Dave,
It is probably true that there are hundreds of "stock" Remington 870s out there being used for clays and hunting. However, that is not the issue, since my comparison of the 870 and 500 was for defense purposes.
The Remington 870 notwithstanding, any weapon in "trained and competent" hands is deadly, even a NAA mini-revolver in .22 Short. But in general, your average gun owner does not have training, and competence (in defensive terms) is questionable. While equipment cannot take the place of training, it certainly allows for a greater margin of error for those untrained and/or non-competent individuals -- more shots in the tube and more rounds on the receiver.
I mean if out of 70 (?) million gun owners in the United States, less than three million are NRA members (around 4% of gun owners) are conscientious enough to spend $35 a year to protect their rights, what are the chances that the average gun owner will spend the $300-500 odd dollars on a defensive shotgun course, as to be trained and competent to use his or her shotgun for defense purposes, thus obviating the need for any defensive modifications?
Remington's magazine dimples and shortened slide policy are enough for me to stick them in the same category as Colt's Manufacturing and Sturm, Ruger & Co. I'm voting with my dollars so all gun owners don't have to be saddled with stupid PC modifications that are nothing more than solutions to non-existent problems.
And from an opportunity cost theory, each and every defense pump gun sold by Mossberg, Winchester, Ithaca Gun and whoever else is affecting Remington's bottom line. If Remington truly had the better product for the money, not so many people would be purchasing defense pump guns from those manufacturers.
But on a brighter note, I am going to spring for a Dremel tool to get rid of those stupid dimples in my dad's 870. Then next Chrismas, gift buying will be easy. I can see him with a ten round magazine tube extension now.
You probably thought I bought him that shotgun out of the goodness of my heart but the way I saw it, I bought him a gun one year and then I figured I would have gifts for the successive years made -- a Sidesaddle here, a Giles tactical sling there, a magazine tube extension ....
This is rapidly getting off topic, so please feel free to e-mail me at jthuang@rssm.com or jthuang@rcn.com. Thanks,
Justin