Wilson Combat

[New Shooter II]

I am looking for information and opinions on the Wilson Combat Scattergun Technologies Remington 870.

What does everyone think?

[timmy8151]

IMHO, Wilson's scatterguns are overpriced. They take a 870 Express, do a little polishing of the internals, throw parts that are easy to install and refinish the gun. For the money, I think you should go with a 870 Police and put on the parts yourself. You'll do it cheaper than Wilson and have a better base gun.

[tedbeemer]

I've had a Vang Comp 870 for 10 years now, and have NEVER regretted getting one. I took a 40 hour tactical class with it, and was able to consistently hit a 6 inch wide metal plate at 90 yards with slugs from a kneeling position. Vang's are mainly legendary for their tight 00 patterns ( with Federal H132 Tactical 00 loads) due to the patented 'backboring" process of the barrel.

https://www.vangcomp.com/Home.html

[MadMex]

https://www.vangcomp.com/Home.html

http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10285

Besides the stellar performance and durability of his builds, Hans is one hell of a great human being to do business with. Very service oriented.

[1SGMAT]

Vang Comp is the best tactical shotgun out there. Mine shoots scary tight groups.

Its wierd to talk about groups from a shot gun but that is what the pattern looks like at 15 meters and is still crazy at 25.

Call Hans and you wont regret it

[Teletiger7]

Do It Yourself

Build your own 870 scattergun: buy a police 870 and get all the parts from Wilson Combat. Guess what? you just saved yourself hundreds! And it's fun to put it together yourself. Plus, you'll know exactly how it all works if you ever need to repair it.

[randy]

If you are going to build a ghetto blaster Vangs stuff is the best for the buck.

[WilsonCQB]

+1 Vang Comp...or just get yourself a Benelli M4 for the same price.

[elsolo]

Big D,
If you are planning on getting this shotty for multigun matches, you'll probubly want to really consider going with an autoloader. Pretty much all 3-gun shooters use either a Benelli or a Rem 1100/1187.

[ocabj]

I'd just buy the basic 870 HD that's being sold in stores and buy ammo.

If you feel the need to mod, send the barrel to Vang for the VCS modifications. Ghost rings are nice, but optional. You can easily make fast and fairly precise shots with slugs and a bead sight. If you really want ghost rings, you can have them installed by a smith, or you can drill and tap it yourself. Big safety? Easy install. Sidesaddle? Easy install. Surefire foreend light? Easy install. Bright 'tactical' follower? Easy install.

The Remington 870 is a very simple design and is very easy to work on yourself.

[SgtBulldog]

It's a pretty neat piece of weaponry, but expensive. If you can afford it, its exactly the type of mods you want, and you are willing to pay a premium for the time it would take to do the mods yourself, then go for it.

[Wulf]

I'm not a big fan of Vang's work. Not for any lack of quality or effectiveness, but I question the utility of his mods for most peoples PDW needs.

The best (or worst depending on how you look at it) examples of his work that I've seen data for produce patterns that spread on the order of a 1/3 to 1/2 inch per yard. That's a 4-5 inch pattern at 10 yards, 11-16 inches at 30 yards, and 21 to 32 inches at 60 yards. Really, that's not much larger than the group size you'd expect a reasonably well trained person to fire with a rifle at similar ranges under pressure. So if you're not going to get any benifit from the dispersion of the shot package why not shoot a rifle to begin with; or just load the SG with slugs? I fully understand that the street sweaper effect is a myth. But at the same time a pattern that develops nicely within the anticipated range that the weapon is designed to be used within, will buy the shooter some fudge factor on the aiming side of the equation.

For instance, if you decide that a pattern at least 6 inches wide buys you enough aiming slack to be worth mentioning, and further that a pattern larger than 36 inches or so is too large to be useful, then a short barreld coach gun with a 4in/yd spread rate has an ideal range that begins at 2 yards and ends at 8 yards. A kind of normal cylinder bore riot SG with a spread rate of 1in/yd has an ideal range that begins at 6 yards and ends at 40 yards. An average Vang gun (based on the informal research I did a while back) will do 1/2 in/yard, and produce an ideal range that starts at 15 yards and ends at 80 yards. But historically 15 yards is a long civilian gun fight....80 yards borders on indefensible for a civilian. The far more likely scenario is the 2 to 10 yard deal where darkness and fast moving bodies will make a little aiming slack a good thing.

Now, if you're an LEO with an agency that doesnt issue rifles, or if for jurisdictional or PC reasons dont want to deal with a fighting rifle, the Vang system can give you much of the functionality of rifle from a buck fed SG. Of course feeding the SG with slugs give you much of the functionality of a rifle too.

Again, not saying the Vang system is bad, just that its not necessarily necessary or even desirable for a lot of people.

[mike100]

I think the vang tubes will group tighter than regular bbl's, but 80 percent of it is ammo selection. You could shoot some buckshot with the newer style deep shot cups that hold the mass together after it leaves the bbl for tight groups, or switch to CYL bore shots with cheap unbuffered shot for the wide dispersion.

I have not personally tried a vang 870, but someone on the net shot loads that I asked him to out of his and posted his targets. the results were tighter, on average, than the same loads with my SG.

[rorschach]

My closet shotty is a Wilson/Scattergun standard 870 w/ Surefire and for what I paid, I'm very pleased. There are comparable pumpguns available at a cheaper price, and you would not be poorly equipped with any of them. I like the 7-shot 870P as well.

[meangreen]

For the same money spent on a Wilson 870, I would instead buy a Rem 870 Police with a Surefire Forend and spend the rest on top quality training.

Rob Haught comes first in my mind... Just my $0.02