Looking at the Remington 870 line, two models mentioned are here:
Model 870™ Wingmaster, MSRP $818
http://www.remington.com/en/products/firearms/shotguns/model-870/model-870-wingmaster.aspx
Model 870™ Express® Super Magnum Combo, MSRP $620
http://www.remington.com/products/firearms/shotguns/model-870/model-870-express-super-mag-combo.aspx?panel=1#data
Q's:
1) How common are interchangeable barrels for shotguns? This is new to me seeing it an option (and you folks talking about it).
2) I don't understand why the super magnum combo, with two barrels, has a lower MSRP when "the rest of the gun" seems quite similar to the Wingmaster. Does the wingmaster simply command a higher msrp due to higher market value (and not increased materials & production costs that I assume the combo has)?
The Wingmaster is the premier grade gun- great fit and finish, blued, usually highly polished and finished wood stock. Gorgeous.
The Express is the "hunter" (lower cost as well) version- usually parkerized or camoed, plain wood or synthetic stock. My 870 SuperMag (the SuperMags will take 3 1/2 inch shells) is camo/synthetic. It gets abused in the various blinds and in the various weather conditions. I'd be a bit more careful about taking a Wingmaster out in places like that, although my 20 ga Wingmaster did it for about 8-10 years. It's not perfect anymore, but it looks good yet.
The barrels are like Legos- among the 12 ga 870's, they all interchange. However when you throw a 3" barrel on a supermag, 3 1/2 inch shells won't fit, and a 3 1/2 supermag barrel on a regular 870 won't work either- you can't feed a 3 1/2 shell into a regular 870 receiver. However you can throw a 3" barrel on a supermag and feed 2 3/4 and 3" shells through it all day. My rifled barrel is 3"- no problems, I feed it 2 3/4 Remington Core-Lock sabots anyway (they shoot more accurately than the 3").
I must have one of these:
http://www.remington.com/products/firearms/shotguns/model-870/model-870-express-super-mag-turkey-camo.aspxbecause mine is full camo.
Second I bought the fully rifled cantilevered barrel. They make a "Superslug" model- that's the barrel I have. It's 25 1/2" long instead of the usual 23". I didn't buy the combo- I bought the barrel separately because I wanted to get the longer one. Of course that was 15 or so years ago. I'm not sure they still offer the superslug barrel separately.
If I were going to get an autoloader, I'd get the Benelli Super Black Eagle 2. Again I have lots of time behind various models- Browning BPS, Gold, Winchesters and the Rems, and the Benelli took the most abuse and kept going. However I must preface that by saying I haven't seriously looked at an autoloader for probably 10 years, and I know there have been some advancements in design in the various models. My experience with the autoloaders was in duck and goose hunting, and a late-season goose gun in Michigan takes some serious abuse.
HTH!
