Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Winchester SXP Combo ??'s

I'm looking for an inexpensive field & rifled slug barrel pump gun shooter. Can anyone comment on the SXP's quality, reliability and compare the other 2 barrel package's that it competes with. I can't justify my Benelli SuperNova's rifled barrel cost of well over $400, and have never needed the 3 1/2" chamber.

I'm not impressed with the Mossberg 500's finish out, fit for me and overall handling feel that some friends are using..but apparently they do hold up well to chasing hogs in Deep East Texas bottomlands. Thx
Ron

No direct experience...but they are a Turkish made Winchester 1300..sort of a double negative, in my experience.

Not the kind of gun I want:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBX7mEBVOao

Ok 2 guys have responded, one with no experience and the other sez the SXP is not the kind of gun he likes...so I guess nobody has any experience, or knows anything about them.

So IS there a low end - available at around $500'ish seasonal sale priced retail and NOT MSRP - 12 guage Pump Shotgun combo that fits the paradign I am looking for?

I need a field gun to hunt ducks & spring turkeys with, and a rifled barrel that will accept a scope mount to hunt deer and hogs with.

At a long retired 72 and primarily a rifle hunter, I'm also not looking to buy an inheritance item for my mid 40's uninterested city kids.

I'd like to have something that will give me 5-10 years of service as a 2nd choice of critters gun with to hunt with. I'm about to buy a an Ohio made Ithaca 20 guage for a bird & bunny gun.

I'm sick and tired of 870's after using them for the last 40 years and disgusted with their decline in quality, and have just consigned a cherry Benelli SuperNova since I refuse to pay over $400 for a rifled slug barrel.

What else is out there beside a Mossberg 500 combo that fits my stated needs is the question.
Ron

What exactly makes you tired of the 870? I agree the quality has declined in recent years...but there are literally millions of older, well made guns sitting on gunshop racks across the nation. For your requirements, there simply isnt a better shotgun made than the 870.

Further, even if the 870 is not as well made as it used to be, the worse of them is still a better shotgun that the Turkish SXPs I have handled.

If the 870, and the Mossberg is off the table, cheap junk seems to be all you are left with. You might be able to scrounge a Winchester 1300 up, and find both barrels, but the design it shares with the SXP is lacking, in my opinion.

You are right, I have no direct experience with the SXP. I have handled several of them, and have quite a bit of unsatisfactory experience with its kin, the 1200 and 1300.

L'dad, OK I can appreciate your comments on the cheap feelingness of the SXP's, I wouldn't know since I haven't seen one and was asking for that kind of insight and comment.

I was a distributor in the '70's & 80's for Remington, and IMO those were the best 870's Remmy ever produced. I've owned over a dozen of them, but ...and this is my main criticism they look and feel like cheap Mavericks to me these days. My client base, those that are still alive anyway, have told me for the last 20 years that Remmy has cheaped out in the fit and finish insiode the gun much worse than what you can see on the outside. I sold my last 870 about 6-7 years ago, an early years Express, and have not seen anything on the LGS racks that was as good machincally as that one...so it's off the Wizard to find something else to run until I Can't go any more.

Somebody mentioned BPS's Yup they are probably what I'd like to own but GB's List last nite for the most part started on used guns in the upper $5 and lower $6's just for the field gun.

I recently moved on central East Texas, with several NFS hunting areas within 2 hours of the house we are renovating that are over run with hogs in places...and only allow year round use of a shotgun I'm told. They allways had lots of subsitence deer hunting, and TPW does not allow CF rifles except during deer season...so I need to find a inexpensive durable rifled slug gun, something I can paddle the jon boat with in a pinch and not sweat it.
I'll keep looking but IMO 870's are thing of the past.
Ron

The agency I work for is currently fielding 50+ 870s, with the vast majority being manufactured within the last ten years. Half of these guns are bonafide Police Magnums, with the other half being Expresses. Out of those 50ish, we have had three issues. Three. Two of them were mismachined slide bars, and the other a trigger group issue. Other then that, the only problem is the finish on the Express guns, which has been an ongoing issue for years.

