Remington 887 Nitro Mag Tactical Review: Part 3

Remington 887 Nitro Mag Tactical Review
Part 3 - External Features
June 8, 2011

In this part of the review, I will cover the external features of the Remington 887 Nitro Mag Tactical Shotgun. In the next part (Part 4), I will cover disassembly and the internal features of the shotgun. Throughout the review, you can click on a photo which will bring up a high resolution image showing even more detail. These next two photos give you overall views of the shotgun.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Tactical Choke

The front of the Remington 887 Nitro Mag Tactical Shotgun is packed with features as shown in the next series of photos. The first is the Remington Tactical Choke Tube. This choke tube can also be used for breeching, but I recommend you do more research into the proper way and rounds to use for this task. The choke tube extends the overall length of the barrel portion of the shotgun by 1.95" (call it 2") and provides 18 vent ports. It also includes an aggressive front end that can be used to inflict damage to an assailant without having to actually shoot them. The actual choke portion is considered to be a cylinder choke which should have no constriction and can be used for slugs.

Figure 3

Front Sight

The shotgun comes with a HiViz fiber optic front sight that measures 0.63" in length.

Figure 4

Upon closer observation, it appeared that the sight was not an integral part of the barrel.

Figure 5

I was able to take my thumb nail and pop the front sight off the barrel. I see this as both good and bad. The good part is that you can easily replace the sight if you damage the fiber optic portion. The bad is you could potentially knock the sight off your shotgun. In general, this could be true for many shotguns, but the force required to pop this sight off was surprisingly low.

Figure 6

This next photo shows the sight picture you get with the HiViz sight and receiver mounted rail.

Figure 7
Remington 887 Nitro Mag Tactical Review

Barrel Clamp

The Barrel Clamp is actually two clamshell type halves and includes a short Picatinny rail on one side and a sing swivel stud on the other. It can be mounted so that the rail and stud can be on either side of the shotgun. You can also move the clamp further back on the barrel if desired. The position shown is as received, but I decided to move it toward the fore-end so I can easily reach the tail cap on my flashlight.

Figure 8

Figure 9

Figure 10

Magazine Extension Tube

The 887 Nitro Mag Tactical comes with a 2 shell magazine extension tube. If you will notice, the extension tube actually extends past the barrel.

Figure 11
Remington 887 Nitro Mag Tactical Review

Shotgun Capacity

With the 2 shot extension tube, I was able to load the following number of shells in the magazine tube for each length shell.

2.75" shells - 7 in the magazine tube
3" shells - 6 in the magazine tube
3.5" shells - 5 in the magazine tube

Barrel

The barrel measures 18.5" and is fully coated in the ARMORLOKT™ coating. According to Remington, ArmorLokt is an "impenetrable layer of proprietary polymer materials" which is supposed to be "tough as nails". This layer is bonded via an injection molding process on to a 4140 cold hammer forged steel barrel. The barrel rib is formed during this injection molding process. From the photos below, I think you can see it produced a very nice finish and matte texture on the barrel. I can clearly see why this is an advantage when out in wet conditions. The chances of your shotgun getting wet and forming rust spots on the exterior of the barrel are now impossible.

Figure 12

Midway down the left side of the barrel and molded into the ArmorLokt coating is "12 GA. 2 ¾", 3", OR 3 ½".

Figure 13

On the left side of the barrel near the receiver is stamped "3", "CF" and "LF". The first "3" represents a customer repair stamp which make sense since I sent the original shotgun back to Remington. The "CF" and "LF" confused me slightly since the first letter typically indicates the month of manufacture (C = April, F = February) and the second letter indicates the year (F = 2011). This double date stamp may be due to the repair status.

Figure 14

Midway down the left side of the barrel and molded into the ArmorLokt coating is "REMINGTON ARMS COMPANY INC. ILION, NY".

