I bought a couple of the Express models over 15 years ago and got 18" ported barrels from Vang Comp and magazine tubes, iron sights and jumbo safety. Put a bunch of JB and Kroil in them and on the slide action bars and ran the action on them off and on for several days until I was sick of running the action, Cleaned them up and they have performed flawlessly with every thing, from bird shot to 2 3/4 LE buck and slugs and 3" magnum buck and Breeneke 3" Black Magic slugs.

I bought a 20 ga. 870 Youth Express a couple of years ago for the grandson and it works just fine. No, they are not as good as the older 870's and if I was looking for a serious bird hunter I would buy an older used one from some one who took care of it.

The 870 was such a wonderful design and I tip my hat to the original designers. It was designed for bird hunters and the fact that thousands of them were "pressed into service" with law enforcement is a testament to their sound design. I spent lots of time with the short barreled 870 as it is what my old department used. I grew up using a Ithaca 37 and an old Mod. 12 Win. and liked them both when I was a kid. When Dad was not around I liked to hold the trigger back and run them like a trombone. Never hit much and often bruised up my middle finger on my firing hand, but it was a hoot!

P.S.

My old deceased accountant long ago was named Frank Cook and him and my friends Dad, old "Perk", were hard core sheep hunters and Frank had the #2 Dall sheep for many years. Him and Perk hit the Wrangell's and/or the peaks in Matanuska Valley mountains about every year starting in the late 40's up until the age caught up with them and Jimmy Carter closed up Perks sheep guiding area in the Wrangell's.

Frank hunted Africa and Mexico long ago and he said the dove hunts in Mexico were the most fun. He gave up on semi autos as he said they required to much cleaning and two barrel guns only fired two times. So his shot gun of choice was a 870 Wingmaster with extended magazine tube that just kept firing. He carried two of them to Mexico and cases of shot gun shells. He said he saw the barrels separate on some very nice and expensive two barrel shot guns. Frank could afford to shoot about any shot gun he wanted, but when he was really slinging lead he wanted the 870!

Last edited by 1Akshooter; 01/28/19.