Used Remington 870 Police, what to look for?

[Dave J]

Was at my local supplier yesterday picking up a new G17, and spotted a used Remington 870 Police Magnum with a 20" bbl on the rack.

I was in a hurry, so I didn't have time to look it over in detail. I can walk out the door with it for $250, which got me thinking there might be room in the safe for one more long gun.

It was obvioulsy an agency gun; buttstock is stenciled with the rack number, parkerizing is a little worn but still looks pretty good, as does the walnut furniture.

Is there anything in particular that one should inspect on a used 870 prior to purchase?

thanks in advance,
Dave

[John Ralston]

Probably not...the 870P uses much better internals (all steel, no MIM), and is probably about as bullet proof as you can get on a pump shotgun. If it cycles and the hammer drops you are probably good to go. Have them load up the tube with some dummy rounds and check how it feeds. Probably just turned in due to a switch to a carbine.

[peterb]

Agree with the above -- if it cycles dummy rounds OK, and the trigger and safety behave normally, it should be fine. $250 for a nice used Police is a fair deal, especially if the wood is in good shape.

Does it have the solid shell lifter or the newer one with the cutout?(Flexitab)

Small parts are widely available and inexpensive. I've bought a couple of used 870s and replaced small bits like the extractor spring and magazine spring, but I'm not sure they needed it.

[David Armstrong]

Make it three. If it cycles and dry-fires it is probably good to go. An 870 Police is hard to wear out, and if it was an actual police gun it probably looks far worse on the outside than will be reflected on the inside.

[Al T.]

Ditto. I have two - one at each end of the house. Nice thing about that 20 inch barrel is that it gives you one more cartridge if you put an extension on it.

[SeriousStudent]

Excellent snag! Congrats!

I believe that Skintop911 is an 870 armorer, when he's not doing zumba endurance contests. You might reach out to him.

[Dave J]

I appreciate all the responses. Upon further examination, the gun was a little more dinged up on the outside than I'd first noticed, but functioned very smoothly, so it wound up following me home.

Apparently, it was a TN Dept of Corrections gun. I haven't tried to determine the age from the serial number yet, but it looks like it's definitely been around for awhile -- which might be a good thing, given the general trends towards cost cutting that seem to permeate most of the firearms industry the last several years.

[John Ralston]

If it's a DOC gun, it would (most likely) rarely have been fired - just call the dings "Character".