Figure 15

The right side of the barrel near the receiver is stamped with a circled "REP" with a "J" beside it. The "REP" is the proof marking indicating that the barrel was proof tested. I believe that REP stands for Remington English Proof. I believe the "J" is the test mark which indicates that it has passed some type of quality control testing (i.e. hardness test).

Figure 16

Fore-end

The fore-end is some type of polymer (synthetic) material that covers the entire magazine tube. It has a flared portion near the receiver that goes around the receiver when the action is pulled back. Overall I think it has a nice feel and I like the fact that I can hold it closer to the receiver. So far my preferred grip is with my thumb just over the taper to the narrower portion.

Figure 17

The added ribs down the fore-end give it more texture to prevent your hand from slipping on the surface.

Figure 18

The photo below shows the action back and you can see the exposed magazine tube.

Figure 19

Figure 20

Figure 21

Receiver

Just like with the barrel, the exterior of the receiver if fully coated with the ArmorLokt coating, but the receiver has a dull looking finish as compared to the semi-gloss look finish of the barrel.. The top of the receiver includes an aluminum rail that is attached with three screws with holes drilled and tapped into the top of the steel portion of the receiver. The rail is 5.93" long and contains 12 slots. The center of the rail (length wise) is grooved to represent your rear sight picture when using your front sight.

Figure 22

On the left side of the receiver is the "Remington" name. You can also see the ends of the Trigger Plate Pins. Remington chose to extend the ribbed portion look of the fore-end to the receiver and stock. This serves no real purpose other than looks, but I think it does dress up the look of the plain coating finish.

Figure 23

On the bottom at the front of the receiver is the serial number of the shotgun.

Figure 24

On the right side of the receiver is the ejection port, Trigger Plate Pins, and the words "Remington M887 NitroMag" molded into the receiver coating. Also notice how they continued the ribbed look into the trigger plate. If you click on the photo below and zoom in, you will see that some of the black finish on the bolt is wearing off due to contact with the ejection port cover.

Figure 25

You should also notice that the polymer trigger plate extends the full length of the receiver. The action bar lock is located in the front center of the trigger guard and the cross bolt safety is behind the trigger.

Figure 26

The trigger guard has a distinctive shape and is deep enough to be used easily with gloves. The action bar lock button and trigger are made from a polymer material, but the safety appears to be steel.

Figure 27

By pressing down the Carrier, you can see the red aluminum Follower.

Figure 28

Stock

The stock is some type of polymer (synthetic) material.

Figure 29

The pistol grip area of the stock continues the ribbed look.

Figure 30

On the bottom of the stock is the Remington "R" logo.

Figure 31

The stock also includes a sling swivel mount.

Figure 32

The recoil (butt) pad is Remington's SuperCell recoil pad and Remington claims it reduces recoil up to 54%. It does have a very soft spongy feel and I believe it will easily help reduce recoil. This will be especially important when shooting the 3.5" shells.

Figure 33

Weight

The shotgun empty weighed in at 7.04 pounds. This is slightly over the 6.875 pounds stated in the specifications.

Figure 34

Thoughts

The overall finish of the Remington 887 Nitro Mag Tactical shotgun was good. It comes with some nice accessory features like the receiver rail, tactical choke, magazine extension tube and forward mounted rail on the barrel clamp. Personally I like the look of the shotgun, but I have discussed this with other people and they have other opinions. For the traditionalists, I think they are going to have a hard time warming up to the "plastic-ness" appearance of this shotgun. For those willing to see past the past, the ArmorLokt (weather proof) coating on the shotgun offers a huge step forward in the preservation and durability of your shotgun.

For more detailed photos and commentary, make sure you check out the other parts of this review. The following links are provided to help you navigate to these other parts of this review.

Part 1 - Introduction, Specifications and Summary
Part 2 - What's In The Box
Part 3 - External Features (this page)
Part 4 - Disassembly and Internal Features
Part 5 - Range Testing

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