Defensive Shotgun of the Week--Remington Model 870P

My favorite "social work" shotgun is a 12-gauge Remington 870P from 1978, the original police model with a walnut stock and no checkering. It has a 20-inch Improved Cylinder barrel with factory rifle sights. It's now some 32 years old and is just broken in good. That 870 has gone with me in some bad places, and I appreciate that. I never figured I needed anything else.

It sports a Weaver Converta-Mount QD scope mount holding an UltraDOT red-dot sight. The scope bracket comes off in seconds when the 870 turns from old warrior into a trap or turkey gun with the addition of a 30-inch vent rib barrel. I have a Choate extension magazine but haven't used it in a while because daughter Rachel keeps borrowing the 870 for turkey hunting!

Why the 870? At the Dallas Crime Lab, we worked many incidents where a police shotgun malfunctioned. None were 870s. They work every time.
--Allan Jones, Ballistics Editor