Remington 11-87 Premier Police

[BrowningBoy]

So I have this Rem 11-87 Premier Light contour that I never really shot well. I wanted to make a home defense shotgun and I had to choose between that and my trusty 870. For some reason I always shot the 870 much better.

I decided to transform the 11-87 into my new home defense shotgun. I ordered a Rem 18.5 inch blued barrel with front bead and a choate 2 shell mag. extension. Originally I also wanted to add a sidesaddle for extra ammo, a sling and new stock and forearm. I've since decided to keep it simple.

I recieved my new barrel and mag extension on Friday and immediately set to work. I drilled out the tabs in the mag tube and did a little sanding on the forend so the thicker barrel would fit. I was suprised at how much I liked the gun with the original stock. It looks great.

I got the opportunity to go to the range today and I had a great time. I was expecting to run into problems with target loads but I was pleasantly suprised with flawless function with Win AA heavy target loads. I then switched to Win AA light target loads and I had 2 failure to ejects out of 1 box. When I switched to buckshot and slugs I had no problems with Rem express 2 3/4 in buckshot and 1 ounce slug loads. I did have some 20 year old 3 inch Rem 00 buck that I had laying around so I fired them too. I did have 2 that didn't want to chamber completely but a slap on the bolt handle fixed that.(yes the barrel has 3 inch chamber) All in all I felt I had a successful first day at the range with my new 11-87 Premier Police.

I was suprised at how wide a pattern the Rem 00 buck had. At 15 yards the pattern was at least 15 inches as only 7 of 9 pellets hit the target. I will be running some Federal through it ASAP, I will have the opportunity to run some serious rounds through it at my next firearms qualifications but that won't be until end of March.

[KAL101]

I always wanted to put an extended mag tube on mine. I could never bring myself to drill out those stupid tabs. Why the heck remington couldnt put the ball and detent cap on the end of the tube like they do the 870s is beyond me haha.

11-87s are a dream to shoot with magnum loads, half the recoil of an 870 with federal premium 3 inch #4 shot.

[BrowningBoy]

I tried tapping in a socket first instead of drilling the tabs out, but I didn't have a socket with the proper outside diameter. The heavy barrel and mag tube really make the 11-87 swing nice. I could never hit pheasant with it before even though I never had a problem with the 870. I'm thinking the light contour barrel is the difference. Muzzle rise is also almost non-existant with the 2 3/4 inch 00 buck.

[KAL101]

Ive shot some 00 buck out of mine but I shot a ton of it out of my 870. 11-87 is much more pleasant to shoot. I just get a kick out of shooting steels down with a pump gun