Ultra - Tech 870
Briley Upgrades the 870
by Cameron Hopkins

Combat shotguns are more sophisticated than ever, customized with computer-designed ports, laser-sighted, infrared-equipped and tuned for total reliability. Say hello to the next generation of Remington's classic 12 ga. pump.

Combining the latest, most sophisticated technology available for combat weaponry in 2001 on an "old fashioned" Remington pump shotgun may seem like putting a turbocharger on a Model T, but the tried-and-tine Model 870 is so fundamentally sound that it easily adapts to these ultra-modern enhancements.

Having proved itself in combat in Vietnam with the Marines, the Remington 870 in "riot gun" guise is the quintessential social shotgun. Carried in countless police cruisers and leaned against innumerable bedroom nightstands, the 870 is the best-selling pump shotgun of all time. Remington had sold over 8 million 870s as of the end of 2000. That's an awful lot of life insurance for one gun company to sell.

The use of scatterguns as fighting weapons -- remember, the Second Amendment ain't about duck hunting -- dates to the trenches of World War I when American doughboys found the devastating power of a magazine tube full of 00 buck to be a great "sweeper" for cleaning out a Jerry position. The German military officially protested the use of shotguns as "barbaric."

The 97s used in World War I were modified from their sporting configurations with ventilated handguards and fitted with bayonet lugs. In Vietnam, Remington 870s were outfitted with extended magazines, again to enhance their combat effectiveness.

Remington's police version of the 870 comes with a three-shot magazine extension, special sights and optional Davis "speed feed" magazines for fast reloads. The principle here is clear -- it makes sense to modify the slide- action for increased capability in a fighting role.

From the side-by-side Greeners of the frontier gunfighters to the leathernecks in the trenches of Flanders to the "men with green faces" in Vietnam, the combat shotgun is a proven performer. To show just how far the combat scattergun has progressed, we set about designing the ultimate fighting pump gun.

Combining the talents of three of the top companies at customizing fighting firearms, our "ultratech" 870 is a demonstration of just what is possible with today's technology to enhance a basic pump gun. Some of the modifications are rudimentary -- slicking up the action bars for a smoother slide -- and some are quite sophisticated, like the M900 vertical grip lighting and laser module.

Let's catalog the modifications that are possible on an 870 and explain why they are desirable,

Basic Building Block

We began with a Remington Express Synthetic HD version of the 870. The HD stands for "home defense," and this is essential the same as their police model, your basic, garden-variety "riot gun." It comes with an 18", cylinderbored barrel, a plain gold-bead sight and a standard four-shell magazine. This is a plain vanilla shotgun, more than adequate as it comes from the box for self-defense purposes, and very affordable,

We sent the HD to Scattergun Technologies, a division of Bill Wilson's ever-expanding custom gunsmithing operation at Wilson Combat, for upgrading with Wilson's best-selling "Border Patrol Package." This set of modifications and improvements is identical to what the U.S. Border Patrol orders from Scattergun Technologies.

The Border Patrol Package includes Wilson's adjustable "Trak-Lock" ghost ring rear sight mated to a high-visibility, ramp front sight with a tritium insert. The ghost ring rear sight is hands-down the best sighting system for a combat shotgun because it allows the precise placement of slugs and tight-patterned buckshot at close range. The "ghost" refers to the large aperture which fuzzes out, or ghosts, when you focus on the front sight.

With its adjustable base, the "Trak-Lock" sight can be moved for both windage and elevation, making it possible to zero for slugs at your desired range. We set ours for point-of-aim at 50 yards, which means we can hold at the upper chest and still drop 1 oz. chunks of spiraled lead into the K-zone at 100 yards. That setting is good for making head shots at 25 yards too.

The front sight contains a tritium dot -- a self-illuminated aiming point. A tactical shotgun should always have a tritium front sight.

As a quick aside, we are aware that shotguns for aerial targets should be "pointed" instead of "aimed," but the entire dynamic changes when confronting land-based targets. The shot pattern of 00 buck is much smaller than a typical hail of No. 8 shot at 40 yards. A 00 buck "group" at 15 yards is only about 6' in diameter, meaning you better aim and not point. The importance of aiming with slugs should be obvious. The ghost ring sight setup has evolved as the best way to aim a combat shotgun.

