Name : Remington 870
AKA : Old Betsy
Caliber : 12 Gauge, 16 Gauge, 20 Gauge, 28 Gauge, .410
Capacity : 3 to 8 Rounds
Weight : Varies, 8oz or 3.6kg approx standard model
Length : Varies, 41in or 1060mm standard model
Action : Pump Action, repeater
Origin : U.S.A
Introduced in 1950, though stock didn't reach stores till 1951, the Remington 870 would undoubtedly be the biggest selling pump action shotgun in the world, with production exceeding 10 million so far. The model M870 Mk1 was offically adopted by the U.S. Marine Corps in 1966, it was chosen over and above popular semi automatic shotguns at the time for it's reliability with all types of ammunition. Semi automatics of the time could not reliably cycle with low powered riot ammunition and other specialty rounds, due to the fact the recoil is fundamental for pushing the weapons bolt to cycle, lower powered rounds like riot ammunition do not have a significant enough recoil factor to allow the action to reliably feed, whereas a manually operated shotgun on the other hand has only the user to cycle action. Pump action shotguns of reasonable quality like the 870 were able to be manipulated quickly and are only marginally slower to fire successive shots.
The 870 is made to a high standard utilizing an orthodox method of operation. When the pump handle is pushed rearward, two steel action bars push the tilting action block to the rear and a round is stripped from the ammunition tube beneath the barrel and is collected by the bolt face and pushed into the chamber with the return of the pump handle to the forward position. Modern 870's also have a balanced sear and inertia firing pin to prevent the firearm from discharging until the round is completely in battery.
The 870 gains a lot of its popularity through customization and varied models to suit all applications. A wide array of stocks from manufacturers such as magpul are available on the market. Remington itself produces a folding stock for the shotgun. Barrel lengths can vary from 14 to 30 inches, not to mention the endless supplies of colors and accessories. Remington as of 2012 lists 28 variations on its website for almost every need the shooter might have.
Currently 70 to 80% of all U.S. Law Enforcement agencies have the 870 in some form in their arsenals. 17 Nations officially use this popular shotgun, China even produces their own unlicensed copy of the 870, produced by "copy-cat" arms company Norinco.
INTERESTING FACT : During the Vietnam war experiments were carried out to see if an 870 could be easily converted to accept a 10 or 20 round box magazine.
PRO's : Good amount of models, reliable, feeds anything, easy to manipulate
CON's : Some early models had a non adjustable choke.
COOL FACTOR : 8/10
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