Remington 870 Tactical – Upgrades

The Remington 870 Tactical is one of those firearms that is almost universally recognizable. For many people, the Remington 870 is the first shotgun they may have shot or owned.

The Tactical version of the Remington 870 has been used by police departments all over the country and is the go-to choice for home defense by many others and is known for its reliability.

I’m going to talk specifically about my Remington 870 Tactical and what accessories I have added and what I upgraded. Also, my personal experience has been with this shotgun.

There are a lot of different parts you can change or add to customize this shotgun to how you like it.

What I started with – Remington 870 Express Tactical

I picked up this bad boy used from gander mountain about 6 years ago. If I remember correctly I paid around $350 for it and I thought it was a fair price considering they can be found are $550 brand new.

It came set up exactly the same way as the picture above. Pictinally rail on top with the ghost ring sights, threaded muzzle with the breacher device installed, and the two-round magazine tube extension.

I knew I wanted to add some stuff to it and make this a good choice for home defense and I really wanted a pump-action shotgun since I didn’t already own one.

I was between getting this Remington 870 Tactical and the Mossberg 500. Ultimately I decided on the 870 because I found this deal while walking by the gun counter in Gander Mountain.

the problem I discovered

What I noticed right away is that the finish on this shotgun is garbage. (that goes for all express models of the 870). The first time I took it out shooting to my friend’s farm it was raining out. Not a lot but barely drizzling outside.

When we were done shooting I wiped off all of the water that was on the shotgun with a rag and put it back in the soft case I was using. 45 min later when I got home, there was surface rust all over the shotgun. I wasn’t happy.

I spent the next few hours cleaning off the rust with CLP and I even used some Flitz polish and Steel Wool to remove the rust.

After I cleaned it up and oiled the hell out of it I did some research on the Remington 870 Express models.

There were a lot of people in online forums saying they had the same issues and saying how Remington actually recommends you use their brand of oil and do a treatment process before using the shotgun.

The older 870 Expresses didn’t have this issue it’s only the newer ones that rust so easily. They have a parkerized finish and not bluing which I originally thought, and was unfortunate.

Shooting and performance

Being that this 870 Tactical was my only shotgun at the time I wanted to shoot it as much as possible and for a short barrel tactical-style shotgun, it’s really not designed for shooting clays or hunting.

However, that didn’t stop me. I took this out shooting clays and was actually impressed at how well I did even with an 18.5″ barrel.

I did remove the breacher-style muzzle device and installed a modified choke tube. This helped with keeping the shot pattern tighter.

I’m not the best at shooting clays but had a blast busting some clays with this shotgun. I did get a few strange looks while at the range but that didn’t stop me.

I even took this out dove hunting one time and was able to harvest a few birds with it. This isn’t a shotgun that I recommend for dove hunting, but it’s all I had at the time.

Before going out, I did install a plug for the magazine tube that limited how many shells I could load. This was to make sure it was legal while hunting.

I actually made the plug out of a plastic coat hanger and it worked perfectly.

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Accessories & Parts

(All of the accessories and parts mention will be listed at the bottom of the article)

Now into the fun stuff. The first parts I wanted to change were the stock and forend. The stock has a very small raised plastic line that runs down the entire length of it.

I noticed while shooting a lot and carrying the shotgun around that this was very uncomfortable on the inner part of my fingers from rubbing against it on the grip of the stock.

Magpul Furniture

I really like the way the Magpul stock looked and read good reviews of it so I purchased the stock and the forend to match. It’s called the Magpul SGA Stock & Forend Kit. I really like the Flat Dark Earth (FDE) color and thought it would make the shotgun more aesthetically pleasing. It also made it more comfortable to carry and shoot.

The installation was simple and the instructions included from Magul made the process very easy and quick.

Streamlight Protac HL

Happy with the new stock and forend, I wanted to add a weapon light. I like having a weapon light mounted on most of my firearms, especially for a home defense gun.

Having used a bunch of Streamlights in the past I knew I wanted to add the Streamlight Protac HL. It has a brightness of 600 lumens and has three modes. HIGH, LOW, STROBE. Also, you use just one single button to operate the light making it easy to use and cycle through the different modes.

Elzetta Light Mount

Now I needed a way to mount the light to the Remington 870 Tactical. After some research, I found the Elzetta Tactical Shotgun Flashlight Mount and I went with it because it would accept and a flashlight with a 1″ diameter and that is what the Streamlight Protac HL has.

Installing the Elzetta mount was also pretty easy and straightforward. However, I did overtighten the clamp that attaches to the magazine tube and this caused a feeding issue.

The tube was being squeezed so much by the clamp that the shotgun shells wouldn’t slide freely through the magazine tube.

This issue was easily fixed just by loosing the screws. It did take me a while to diagnose the problem but I like every tight on my guns. Lesson learned.

Side-Saddle

I wanted a way to hold more ammo on the Remington 870 Tactical. It did already have the 2 round extension on the magazine tube bringing the total capacity to 6+1, however, I still wanted more.

I decided to get the TacStar Side Saddle that held 6 more shells. Now my total capacity was 12+1 on the shotgun. Adding this was very easy and it literally just replacing two screws.

One big downside to adding this though was the increased overall weight of the shotgun. It now felt very heavy with the extra ammo. Something to keep in mind when adding a side-saddle.

Now my Remington 870 Tactical was looking like a completely different shotgun and I was happy with everything I added so far. There was just one thing missing…a sling!

Bandolier Sling

Trying to keep my shotgun looking as badass as possible I found this cool sling on the interwebs. It was a bandolier style adjustable sling and it came in different camo patterns. The quality is good and felt really well made. It was made by American Weapons Components and called the Huskey Shotgun Sling. The company used to be called Ares Armor but they changed their name and rebranded themselves.

I did have to buy two sling swivel adaptors in order to attach it properly but once I set it up and added all the extra rounds I soon realized how impractical it really was.

The weight of the setup was way too much to use in a home defense situation. Trying to pie corners wasn’t comfortable, and even just shouldering the shotgun didn’t feel right with the weight of the sling pulling down on it.

I removed all of the ammo from the sling and it felt much better. I’ll admit I did go a little overboard and was more focused on making my Remington 870 Tactical look “cool” instead of keeping it simple and practical.

I got carried away

In a home defense scenario, I could imagine a situation where I wouldn’t need a sling, let alone 30 shells. I removed the sling altogether. My advice is not to get carried away as I did.

This is the current configuration I’m running. There are still two more things that I want to do but haven’t got around to because of other projects.

I think adding a red dot would be a good addition. They make target acquisition fast because you don’t have to line up the front and rear sight and you can focus on the threat instead of the front sight. The one I want to add is a Bushnell TRS-25. They are inexpensive and very good for the price.

Parts List

(check the links for the most up to date prices)

What I added

• Magpul SGA Stock & Forend
• Streamlight Protac HL
• Elzetta Tactical Flashlight Mount
• TacStar Side Saddle
• AWC Huskey Shotgun Sling
• Sling Swivel Adaptors

What I still want to add

• Bushnell TRS-25
• Cerakote (price varies)

My final thoughts on the changes

So the question you might be asking is, are any of these upgrades necessary? My answer is absolutely not! But is the shotgun easier for me to use? My answer is yes! Does the shotgun look cool? My answer is yes again!

There is nothing wrong with a plain jane Remington 870 Tactical and it will serve you just fine. If you want to upgrade it though, feel free. This is how I set mine up and overall I am pleased with how it turned out.

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think of my setup? What did you add to your Remington 870 Tactical or did you just leave it as is? Leave a comment down below and if you enjoyed this article sign up for our newsletter!