The Scattergun 870 also includes a magazine extension, upping the payload to seven rounds. The BP package also includes an extra power, heavy duty stainless mag spring and a non-binding follower. We opted for a four-round "Side Saddle" spare shell carrier which bolts to the port side of the receiver, which is an optional addition to the Border Patrol package. Wilson also offers a six-round Side Saddle, but we prefer the four-round for reasons of weight and balance.

We stoke slugs in the Side Saddle, keeping 7+1 rounds of 00 buck in the gun. If we need a slug for tactical reasons, we can either single-load from the Side Saddle, or shove a couple into the magazine, if there's room.

Wilson adds a highly practical jumbo-head safety button, which greatly reduces the "fumble factor" of disengaging the safety in a crisis. There is also a multi-purpose tactical sling included with a buttstock swivel and a rigid magazine-tube sling mount.

To ensure total reliability -- a hallmark of Wilson-tuned firearms -- the gunsmiths hone the slide action bars and ensure they are straight and parallel. The bolt is checked for smooth operation and the ejector and extractor are inspected for correct fit and function. There is not an awful lot that can go wrong with an 870, which is why it is the favored police shotgun of all time, but Wilson's skilled technicians make double-certain everything checks out.

The 870 is then finished in Wilson's "Armor Tuff" coating. This is a highly resistant finish, enduring scuffs and humidity alike without marring or corroding. The ultra-tech 870 is Armor Tuffed in olive drab green, but black is also available.

This completes the Border Patrol package, representing what we consider one of the best bargains in the custom gun world at $675 -- including a brand new 870 as the base gun! (The four-round Side Saddle is optional and costs $30 more.)

Briley Upgrading

The Border Patrol package makes for a rugged, reliable combat shotgun, but we sent the 870 on to the famed house of Briley, specialists in thin-wall, high-performance chokes. In addition to fitting Berettas, Krieghoffs, Perazzis and other top-drawer shotguns with their superbly crafted choke tubes, Briley also offers some special enhancements that are appropriate for duty shotguns.

The performance of any shotgun can be improved by reducing its kick, and Briley is a leader in recoil-reduction technology. Their porting system, known as Ultra Ports, is particularly effective because the ports are scientifically designed to maximize the redirection of propellant gas to reduce muzzle jump.

Briley's Ultra Ports are EDM-machined into the top of the barrel in a precise configuration of rows. Curiously, they look like little commas. Briley calls them "tear drop" shapes. The ports are as high on the barrel as possible, to vent gas up rather than sideways.

Additionally, Briley back-bored the 870 barrel and lengthened the forcing cone, two modifications that are popular on sporting clays guns to reduce felt recoil. Back-boring is a honing process in which approximately 0.01" is taken out of the barrel, increasing its diameter for the length of the entire barrel. According to Briley's Claudio Salassa, this serves to reduce pressure in the barrel, thus reducing felt recoil. Typically, a 12 ga. bore is increased from .730" to .740" with Briley's back-boring.

Lengthening the forcing cone is similar to throating the leade in a pistol barrel, Salassa said, serving to smooth the transition of the shot column into the barrel. This reduces the peak pressure that occurs when the shot column slams into the forcing cone by "easing" the shot into the barrel in a more gradual transition. Again, the effect is to lessen the gun's kick.

Taken together, the porting, back-boring and lengthening of the forcing cone reduce recoil by 20 to 30 percent, according to Salassa. We found the Briley-tuned 870 to kick noticeably less than a stock 870 with the same barrel length, but we would be hard pressed to quantify the difference. Between 20 and 30 percent seemed about right to our shoulder.

The cost of Briley's modifications are $95 for the Ultra Ports, $150 for back-boring (it's a rather lengthy -- if you'll forgive the pun -- process) and $55 for the forcing cone work.

Briley also fit a set of their flush-mounted, thin-wall chokes for which Jess Briley's namesake company is so justly famous. We ordered cylinder bore, improved and modified, a standard set of three chokes that Briley sells in the their "Three Choke Package" for $139, including installation.

