Thinking of building a tactical shotgun

[Dakotaranger]

I'm thinking of turning an 870 into a tac shotgun.  What I wan the end result to be is  a Knox spec-ops stock, a weaver rail for a red dot, thinking a picateny (tired and never said I could spell) forend, 18 inch barrel, possibly with a breeching hold off.

Questions I have are Brownells has a weaver rail system that is a polymer that will screw into existing holes.  Do I want to go that way or tap holes into the receiver?

What's the minium length w/o the stamp?  I thought it was 16 but the Scheels guys are telling me 18.

Once I make the conversion over to a tac shotgun is it feasible to change it back and forth for pheasent season

[TAB]

18 in min, but you would be wise to go atleast 18.5" 

3 reasons for this.

1 if you F up cutting the barrel, you can try again.( its not as easy as you think)

2 when they measure it, it means they can F up by 1/2"

3 if you ever ding the end of the barrel, you can fix it.

now remember it still needs to be 26" over all. other wise it does not matter what the barrel length is, you still need a stamp.

a rilfe is 16"

[fightingquaker13]

Frankly, I'd just go to the classifieds and buy kilo's. He's got a very, very sweet mossy for under $300. Ghost rings, rails, light, the whole nine yards. I paid $235 for a maverick It was a fair price, but a whole lot less gun than what kilo has. By the time you buy the stock, rail, barrel etc, you're in well over $200 and the ghost rings alone are like $75 if you can find them. check it out. Just my .02.
FQ13

[tombogan03884]

TAB is right about the 18.5 inch barrel, but for the wrong reason.
While what he posted is true,(minimum length for RIFLES is 16 inch, shotguns are 18 ) a more practical reason is that you can buy an 18.5 inch after market barrel off the shelf.
I did not bother with all the crap. I paid about $300 for a Mossy 500 that already had the 18.5 inch barrel, (they offer a "Home and field combo for around $500 includes a longer barrel for bird hunting ) replaced the bead with a fiber optic bead, and installed a Knoxx recoil absorbing adjustable (M-4 style) stock, added sling swivels and it's done.
Changing over to the longer barrel would take about a minute . If you want to get real fancy, you can add a forward grip with a flash light. Optic ? Dude, it's an 18.5 inch shot gun, do you want some thing that works, or that will impress the mall ninja's ?   

[seeker_two]

+ 1 on tombogan's advice....only thing I might differ with is to exchange the fiber-optic sight with a XO Tritum Big-Dot sight...

http://www.xssights.com/store/shotgun.html

Simple shotgun setups are the best...... 

[Sponsor]

[Dakotaranger]

TAB is right about the 18.5 inch barrel, but for the wrong reason.
While what he posted is true,(minimum length for RIFLES is 16 inch, shotguns are 18 ) a more practical reason is that you can buy an 18.5 inch after market barrel off the shelf.
I did not bother with all the crap. I paid about $300 for a Mossy 500 that already had the 18.5 inch barrel, (they offer a "Home and field combo for around $500 includes a longer barrel for bird hunting ) replaced the bead with a fiber optic bead, and installed a Knoxx recoil absorbing adjustable (M-4 style) stock, added sling swivels and it's done.
Changing over to the longer barrel would take about a minute . If you want to get real fancy, you can add a forward grip with a flash light. Optic ? Dude, it's an 18.5 inch shot gun, do you want some thing that works, or that will impress the mall ninja's ?   

Was thinking a red dot reflex sight.  The primary use would be a camp shotgun for when we do the Maah Daah Hey trail this summer, but a fiber optic probably would be more than suffcient

[tombogan03884]

Was thinking a red dot reflex sight.  The primary use would be a camp shotgun for when we do the Maah Daah Hey trail this summer, but a fiber optic probably would be more than suffcient

In that case you will definitely be better off with the FO bead since you will want to minimize the possibility for it to snag on things when you really really need it, A bead is much smaller than any type of red dot, so less likely to snag on stuff.

[Dakotaranger]

In that case you will definitely be better off with the FO bead since you will want to minimize the possibility for it to snag on things when you really really need it, A bead is much smaller than any type of red dot, so less likely to snag on stuff.

That's why I was asking for advice.   The only other reason was thinking the rails was for a turkey gun I've seen guys use a red dot, but I haven't ever really had the chance to go after turkey so it may not be as necessary as I was thinking. 

The one thing that I am positvie (other than the adjustable knox stock because my two buddies are both much taller than I am) is a single point sling mount, especially since we are all about 40 and the outhouse is a long ways away.

I'm also trying to find Kilos shotgun he has for sale and I'm not having much luck

[tombogan03884]

Here's the link

http://www.downrange.tv/forum/index.php?topic=14798.0

[Dakotaranger]

Thanks.  Does anyone have any experience with the Knoxx Stocks?  Are they worth the money?