Need some input on home defense shotguns.

[cwlongshot]

My 2 cents:

The Remington 870.  You will not find a more reliable repeating shotgun. Period. 

For home use, I like the synthetic stock, extended magazine model, with a pad activated flashlite mounted.  I don't care for the folding / pistol grip models.  I feel I have more speed and control with a stock under my arm.  Also makes it harder to take away in a confined space, and allows for more control if you have to use weapon retention techniques.

In a home, Birdshot is the way to go.  Deadly at close range.  Problem with buck shot is it will penetrate several sheetrock walls with enough energy to endanger family or neighbors.  My gun is set up with 2 3/4 high brass #6 pheasant loads, along with 6 more rifled slug shells on a butstock carrier.  Large aperture peep sights mounted.

Larry

This is the best advice I have read, I couldn't have said it better!!!

Its what I have and what I shoot. I also like the screw in choke rifle site barrel. This way I get rifle sites AND screw in chokes. I also add a 2 or 3 round extension to the mag tube. Also add a broad, white band around the muzzle for better peripheral visibility of where the muzzle is. Nite sites can be blinding in pitch black. A laser or flash lite or both is better.

There is none better than the 870 Remington.

The 590/500 mossbergs are ONLY OK if you have the metal fire control. As long as you have that, Its a workable replacement.

CW

[myronman3]

Don't take my word for it... Ask GB if he's noticed Mossbergs failing at the range.  Hell, ask any serious shooter. 

ah, now ya see, i was just asking your opinion.   now the implication that to "any serious shooter" this is common knowlege.   i will put myself up there  (except for the guys who shoot full time for a  living) as having as much shooting experience as anyone.   from what i have seen,  the 870's and mossberg 500/590's hold their own against any other pump.  i will grant you that when new,  they can be a tad rough.  once used some,  they slick up and are as reliable as anything else.  this coming from a guy that is a "serious shooter".

And there are exactly 7 parts: Trigger, ejector latch, two pieces of bolt, ejector, and two magazine catches, (plus 2 pins) in a BPS.  The first few times you take it apart it's a challenge because you don't know how to line the trigger up without knocking the magazine catches out of the way.  Once you've done it a few times it takes no time at all.  I could do it in the dark.

i would love to see you do that in the dark.   you are right though, once you figure it out it isnt so bad.  but go a year or so without doing it and then try it.  fun, fun.   

Use whatever you want.  Use a muzzleloading flintlock .410 for all I care... 

you know what? that sounds like fun.  i think i might do that.  now where to find one.....
  no need to get testy.   i aint saying you are wrong, just that i dont agree with your position. 

[Graybeard]

From close to 35 years of experience shooting on skeet, trap and sporting clays ranges and having owned and run a skeet and trap range myself or a couple years or so I can say that:

I have seen more Mossberg pumps fail and need repairs during a round than all other pumps combined.

I have seen more folks fail to feed with the Winchester 1200/1300 pump guns than all others combined.

I seldom see anyone shooting an 870 have a failure to feed or mechanical problem that puts it out of commission. WINGMASTERS not the Express those have about the same failure to feed rate as the Winchesters.

I've yet to see a failure to feed or mechanical failure of a Browning BPS altho I've seen by far fewer of them in use than any other brand but those I have seen have worked flawlessly.

I've seen only a few Ithaca pump guns on the ranges but generally they worked well. I borrowed one once while waiting on a new gun I had ordered to arrive. It malfunctioned on me so badly I gave up and stopped shooting until my gun arrived. Yeah like a dummy I traded my perfectly good gun off for another untested one a Ruger no less and when I got it couldn't hit a bull in the butt with it and got rid of it too. Never was able to get that gun back I traded off as it was stolen fom the fellow who bought it. He had promised it back to me when he tired of it.

Not calling any of them good or bad just reporting what my eyes have observed over 35 years or so of target shooting on shooting ranges. Over those years I've likely shot a quarter million shells personally and observed the firing of several million. Some guns break and some malfunction. Some just tend to keep on keeping on.

[funshooter2]

   Well, my first pump gun was a Stevens 20GA with 3" chamber and I think a 26" barrel. Must have put well over 2000 shells through it from my freshman yr in H.S. to about 10 yrs out of school. Sold it to a friend that still uses it every hunting season and it has never had a problem yet, that I know of. About 30yrs old now.
I currently have a Mossberg 500 12GA, 28" barrel and so far it has not missed a beat. I'm thinking of getting a short barrel for it. But have also decided to pick up a youth model 20GA in the Mossberg 500.
   For one thing, I shoot leftie and like the thumb safety. A 20 with #4 buck is pretty mean outside and with 3" #4 pheasant loads should be a good room sweeper. I think the Navy uses 20GA quite a bit. I did read on a site awhile back that the 20GA had half the kick and 3/4 the power of a 12GA with similar loads.
I stick to the hunting type guns because I think they would be easier to explain in court than a cruiser style. The sawed off with pg just looks to gangland to me. Just MO. 
   I don't think you'd go wrong with any name brand shottie.  I do remember a certain instance back when I was a kid involving a watermelon patch. A pump gun racking in the dark is a scary sound.
  Of course this maneuverability issue might be an excuse...I mean reason, to buy a Judge. 

[SHOOTALL]

Will add not all 870's are equal . for social work you might want to stick with a police specific gun as certain parts are of stronger quality. And if buying a new gun its not a high extra cost , if retro fitting just up grade the parts . If i tried to list the parts i would miss some so just check their web. site of manual that comes with the gun .
And interesting thing is you can now get a new in the box 20ga. that has extended mag. and up grades .

[myronman3]

i wonder how close the bps and ithaca are in design.   we we shooting a round for a friend's bacholer party and my boss had am ithaca pump.   mind you it was dirty as a pig, and he was having nothing but trouble with it.  the whole situation was terrible and i am surprised they didnt kick him off of the range. 
   like i said, i got nothing against the bps, in fact i have one myself.  my brother loves his and has used and killed many a creature with it. 

[Graybeard]

I've never paid enough attention to a drawing on the two to have an opinion on how close they are to each other. I guess after my personal experience with the Ithaca I'm not surprised at the problems it had but most users of them sure seem happy with them. However it might be the folks who own them really use them very little.

Skeet range users are as a rule very heavy users as are trap and sporting clays shooters. Your average bird hunter even a dove hunter is likely to shoot a few boxes of shells a year max. On a skeet range, trap range or sporting clays range most shoot four boxes per outing and some shoot a lot more than that. They also often shoot two or three times a week.

Now granted the folks who bring those Winchesters and Mossbergs to the ranges are not normally regular shooters but those once a year dove hunters who are merely "warming up" for dove season and once the opening day shoot is over they'll likely not clean or touch that scattergun until next year when they come to the range to "warm up" again before season opens.

Most folks who are regulars at such ranges shoot O/U or semiauto guns but a few diehard old timers still bring their pumps to the range from time to time. Of those folks most use either Remington 870s or Model 12 Winchesters with the rare Model 42 Winchester showing up from time to time. Regular skeet, trap and sporting clays shooters seldom own any other pump at least around here.

[SHOOTALL]

I had a BPS 10 ga. , one friend had a BPS and another a MOD 37 Ithica. All three guns had a hard time with trash . The filler in shells was a bad problem if it leaked out .
I have an 870 that has been swimming with me several times in beaver ponds while duck hunting , froze closed from ice on a nasty deer hunt , and unloaded hundreds of shells in dove fields . It has become so slick i think you could put it in a bag with 5 shells and shake the bag and it would come out loaded !