I’ve favored relatively short shotgun barrels for most of my life; but I couldn’t bring myself to cut the barrel of my old 11-87 Premier. I’d been shopping for a decent, light contour 11-87 barrel but they are bringing about what I’d give for a good clean 870. I saw a few 11-87 slug barrels around, but slug barrels have gas ports designed for heavy loads only. The sporting barrels employ ports designed for the self-adjusting gas system. I figured they would be more likely work with the full range of loads. I also have a strong preference for vent rib barrels.

Saturday, I went to a gun show and bought a 28” light contour barrel for 150 bucks. While not pristine, its little boo-boos were easily corrected with cold blue & 0000 steel wool. I cleaned it up & tried it on my shotgun; it slipped right on and my forend fit it perfectly. I ran a few field loads through the ‘new’ barrel and it functioned and shot fine. The used barrel had a RemChoke ‘full’ tube in it that patterns substantially better than the factory full-choke tube that came with my gun- so that was an unexpected bonus. I stowed that one for use with my 28” barrel.

I laid out the cut to land in front of a rib post and snugged the barrel in a padded vise. Nothing left to do grit my teeth & grab a hacksaw. The cut went well and I deburred the muzzle, inside & out, with a round handheld stone. I squared it first at 90 degrees to a sanding belt; and finally by filing across the muzzle ‘around the clock’. The barrel finished right at 21”.

I attached ‘Winchester’ clip-on fiber optic front sight to the rib.

The gun ran a half a box of field loads and a half dozen slugs & 00 Buck without a malfunction. I didn’t miss any thrown birds with it and the first slug cut a 3” target dot at 25 yards. Olin MilSpec 00 Buck will stay on a B27, but it’s not tight by any means. I may, at some point, have an I/C TruChoke installed but I’m pretty happy with it as is.

Simular to the Rem 21 Turkey barrel on my 870...

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Of the Troops & For the Troops

had the 21" barrel and I had it in mind, when I shortened this one. The muzzle turned out better than the bottom cell photo indicates. The rib is actually square to the muzzle, LOL.

wears a barrel just like that except that it is cut at 19". It was originally a 26" IC-choked barrel that patterned horribly. Could not even cleanly kill jaybirds with it.

After being cut it patterns MUCH better with no choke at all. I have shot doves with it, just to see if I could. If they came close enough, they were casserole.

I'm another fan of short-barreled shotguns.

Nice looking shotgun Sarge, I too like a short barrel shotgun for the house, I have a few , got two old 870 riot ( Police trade in`s) that are so slick that I think they could run without my help!. also have one of the S&W copy of the 870 with a folding stock it`s also a old cop gun , it runs well but I don`t care for the folding stock. Sarge, What do think would be a good slug to use to stop a car/truck if a person had to?????

You can always plug a port in a 1100/1187 barrel if it doesn't cycle light loads. Pretty common with smiths around here.

The Police controlled recoil buckshot is designed to be used with an open choke and patterns well out to 50 yds. Use a lot of it around here in 00Buck It shoots well in all guns. They now make 000Buck and when I finish out the case of oo I will switch to OOO. J.Michael

The 870 SP right before you posted this. I'm a believer in short barrel shotguns as well. I had an 870 Wingmaster someone had cut down and installed a dial-a-choke of sorts on (Poly Choke?). It shot slugs dead center at 100 yards into about 3-4" (and for a bead sight I thought that was tremendous!) and I could pop clays with it pretty consistent. Wish I'd never let it go. I'm gonna replace it when the right used 870 pops up for the right price.

around here somewhere and I'll try a couple.

between the Limbsaver pad and the gas system, it's the lightest-kicking 12 I've ever shot.

I had a V/R 28" 870 barrel cut down to about 19" and threaded for Rem chokes several years ago. I also like my shotguns with shorter barrels.

My general duty shotgun is an 870 Express 12 gauge that I found a 21" Express Turkey bbl. for, along with a Speed-feed synthetic buttstock, a Remington synthetic fore end, and installed sling swivels. When duck hunting in a blind with others I will put the original 28" bbl. on it to minimize the noise in the blind, but otherwise always has the shorter bbl. installed. I also found a 21" youth bbl. for my Dad's 1100 light 20 that he absolutely loves. Both of these bbls. use the Remchokes which is really handy. You might want to find out if you could have your bbl. refit for Remchokes by a good gunsmith for not too much $.

penetrate engine blocks with ease. i have quite a few boxes of them, that i have picked up whenever i saw them [ just got 3 more boxes at the fairbanks gun show in october ]

i do believe they would shoot throw a brown bear end to end !