Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Rem 870 Express Turkey Experience?

I have a chance to pick up a 12 gauge 870 Express Turkey with the Sureshot thumb hole stock-21” barrel-Extra full Remchoke. Does anyone have any experience with them? I tried search function but no luck. Main question is the choke. With limited ammo availability I’m hoping my current stock of XR #5’s will pattern well. I will certainly try others as I can find. Not opposed to hevishot or tss but hate to throw darts on them. Or best to go ahead and move to aftermarket choke? It’s coming to me as a very good deal, especially in the current environment, so hope to figure it out and use in place of a M2 with 28” barrel that patterns the XR well with factory full choke but barrel length a pita. Thanks!

I shoot that gun with Carlsons Longeard choke and get good patterns with longbeard 5 and 6 shot. I use the 6 shot

I have a 870 with 26 in barrel. I also have aftermarket adjustable sights. Tru-Glo Magnum Gobble Dot Pro Series. I also run a Indian Creek choke tube .665 with three inch #5 Longbeards. Patterns are awesome at 40 yds.

I used a Remington "Ventilator" choke in mine and it killed more than a few birds.
Several good chokes to be had for that gun, IC, Rhino and others, It is more about finding the shell/choke combo that your gun likes. I have seen 2 exactly the same guns, shells, and choke, one liked it and one did not.

Im in the process of setting up a 870 tactical that has xs big dot sight & ghost ring sight and a 18.5 inch barrel. I'm still researching if the 18.5 inch barrel causes too much velocity loss.


I put the sure shot thumb hole stock on and like it. It puts your eye at the right spot and the recoil pad works well. Good stock.

The gun came with a breaching choke so I tried a truglo and carlson longbeard and the truglo just edges it out. Buy some cheap shells and try yours first before investing. The factory extra full mau work great with TSS when you add all the extra pellets. it depends on what range you want.

Research predator and DM models since they are similar .

Good luck. Id buy it! Especially if its set up for an optic.

Also polish the chamber right away. Every express I've had seems to need it for extraction. That may be why you are getting a deal. I'm going to upgrade my extractor if it gives me any issues.

Thanks all for the replies and helpful info. I can’t pass the deal up. I will work with the XR’s and remchoke and go from there. It comes drilled and tapped so need to figure out sight/optic. Waffling between red dot or a lower profile sight like those mentioned. Don’t really plan on shooting past 40 ish yards.

I have been using an SPS Turkey for several years now. I love the 21" vent rib barrel, and with a Carlson .670 choke and cheap gray box Winchester 3" #5s, I have killed several birds at 40yd+. I have a Burris Fastfire mounted on mine, and absolutely love it.

I've had real good success with Rem-Choke choke tubes.

Chefcreed, some good pointers here....you will surely hit on a good combo. Have a lot of experience and years with that ole 870. I got a '92 Wingmaster 26" barrel that has the Carlson Longbeard choke and will put 210 in a 10" circle and 22 pellets in the neck/vert. all day long at 40 yds. with #6 Longbeards. That is the best shell I have tried with this comb. It for some reason does not kick as hard as Hevi shot and groups a little better...and 10 shells in a box helps a lot too.. That Longbeard choke will get the job done in any 870 I have tried.

For me, the optics are about seeing the sight clearly, tough at my age, and also to prevent missing because of poor holding under stress and from an awkward position. I’m putting a tiny prism on my .410 SS, and likely a FF3 on the O/U I pick up tomorrow. The .410 is getting a rail, the O/U a rib mount.

Remington 12 gauge 870 Express with Pure Gold choke and 3” Federal TSS turkey shells patterns fine all the way out to 50 yards.

I'm curious how you're doing a optic mount on a OU and the model.

Rib mount.

Yea..

I was interested in type and manufacturer.
Not many out there and some are poor.

I have killed over 110 longbeards with my 12g 870 express. It has performed flawlessly in all the years of carrying it. When I switched to XR I got rid of the fancy chokes, they were to tight for me. I ended up with the cheap ol factory turkey choke that came with it..
2 years ago I retired that shotgun and switched to a 20g 870 youth model. TSS #9’s,...insane ammo....

I've been using one for near thirty years, mostly for ducks out on the salt marsh years ago but have turned it into my coyote hunting rig for ammo restricted areas and close in work when hunting with a partner. Last week I put a weaver style base on it and mounted a holo-graphic sight on it , nice. I use a Carlson's DC choke tube and 1 1/4 oz NP BB handloads.

https://meadowcreekmounts.com/order-now/ols/products/burrisvortexdocter-rib-mount

FF3

Thanks again for all the great info. Picked up a few chokes from pullit to try out. Sealed the deal on gun today but will not get hands on it until next week due to schedule. I’ll start scouring my area and interwebs for a couple different ammo options along with XR. Probably hold off on optic or go with a Truglo sight or similar for now. There is only so much I can slip by the goalie at one time!

Keep us posted on how it goes...

Getting it past the Goalie.

Ha yes been ok with that thus far! All about timing.