Wilson Combat 870

[knights77]

Does anyone have experience with the Wilson Combat Standard 870? I am looking to pick one up and wanted to see some feedback before purchasing. I am looking for a custom 870 shotgun.Thanks

[70extreme]

I'll play devil's advocate ...

Why?

A stock 870 Express HD is all you need. Ghost ring sights are a minus on a fighting shotgun. You don't want a Vang Comp barrel. Shotguns are close range weapons and should throw an open pattern.

All I would recommend is to put a better follower and magazine spring in the stock gun and save the rest of your $$$ for ammo and practice. Heck, you can probably buy 3 off the shelf guns for the price of one custom gun.

In my opinion, the Remington 870 is the most needlessly over accessorized, modified gun on the planet. It is just fine the way it is.

[The Cat]

Ghost ring sights are a minus on a fighting shotgun.

Why would that be?

[70extreme]

A shotgun is a short range weapon that delivers a massive amount of lead on target. Most short range conflicts happen in the home or business. These type of encounters are dynamic and fast. So, speed of engagement is a key attribute with a weapon that will give you some minor flexibility for less than perfect aim. You still have to aim. But, the spread of the shotgun is (1" per yard) is more forgiving than a .223 caliber rifle. Many times, point shooting may be the best bet because of distance and tempo of the engagement.

This is why ghost ring sights are not necessary. For a rifle at 100 yards, of course. For a bad guy 7 feet from you in your front room, use the bead sight or point shoot. Odds are, if you can hit him first (and keep hitting him) he will not be able to return fire and you will live.

If you need ghost ring sights to hit your bad guy, you need a rifle.

[Skang]

For me, I had hard time using my friends shotgun with ghost ring sight.

Bead sigh was so much easier and quick.

Other than that, I have no experience with that shotgun.

[The Cat]

70extreme, I agree wholeheartedly with you. The OP didn't say how he intended to use the Wilson, though.

Look at it this way - my preferred home defense weapon is my carbine.

Let's say some crackhead (maybe more than 1) breaks in on me and Mrs Cat and I'm able to successfully engage him/them at living-room distances with my carbine. Will it matter that my barrel's free-floated? Or what kind of railed forend I have? Or that my buttstock's a CTR instead of a stock M4 and is a little cooler looking (to me) and not as wobbly? Or that I can take my optic off and put it back on without losing my zero?

Not in the least. At that time, all that will matter is that my weapon functions correctly and that I'm able to put the round(s) where they need to go.

My point is that late-night (statistically-speaking) home defense isn't the only use I have for my carbine. I like to take classes with it, target-shoot from a bench, plink, throw in a .22lr kit and plink cheaper, etc.

Maybe the OP has more than one use in mind for that Wilson

[70extreme]

My point on the shotgun is - if you need ghost ring sights, you should be using a carbine.

A shotgun is a lousy long range weapon.

A carbine can do short range and long range well.

[joker581]

I'll play devil's advocate ...

Why?

A stock 870 Express HD is all you need. Ghost ring sights are a minus on a fighting shotgun. You don't want a Vang Comp barrel. Shotguns are close range weapons and should throw an open pattern.

All I would recommend is to put a better follower and magazine spring in the stock gun and save the rest of your $$$ for ammo and practice. Heck, you can probably buy 3 off the shelf guns for the price of one custom gun.

In my opinion, the Remington 870 is the most needlessly over accessorized, modified gun on the planet. It is just fine the way it is.

While you are correct that a custom 870 offers little over a stock 870, the rest of your points throughout this thread are absurd.

Adding better sights to a shotgun and mastering their use is not going to reduce your effectiveness. Even if point shooting were better than aimed fire in a defensive situation, you could do it just as easily with ghost rings on the gun as you could without them. A shotgun is certainly less than ideal for fighting at longer ranges but intentionally handicapping one by refusing to put better sights on it "because you should be using a carbine instead" is just crazy.

[BigJoe]

ghostrings are not "useless" and for a tactical type situation a carbine is not always better, that is pending on what your intended use it. i have a vang comp 870 but i also instruct with it, use it to teach breaching, run slugs through it and multiple diferent kinds of rounds. a shotgun can be used VERY effectively as a primary as long as the user takes the time to train with it just like anything else. having the options of 00, slugs, birdshot, breaching rounds, and the other numerous available loads for your standard 12 guage makes it a very viable weapon. put a t1 on it and i know some guys who would give most a run for their money on most carbine courses. with a 7 round magazine. i think a guy getting hit accurately with 1 round of 12 guage slug will have a little harder time then a guy hit with 3 5.56.

[Rob Haught]

I have a long experience with Wilson Combat products. Ive used Scattergun Tech models since before the company was purchased by Wilson. In my opinion the ghost ring sight is a compromise. It gives most of the speed of a bead and most of the "precision" of a rifle sighted barrel. What it mostly does is allow the full spectrum of ammunition to be used. All this doctrine can be traced to the Modern Social Shotgun as developed circa late 70's and early 80's at Gunsite and other training institutions. Remember this was Pre-Carbine. The 5.56 was generally frowned upon and a Battle Rifle was 7.62. Period.
The shotgun was available to most folks and efforts were made to make it into a more versatile tool. Much like the Scout Rifle concept. Maybe not the ideal tool but one that could be made to work in a variety of situations. This remains to this day.

Depending on your intended use, you may or may not need all the items that come on a package gun. Extended mag tubes, large safeties, Surefire forearms etc are just icing on the cake if you need them for your application. In reality all you need is a stock that fits and a reliable shotgun.

In reality at close range nobody uses a bead sight either. But anyone who thinks you dont have to aim a shotgun up close is fooling themselves too. I personally modify the ghost ring into a large U notch by taking the top half of the ring off. I call it the Friendly Ghost and it gives me the close in speed I like as well as a point of reference to use slugs if I need to.

There are several options as far as purchasing a defensive shotgun. Wilson makes some of the best.