A Bit of Backstory: The 870 That Wouldn’t

If you listen carefully to the as-yet unreleased podcast of Angus’ hunt, you will here him mention that his shotgun functioned perfectly. That was a huge thing for Angus and I– much bigger than you probably know.

Back when I was out of work, I had an old boss that looked me up. He was in a bigger fix that I was. He offered me a minty Remington 870 TB Trap for a pittance. I relented and drove up to the old watering hole he and I had frequented after work a decade earlier. He pulled the shotgun out of the saddlebags of his motorcycle, I handed him cash and we wished each other well. I have not seen him since.

Angus with his 2012 Bird and the 870

The next year, Angus was growing and needed a better turkey gun. He had taken a gob with a 20 Gauge, and the thought hit me that the 870 TB would make a decent gun if only it did not have all the fancy wood. I scrounged up a gnarly stock and forend from EBay and also found a suitable barrel after which I defaced them all with a few cans of Krylon Fusion. This worked well, except the basement flooded that year and a few of my firearms got a nasty coating of rust. The worst hit was the 870. I had to reblue the receiver, and nearly had the job done when Dad took ill back in 2011. Dad died that fall, and I remember reassembling the shotgun right after the funeral to keep my mind off things.

You know how it is, you get something in your eye and it is hard to keep your concentration up on a day like that– must have mis-aligned something. Anyhow Angus took a shot with it the next spring and one of the shell latches got mangled. I took it to a gunsmith and . . . well, he did not fix the problem in three trips. After replacing the shell latch twice, the second round was still jamming coming out of the magazine. I had to hold off for a bit, pursuing the problem, because the ‘smith was arrested for selling firearms to felons.

I sat on the shotgun for a bit before finding a new ‘smith. This one was in Cleves, Ohio. Big Bob had recommended him. I have since taken several outstanding projects to him. They were all fixed perfectly, except for the 870. It took 3 visits, but this past weekend, the 870 functioned perfectly. Angus got his bird. I can now whole-heartedly tell you that Hibberd Armory in Cleves rocks. They cleaned up not only the problems induced by the first ‘smith, but also cleaned up some problems that were probably left over from the original owner.