Lights & Lasers

Weapon-mounted lights multiply the effectiveness of a combat arm by a quantum leap. It's not an exaggeration to say that a brilliant, searing white light is more effective in neutralizing an opponent in a CQB environment than the actual firepower of the weapon. Hitting an adversary with a sharply focused beam of white light right in the eyes actually blinds the enemy temporarily.

Sure-Fire, a California company specializing in tactical lights for police and military, manufacturers an impressive array of combative lights. We mounted a Sure-Fire vertical grip M900 combat light on the 870, attached to a Picatinny rail forend also manufactured by Sure-Fire.

The M900 houses a powerful Millennium combat light capable of putting out 225 lumens of blinding light. The Xenon bulb in its metallic-coated lamp assembly is powered by three lithium batteries with a 10-year shelf life. A conventional police flashlight with eight D-cells is less powerful than the flashbulb-like intensity of the Sure-Fire M900.

The vertical grip on the M900 contains a pressure switch for ambidextrous operation of the light, providing a momentary on-off capability that is the single most important key in a tactical light. Additionally, there are two LED "navigation lights" with very limited output for picking one's way through darkened hallways without using the main battle light, which would ruin your dark-adjusted night vision. The M900 also has a constant-on switch for the white light.

While an M900 is more than adequate by itself -- in fact most SWAT members and Special Forces operators would use nothing but an M900 -- we upgraded the combative lighting potential of the ultra-tech 870 with an additional Sure-Fire light. We hasten to add that we gilded the lily, for there is no "need" for a second light, but we wanted to demonstrate the potential of today's fighting scattergun, not necessarily its most expeditious tactical form. In fact, with two lights and a laser, the forend is too heavy for rapid and sure handling.

Bearing in mind this was for "demonstration purposes only," we added Sure-Fire's Millennium Universal Light which consists of a two-battery Centurion light with an integral Weaver-style mount to attach to the Picatinny rail forend. The tailcap of the light is a momentary on-off switch. The light is positioned on the Picatinny rail such that you operate it with your thumb.

We added a red filter to the M900 light and left the Universal Light as our white light source. The red filter reduces the level of light to that of a navigational tool. Sure-Fire also makes an infrared filter for use with a night vision device (NVD).

The highlight -- no pun intended -- of the assembly is Sure-Fire's green laser, an industry first. We mounted the green laser on the port side of the Picatinny rail, also operated by a momentary on-off tailcap.

Why green? Because a green laser operating at the same intensity as a red laser appears much brighter to the human eye. Operating at 35 nanometers, a green laser actually appears eight times brighter to the human eye than a red laser.

If that's true, why are all the lasers out there red? Because Sure-Fire pioneered a method of generating a green emission with a diode pumped solid state (DPSS) laser. This is not exactly proprietary technology, but no one else in the firearms industry is using it. To give you some idea of the cost involved, a typical red laser diode costs the manufacturer $5. A DPSS green laser costs the manufacturer $300.

Using a weapon-mounted laser is a viable tactical option for certain situations, such as shooting around a ballistic shield or firing from awkward positions. The laser can also be used as a deterrent, instantly "signaling" the bad guy that he is about two pounds of trigger pressure away from a one-way ticket across the River Styx.

Tuned for reliability, outfitted with ghost ring sights and an extended magazine, ported, back-bored and Briley choked, lasered and white-lighted, the ultra-tech 870 is a far cry from the mud-caked trench gun of Flanders. If the German high command thought those rusty Winchester 97s were "barbaric," we shudder to think what they would think of the ultra-tech 870.

Sure-Fire's M900 vertical grip is attached to the same company's Picatinny forend, augmented with a high intensity green laser. Below the differing intensities of the twin Sure-Fires can be seen. With the red filter in place (far left) the light is more subdued than with the dazzling brilliance of the full white-light from the adjacent Millennium Universal light on the gun's right side. Both lights could be on white for maximum blinding effect.

Note the unique configuration of Briley's porting system in the barrel

COPYRIGHT 2001 Publishers' Development Corporation

COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group