Remington Announces New 870 Variant with Detachable Box Magazine
Since the Remington 870 was introduced in 1950 to replace the struggling Model 31, Remington’s has sold a lot of their popular pump shotgun.
Over 11 million, in fact, in a number of variants such as the base model Express, Police, Super Mag, Wingmaster, and recently released non-NFA short shotgun, the Tac-14.
In a live official unveiling tonight, “Big Green” announced their latest variant, the 870 DM, with DM being short for Detachable Magazine, and those detachable magazines being Remington’s in-house production three and six round box mags.
The 870DM line will initially be comprised of six sub-variants including the Hardwood, Magpul, Predator, Tactical, and Tac-14 editions that supplement the base model.
The 870DM base model sports a synthetic stock with “corncob” fore-end and 18.5″ cylinder bore barrel. This model, like most others, will ship with a single six-round magazine.
The Hardwood model is similar in most aspects such as barrel, choke, and magazine, except that – as you might guess from the name – it has hardwood furniture. Both of these models are planned to retail for $529.
The 870 DM Tactical model steps things up a bit by adding a pistol grip to the stock, a ported choke, top rail, and XS steel front sights and ghost-ring rear sights.
The Magpul variant retains the choke, rail, and sights of the Tactical and adds Magpul’s SGA stock and an MOE M-Lok fore-end. Both of these models should retail at $799.
Catering more toward the hunting crowd, the 870DM Predator features Kryptek Highlander camo over the barrel, receiver, and furniture, which includes a ShurShot thumbhole stock. This model also features the rail and XS sights of the Tactical and Magpul, but will ship with both the Turkey/Predator and Boar Blaster Trulock chokes. Also like the previous two models, the Predator has an MSRP of $799. Where the rest of the 870 DM line will ship with only one six-round magazine, the Predator will ship with both a six and a three round magazine.
Rounding out the new lineup is the 870 DM Tac-14, their 14″ barreled version that avoids NFA short-barreled shotgun (SBS) regulations by meeting overall length requirements through the addition of a longer bird’s head pistol grip. MSRP for the Tac-14 version is $559.
Everything on the 870DM models is made in the US by Remington, including their magazines, which will have an MSRP of $34.95 MSRP. The company reps also said that any 870 barrel that is drilled and detented will fit, allowing the user to choose their favorite 870 barrel for the DM models if not satisfied with the one that comes on it, and the same goes for standard 870 stocks and fore-ends.
Most of the controls on the 870DM appear to be very similar, if not the same, as on a standard 870. The safety should be the same, and the action lock lever is in the same place, although it is oversized to make it easier to reach past the protruding magazine well.
The magazine release seems oddly placed at the front of the mag well. We can envision a shooter’s hand, in the fervor of enthusiastically racking the action for a fast follow-up shot, coming back far enough to press it and drop the magazine. Further, while the plus-sized release should require only gross motor skills to intentionally manipulate, it isn’t hard to find a scenario where it is inadvertently pressed by the a sling, duck blind ledge, branch, or any such other obstacle.
The original invite for the 870DM unveiling included phrases like “Reload Your Expectations” and “The Pump Shotgun Will Never be The Same.” While it is a decent, logical expansion to the 870 line, these taglines seem a bit overstated. A pump-action shotgun that feeds from a box magazine is not exactly ground breaking technology in 2017. Shooters who will want faster reloads than thumbing rounds into a tube, or who want the ability to quickly switch between round types will like this but, unless they were hung up on brand loyalty, they could have scratched that itch some time ago with similar firearms from other manufacturers.
The 870DM will be at SHOT Show next month, where the GunLink team can handle it for ourselves – and hopefully at SHOT Show Range Day for us to try some trigger time with it. We look forward to checking it out and seeing if it is everything that Big Green says it is cracked up to be.
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