The more I shoot it, the more I love this thing.  :P

I have an 870 HD with an 18" barrel that is going to be my intro 3-gun shotgun.   I'm still not comfortable getting a consistent hit using only the front beed.

Are the ghost ring kits something that a non-gunsmith can put on?  Am I better off findinga  qualified smith to put one on?  Any recommendations for a good site that I can use?

Much obliged in advance,

AzDak

I used a Scattergun Technologies rear ghost- and an MMC soldered on front. The MMC needs to be machined down .100 of an inch to work with the low Scattergun rear.
I love the low un-encumbred Scattergun rear that is close to the eye, but the fronts will eventually take a shit. You cannot solder them on- or the adhesive on the tritium vials goes south. I used to drill the barrel with two 6-48,s to "glue and screw" them- but do not anymore.
If you solder on a front- jig it with the barrel installed in the receiver- Remington's are sometimes not the straightest burners out there.
A crooked front sight is an embarrasment, and will piss you off everytime you shoot it.
Scattergun sells a jig to drill and tap the rear with drillbits and bushings-  if you use the jig- you must make a custom centerpunch. if you just go to town with the drillbit- even with the bushing- it will probably walk.
I just do it on the CNC now. I used the jig twice, and now it just collects dust.

I had Scattergun Tech ghost rings on my 870P and found they din't work for me.  Without good lighting (such as under a canopy of trees), I couldn't center the post in the ring.  It mad precision shooting with slugs very difficult in low light (at least for me).

I switched to the standard Remington police rifle sights on my new 870P and they are quick, precise, and quite rugged.  With just a dab of orange paint they are very easy to pick up in all reasonable lighting conditions, and very precise for slug shooting.  Our department has about a dozen of the 870's equipped with rifle sights and after 15+yrs of being banged around in patrol cars and being shot, not one front sight has come off.  Two of the rear leafs (not the welded base, just the screwed-on leaf) have broken off over the years.   That's primarily because the locking "clamshell" we use presses the leaf right up against the divider/cage steel frame and as the guns are slammed in the rack a couple of hundred times, the screw breaks.

Also, you can upgrade the rear leaf and front bead to tritium or fiber optic by simply using a drift punch or an allen wrench.

Finally, if you have the ghost rings installed and find you don't like them (as was my case), taking them off will leave holes in the reciever and a big mess on the front of the barrel.  With the rifle sights, removing them is an easy barrel swap.

I bought a set of MMC tritium ghost ring sights for my 870 and love them! I had a local 'smith put them on (back in two days). I went with the MMC because I liked the protective "ears" that surrond the front and rear sights.

ErzulisBoat,

I too disliked the glue/solder-on SGT front sight, so I used a standard Remington dovetail front ramp with an XS Big Dot tritium front sight, which is compatible in heigth. Remington also offers this sight combination on their own 870P.

I had a smith do my wilsons.  They just needed some gluing and drilling, but I didn't want to mess up the 870.

Quoted: I used a Scattergun Technologies rear ghost- and an MMC soldered on front. The MMC needs to be machined down .100 of an inch to work with the low Scattergun rear. I love the low un-encumbred Scattergun rear that is close to the eye, but the fronts will eventually take a shit. You cannot solder them on- or the adhesive on the tritium vials goes south. I used to drill the barrel with two 6-48,s to "glue and screw" them- but do not anymore. If you solder on a front- jig it with the barrel installed in the receiver- Remington's are sometimes not the straightest burners out there. A crooked front sight is an embarrasment, and will piss you off everytime you shoot it. Scattergun sells a jig to drill and tap the rear with drillbits and bushings-  if you use the jig- you must make a custom centerpunch. if you just go to town with the drillbit- even with the bushing- it will probably walk. I just do it on the CNC now. I used the jig twice, and now it just collects dust.

Are you saying that the original SGT will come off? I don't mean dropping it on concrete. I mean coming off from just plain use.