Personally, I have three 870s and an 1100, non of them newer than ten years old, nor older then twenty-five. I have had no issues whatosever, and they get used hard.

No, the newer ones arent as pretty...but they still work.

I have handled them, never shot one in the field though. They are cheaply made and you can tell are from Turkey by quality. They are not made as well as the original 1300's which were OK guns.

Like said before, the 870 is not the gun is used to be, but is still a good work-horse and the only gun in this range I would own. The Benelli Nova is not as good, the Mossberg 500 or 835 is not as good, the Browning BPS is over priced, and the Turkey imported guns just are not well made.

You do not have to spend $400 on a Remington barrel. There are TONS of 870 barrels out there. Good slug barrels were made by Mossberg for the 870. Take a look at them if you are on a budget.

Remington 870 Express with VR barrel

Remington 20" Rifled barrel

215 for the shotgun, 130 for the barrel, all in $350ish, plus transfer fees and shipping...simply not a better option out there.

Ok I finally got the time today to go see what my LGS's had in new 870's...exactly none.

But, yesterday on a trip to Dallas to the cornea eye doc to see if I have have yet another major eye surgery to save this last transplant & told NO !! PTL, I got into a large chain store location for 30 minutes called Academy Sports..and got the beginnings of an education on the New Remington aka Post FreedomGroup...and handled a couple of the Express grade guns. This also explains the new Ithaca Upper Sanduskie Ohio new plant and better fit & finish work I saw that started this chain of re doing the On Hand shooters for the last time.

In looking at the Remmy Home Page just now, I see what I am looking for in a 12guage Express Combo...and Mo bettah even a 20 guage Combo...now to find one "in the flesh".

I've always liked the 870's all steel construction -owned more than a dozen or so of 'em & yes, have owned only one Model 1200 for one season in 1968, which was a step up from the High Standard that my first shotgun to buy on my own. I actually prefer the 870's Express guns matte metal finish over the Wingmasters high polish, & can flip a coin on the stock material...wood is warmer but swells when wet all day, and the synthetics are not as slippery when wet.

Today at a local WalMart, a knowledgeable counter clerk ....I know I know that's an oxymoron...but he knew his inventory and what was the differences 'tween the guns answering all my questions - don't forget I spent 13 years in the Gun Bizness as a distributor & a multi state Rgl Rep for an well known importer from '76 to '88... and walked me thru the Mossberg's, X Stoeger's X 870's by price and feature. Sez he sells 870's about equal to the others ...uhhh that's 870's X's ALL the others combined. Limited SKU's as expected...but this looks like the direction to follow and be able to maintain the budget.

We moved last April to get out of the Dallas VA Service Area from what had been planned as my last home, to a small town where I know no one, bought a 50 year old house and have busted 3 savings accounts renovating the house. At soon to be 72 and medically retired for the last 10 years, Toy Money is not plentiful. But I am happy as a Pig in Poop at the Central Texas VA System's quality of services and professionalism, and would do it all over again to get out of Dallas VA, and into the Temple TX VA system , with their backup partner Scott & White Main Campus a block away.

Thx guys for the insight and patience. Old prejudices are hard to let go of when there is no new info to consider.
Ron

I shot an SXP while dove hunting a few years ago and I shot very well with it. The action is crazy slick. That said, I am a big fan of the Mossbergs. My 500 did it all until I bought a Beretta 390. My 500 still goes on at least one good hunt every year.

In looking at the Remmy Home Page just now, I see what I am looking for in a 12guage Express Combo...and Mo bettah even a 20 gauge Combo...now to find one "in the flesh".


Exactly what I was going to recommend. Pick em up new for about 5 Benjamins in these parts.

Now, if Browning had a BPS Combo thats what I would want.