[BrianS]

well i bought a 870 tactical to throw the new magpul shotgun stock set on and pick up a 28" barrel so i could use it as a field gun..

i guess i woulden't call it junk if its soul purpose is a HD gun but if you want to take animals i hope you can get pretty good with that 18.5" barrel because thats the only barrel you can ever have for it.
with the extended magazine tube you can no longer fit any barrel to the receiver because the tube is too long, the barrel mount is moved aprox 3" towards the muzzle. after doing some researching this is remington's new marketing so you have to buy a different gun for different purposes.

i wonder if a gunsmith could move the mount on the barrel up so it will mount on this receiver

some pics in this thread show the issue
http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=556226

 

[vantrepes]

It's been a while, but I'm pretty sure you could swap the magazine tube for a standard one, and use the 28" barrel. I bet they went with the long tube because it provides more reliable feeding than an extension on a standard tube.
Not as easy as I thought. I was thinking of the Mossberg, with threads, the Rem is soldered in, it seems. Still, most likely cheaper to swap the tubes than to mod the barrel.