviews on how this model struggles with ejection issues, I myself had no problem. I made sure to cycle it with force, but a few times I tried to be a bit softer and still no problems. My friend's gun was the same. I did not care for the synthetic forend or the stiff buttpad on the stock so I ordered a Magpul MOE forend and the Remington Supercell recoil pad, along with a Tacstar +4 sidesaddle. I had the Magpul model in my hand at the store and liked the ergonomics of it, but didn't care for the added price tag. The items I have on order cost me $75 from Brownells.

I know 100 rounds is not much, but very pleased with this gun so far. Will update with more pics and thoughts once I get more time with it

Well, I would say if there was going to be a problem with your new shotgun, it would most certainly show up within 100 rounds. Nice looking shotgun you have there!

Congratulations on the new shotgun. That SuperCell recoil pad is an amazing value, I believe it's the best $20 or so you can spend on a shotgun (though nowadays more and more Remington shotguns are wearing them from the factory). My 870 shoots like a dream with that recoil pad, even with heavy magnum loads.



Regarding the "ejection" issue; it's actually an extraction problem, where the shell will stick in the chamber after firing, and require some force to yank out. There's a lot of misinformation out there about what causes this issue, but it's really not a poor reflection on the 870 itself.

Very often, the biggest contributor to the problem is the ammo. There are some specific brands of cheap target loads that use poorly-made shells with soft, thin steel cups that swell upon firing and hang up in the chamber. Winchester Universals are especially notorious for this, and I've heard bad things about some cheap Estate loads as well. Back in the day, all shotshells used brass cups that ran much more smoothly, but nearly everything is steel these days (even if it's been colored to look like brass). A few manufacturers still use brass-cup shells for some premium loads though, such as Remington with their excellent Premier Nitro Gold & STS target shells.

Another contributor that compounds upon the poor performance of steel-cup hulls is that unlike old 870s that have seen thousands of shells, 870s that have just been taken out of the box still have fairly new chambers (all guns are test-fired at the factory). When fed crappy ammo, any new 870 - including Wingmasters & Police models - can experience sticky ejection before the chamber gets broken in properly. Once an 870's had a couple hundred shells run through it, it tends to get a lot more tolerant of crap ammo.

Adding to this is that a lot of new owners don't clean their guns before taking them shooting the first time. Remington coats the chambers and barrel bores at the factory with a grease that helps prevent corrosion during shipping and storage. This stuff can encourage stuck shells if it's not removed, especially if it's collected dust or other debris between the factory and you. The 870 owner's manual clearly states that the barrel should be cleaned before it's ever put on the gun, but who needs manuals when you're a gen-u-ine armchair commando with your very own YouTube channel?

So yeah, some sticking during extraction is not unusual for new 870s thanks to modern ammunition. Don't listen to anyone who says you need to Dremel things or put Police parts in though; just make sure the chamber is clean, then take it out and shoot it. 870s are heavy-duty working guns, they only get smoother and better with use. And under the budget-level finishing & furniture, an Express model is the same as any other 870.

It's nice to see a review that doesn't put this gun down. I know most, if not all people on this site will say the same, but this gun is great. Yeah, its not a $1000 Wingmaster or upgraded Police Magnum, but for the money, its a great value. I did end up stripping it and cleaning it after I got it home and opened it up, and it was pretty dirty right from the factory. Does anyone know roughly how many rounds they test fire through these things? As for ammo, I was using 7 shot bird/target loads from Federal. No problems whatsoever.

As for the Supercell recoil pad, I (my shoulder) is looking forward to having this for the next range day. My buddy has a Benelli SuperNova with their version of this installed on the gun at purchase and it helps a great deal. He shot my gun and was surprised how stiff the pad was. I am a LEO in my hometown and have shot these guns many times with the Supercell pad and the difference is night and day. With our duty shotguns, we use slugs and even with those, the recoil isnt felt nearly as bad as with shooting light bird shot loads through mine.

Jaysonics wrote:I did end up stripping it and cleaning it after I got it home and opened it up, and it was pretty dirty right from the factory. Does anyone know roughly how many rounds they test fire through these things?

I'm not sure exactly, but I doubt it's enough to really foul up the gun (and if it was, I don't think they'd leave the gun dirty). What you were cleaning out was probably the factory grease, and anything that that grease picked up during shipping, storage, and/or time spent on the rack in a gun shop.

It's definitely smart to give new guns a good cleaning & inspection before taking them shooting. Even if the factory's QC was perfect, they have no control over a ham-fisted dockworker or a know-it-all "operator" in the gun shop. My 870's box had gotten knocked around at some point, breaking the styrofoam packing inside. The gun wasn't hurt at all, but the trigger plate assembly was packed full of the little foam beads when I pulled it out of the receiver.

Jaysonics wrote:As for ammo, I was using 7 shot bird/target loads from Federal. No problems whatsoever.

Those inexpensive Federal target loads are pretty good, and they can generally be found for the same or less per shell than other, more problematic brands like the Winchester Universals. You may still get one sticky shell out of every couple hundred or so, but that's really not so bad considering the price point. If you're doing something that demands absolute 100% reliability, you should be willing to pay a little extra for your shells.

Jaysonics wrote:As for the Supercell recoil pad, I (my shoulder) is looking forward to having this for the next range day. My buddy has a Benelli SuperNova with their version of this installed on the gun at purchase and it helps a great deal. He shot my gun and was surprised how stiff the pad was. I am a LEO in my hometown and have shot these guns many times with the Supercell pad and the difference is night and day. With our duty shotguns, we use slugs and even with those, the recoil isnt felt nearly as bad as with shooting light bird shot loads through mine.

At least you were just shooting birdshot. When I took my 870 and its original rubber-mallet buttpad out for the first time, I let off several 1 7/8-oz magnum turkey loads. The shoulder pain lasted for days.

Congrats on a great shotgun Jaysonics !!

Got the new items installed today. MOE forend feels a bit more ergonomical for me vs the original synthetic.

A couple things I'd recommend with that TacStar sidesaddle:

If you haven't yet, you should take out the little screws that hold the plastic shell carrier to the aluminum baseplate, and reinstall them with a drop of blue threadlocker compound on each. As it comes out of the box, these little screws are prone to working loose and falling out under recoil, and good luck finding them after that.

While you have the shell carrier off, you should also check the engagement of the two mounting screws in the tapped holes in the aluminum baseplate. These aluminum threads are not very strong, and the screws that ship with the kit may not fully engage the holes. With my first TacStar sidesaddle, the smaller front screw only engaged about 1.75 turns of thread, and the hole became stripped out in pretty short order. If you're not getting good thread engagement, you can visit your local hardware or fastener store for some higher-quality screws. Thankfully, these screws use standard UNF 10-32 & 1/4"-28 thread pitches.

Thanks for the tips! I did the blue loc-tite on the smaller screws already. But will take a second look at the mounting plate screws.