I'm thinking about ordering a new 870 barrel and would appreciate our shotgun gurus' input on their preferences on 870 sights - the pedestal bead vs. the express-style rifle sights. I've only used the pedestal bead sight and liked it quite a bit, at any rate more than standard brass beads. Are there any advantages or disadvantages for the rifle sights when shooting different loads?
What is the intended use of said shotgun?
I'm of the opinion that for a home defense shotgun, you don't need rifle or ghost ring sights. A simple front bead or tritium dot will serve you well.
My justification is HD but the real purpose is for foolin' around.
And my gut reaction is that you're right; I don't know why rifle sights would be better than a bead. But I've never used rifle sights, so maybe they have advantages I can't think of off the top of my head.
Why do you need sights? Aren't you just going to shoot two shots into the air?
On a serious note, if smooth bore use bead sight, if rifled bore use rifle sights. No other reason than because.
"Specialization is for insects." -Robert A. Heinlein
The rifle sights on an 870, especially using the Ameriglo tritium version, looks just like pistol sights. So for someone like me, who spends 90% of my shooting time shooting pistols, it is a very natural sight picture that, for me, has no downsides in terms of speed, even at close range, and some advantages in terms of accuracy at distance.
Rifle sights if you're going to use it for anything other than a house/buckshot gun. I'd love to see a set of Triijicon HD rifle sights for the shotgun like the ones G JM had custom-made for his Bonelli bear gun.
A vote for rifle sights. I think purely HD it wouldn't matter as much, but for screwing around I think you'll have more fun with rifle sights, particularly when slugs are brought into play.
Owner of Aridus Industries. Creator of the Q-DC, CROM, and other fun shotgun stuff.
I have XS 24/7 Big Dot tritium rifle sights on my 870. They're awesome. Everyone who's handled my shotgun is impressed with how user friendly they are.
You can probably get by with a bead if you're only going to be using shot loads, and a bead sight even works OK for slugs out to 50 yards or so. The problem comes when you encounter a bead that isn't mounted quite right for a proper zero with slugs. I've even encountered a few bead sighted SGs that wouldn't even shoot shot loads to POA effectively, but thankfully that is the exception and not the norm.
I'm another fan of tritium XS sights.
The path of least resistance will seldom get you where you need to be.
I have a XS 24/7 Big Dot tritium bead on one 870, a set of Remington factory rifle sights on another 870 Police Magnum, a gold bead on a vent rib on a third 870, and an Aimpoint H-1 on a fourth 870.
I have a bad habit of testing things and seeing how they work for me personally.
You are welcome to wander over sometime and try all four, and see which works best for you.
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