Over the more than 50 years that Remington has made the 870, there's been several "Generations" of barrels on these fine shotguns.
The early fixed choke bbls were made wonderfully light and balanced well even when 30" long. Proof that Big Green was not perfect then either was the fact that all 870s came with a solid steel mag plug that weighed 1 1/2 lbs. This destroyed any balance and feel the light bbl created. Once this was removed from the shotgun, one was left with a nice handling pump gun of infinite utility.
Even the vent rib bbls of the time were light,not always true even on such designs as the Ithaca 37.
But things change, and the advent of the choke tube craze saw Remington take the easy out and increase the bbl thickness to have enough steel at the muzzle to handle threading for these.
Naturally, this not only made the piece heavier, but since the weight was all forward, made it more muzzle heavy than the classic WMs. Some folks like this, most don't.
And then, Remington lost a class action lawsuit over their barrels, some claimants and their lawyers stating that the old thin bbls were dangerous. Little evidence existed that the bbls were defective, and the blowups came from blockages and not blockheads at Ilion, but reality meant less in court than the perception of reality. So,Remington paid off big time. You know what happened next. Lawyers had more input into those bbl dimensions than engineers or shotgunners. Bbls yet thicker came off the line and into our lives.
The bbl on Frankenstein, my home built and overpublicized parts 870, is one of these. I bought it as a 28" bbled Express bbl at a gun show, and found when I mounted it that it was lots heavier than the old ones. For various reasons, including weight,I had it bobbed to 20", and it's now well balanced for my purposes.
And, the Light Contour bbls currently advertised are basically similiar to the first bbls in dimensions, and maybe even quality of steel. A nice marketing ploy, and a nice bbl.
FYI,since both my 1950 made bbl and Frank's Express bbl have been shortened,a brief perusal shows the bbl wall is about twice as thick in the newer one.
So, you may ask, which is better? There's no Tablet of Stone about this,so....
It's a personal decision. No variant is a lemon, and people do fine work with all of them. I'd recommend,all else equal, the Light Contour bbls or the early ones for upland hunting, and the thicker bbled versions for turkey, waterfowl, "Serious" shotguns, and other uses where heavier loads are needed, and/or shorter bbls are used.
One small caveat, the currently popular mod of overboring may be best handled by the thicker walled versions, since they have more steel to begin with. Some competition bbls made since the 80s have an overbore from the factory. This includes trap bbls, my 870TB mikes at .733", a mild overbore, and some recent TBs and Cs go as high as .740.
HTH....
The early fixed choke bbls were made wonderfully light and balanced well even when 30" long. Proof that Big Green was not perfect then either was the fact that all 870s came with a solid steel mag plug that weighed 1 1/2 lbs. This destroyed any balance and feel the light bbl created. Once this was removed from the shotgun, one was left with a nice handling pump gun of infinite utility.
Even the vent rib bbls of the time were light,not always true even on such designs as the Ithaca 37.
But things change, and the advent of the choke tube craze saw Remington take the easy out and increase the bbl thickness to have enough steel at the muzzle to handle threading for these.
Naturally, this not only made the piece heavier, but since the weight was all forward, made it more muzzle heavy than the classic WMs. Some folks like this, most don't.
And then, Remington lost a class action lawsuit over their barrels, some claimants and their lawyers stating that the old thin bbls were dangerous. Little evidence existed that the bbls were defective, and the blowups came from blockages and not blockheads at Ilion, but reality meant less in court than the perception of reality. So,Remington paid off big time. You know what happened next. Lawyers had more input into those bbl dimensions than engineers or shotgunners. Bbls yet thicker came off the line and into our lives.
The bbl on Frankenstein, my home built and overpublicized parts 870, is one of these. I bought it as a 28" bbled Express bbl at a gun show, and found when I mounted it that it was lots heavier than the old ones. For various reasons, including weight,I had it bobbed to 20", and it's now well balanced for my purposes.
And, the Light Contour bbls currently advertised are basically similiar to the first bbls in dimensions, and maybe even quality of steel. A nice marketing ploy, and a nice bbl.
FYI,since both my 1950 made bbl and Frank's Express bbl have been shortened,a brief perusal shows the bbl wall is about twice as thick in the newer one.
So, you may ask, which is better? There's no Tablet of Stone about this,so....
It's a personal decision. No variant is a lemon, and people do fine work with all of them. I'd recommend,all else equal, the Light Contour bbls or the early ones for upland hunting, and the thicker bbled versions for turkey, waterfowl, "Serious" shotguns, and other uses where heavier loads are needed, and/or shorter bbls are used.
One small caveat, the currently popular mod of overboring may be best handled by the thicker walled versions, since they have more steel to begin with. Some competition bbls made since the 80s have an overbore from the factory. This includes trap bbls, my 870TB mikes at .733", a mild overbore, and some recent TBs and Cs go as high as .740.
HTH....