Shotgun help

[whacko]

Help me out with this one.——
35 to 40 years ago I was told {if I remember correctly},
at a hunters safety course, that if you ran a full choke
with a slug you’d be running the risk of blowing the
end of the barrel off? As the slug is to big to fit through
the full choke? Any truth to this or was a getting typical
cop/gun shop firearms advise?

It's a total bunch of crap! Read the owners manual on the shotgun you have. My old Mossberg 500 came with a full choke barrel and owners manual said slugs were fine. I've killed many deer using remy sluggers through that full choke barrel.

Some guns owners manuals will tell you not to fire slugs from their full chokes......bottom line read the owners manual.

Foster/rifled slugs are designed to swage down in size as they travel down the barrel so they can be safely fired through many choke sizes with no issues. Again .....read the owners manual.

 

[SgtHal75]

Right.
What I was getting at is what do you need for real world accuracy in the conditions your shooting.
If you can get three shots touching from a rest well thats very good for a smooth bore with Brenneke or Foster slugs.
Now unless your hunting from a stand that mimics your bench test and your deer are coming into a known shooting zone.
What good does a 2" group at 50 yards do if you cant shoot pie plates off hand in rhe woods.
Best way to really see how accurate you and your gun are is to set up a vital zone target at the distance your most likely going to shoot at.
This is why 00 is so popular for short range woods hunting

Does it matter how many pellets in your opinion? Is 00 buck 9 pellet good inside of 40 yards for hunting? Ive ordered a bunch of different slugs and buckshot for next weekend to practice with.

 

[whacko]

Does it matter how many pellets in your opinion? Is 00 buck 9 pellet good inside of 40 yards for hunting? Ive ordered a bunch of different slugs and buckshot for next weekend to practice with.

Buckshot has the same characteristics as slugs through a shotgun in that different brands and loads will pattern differently. Buy a bunch of different ones and pattern them. If your using a home defense type barrel.......with an ic or cylinder bore choke......40 yards may be a long shot for buckshot.

 

[BrianWilson]

As much or more important than trying for MOA consistency out of a slug gun is your ability to shoot it from realistic positions. If you do a lot of stand or blind hunting perhaps your shot will be from seated...it's hard, much harder than you'd think,and for a right handed guy pretty much impossible off to the right, with out a lot of movement and noise. That folding chair? The one with cup holders in the arm rests? Nope...can't shoot very well at all out of thing. Kneeling in a tight blind is a tough shot, and where is he going to come from? Prolly not where you planned on.
I you like to still hunt you need to be able to hit stuff standing, or just maybe you'll be lucky enough to catch a brace against a tree trunk...

These are the things I work on. A gun that will put a slug on a paper plate @ 25 and 50 will get the job done.

 

[M60]

I'll get flamed for this but wtf. Why would you use buckshot? You'll wound more deer than you'll drop. Use slugs. You'll take more careful and responsible shots. You're a Marine. You know how to shoot.
I hunted with a twelve ga. for years. Then I discovered the lightweight, Remington 1100, 20 ga.. Guess what I discovered? I discovered that twenty ga. slugs drop deer just as quickly as twelve ga. slugs, with a lighter shotgun and less recoil. Now I have two of them. they are both crazy accurate with fiber optic rifle sights. One has a smooth bore buck barrel. The other has a rifled buck barrel. The rifled barrel, is stupid accurate out to 150 yards, with Hornady, JHP slugs, for rifled barrels. They cost about $3.00 per slug, but that's nothing compared to what you spend for a week or two of hunting.

 

[HorizontalHunter]

In the interest of full disclosure I am not a fan of hunting with buckshot. I’m sure it has its place and is great for home defense.

For deer hunting I would recommend slugs all the way unless you are on a ladder in Nantucket. For several reasons:

A third bear season was recently added during the shotgun season. Slugs only, so if you have a bear permit leave the buckshot at home.

Find the best shooting slug you can and stretch it out to 100 yards if you can. And I agree with Mac; buy a bunch because you never know.

This is what a 2-3/4” Remington Slugger foster slug will do to a deers heart at 75-80 yards:

The slug still had enough energy to pass through and keep on going.

The slug was shot out of my Winchester Pump with a short smooth bore barrel topped with a 1.5 - 4.5 Bushnell shotgun scope that was mounted to the aluminum receiver.

You can’t do that with buckshot.

That’s my longest shot by far. Most are under 40 yards but I am accurate enough out to 100; Minute of deer as they say.

Bob

 

[SgtHal75]

I'll get flamed for this but wtf. Why would you use buckshot? You'll wound more deer than you'll drop. Use slugs. You'll take more careful and responsible shots. You're a Marine. You know how to shoot.
I hunted with a twelve ga. for years. Then I discovered the lightweight, Remington 1100, 20 ga.. Guess what I discovered? I discovered that twenty ga. slugs drop deer just as quickly as twelve ga. slugs, with a lighter shotgun and less recoil. Now I have two of them. they are both crazy accurate with fiber optic rifle sights. One has a smooth bore buck barrel. The other has a rifled buck barrel. The rifled barrel, is stupid accurate out to 150 yards, with Hornady, JHP slugs, for rifled barrels. They cost about $3.00 per slug, but that's nothing compared to what you spend for a week or two of hunting.

I was curious about buckshot myself and agree with u on it, but I haven’t even started my rookie hunting season so I didn’t want to come off as that guy, lol! As far as my shooting skills, yes I still got it, it’s just driving me crazy that I have to aim 2 feet below center of target at about 5 O’clock with the target at 25 yards. Not much room for sight adjustments on the 870 express either. One thing I didn’t try was the factory breaching choke, it’s ridiculous looking and I took it off..I’ll have to give it a shot with other slug loads I ordered. If I didn’t have to bring the kids to see that stupid Mouse next month I would be in business with a proper gun, haha!

 

[mac1911]

Does it matter how many pellets in your opinion? Is 00 buck 9 pellet good inside of 40 yards for hunting? Ive ordered a bunch of different slugs and buckshot for next weekend to practice with.

My dad was the deer hunter.
Thick it was 00 to 000 . Not so thick Triball if they even make that anymore.
One place we went had a nice open swath of land with about 40-60 yards where the deer would peak out that was the only time my dad used slugs. Of all the deer i seen groing up I remeber 00 probably being the most used on successful deer down

 

[HorizontalHunter]

...... it’s just driving me crazy that I have to aim 2 feet below center of target at about 5 O’clock with the target at 25 yards. Not much room for sight adjustments on the 870 express either.

That’s not uncommon and what I was referring to about the sights.

They do make aftermarket choke tubes specifically for rifled slugs. I don’t know much about them other than they exist.

Try the breaching choke. It might surprise you and you have nothing to lose. It is probably an open choke.

Bob

 

[mac1911]

I was curious about buckshot myself and agree with u on it, but I haven’t even started my rookie hunting season so I didn’t want to come off as that guy, lol! As far as my shooting skills, yes I still got it, it’s just driving me crazy that I have to aim 2 feet below center of target at about 5 O’clock with the target at 25 yards. Not much room for sight adjustments on the 870 express either. One thing I didn’t try was the factory breaching choke, it’s ridiculous looking and I took it off..I’ll have to give it a shot with other slug loads I ordered. If I didn’t have to bring the kids to see that stupid Mouse next month I would be in business with a proper gun, haha!

Honeslty 2' low is really off.
Have you tried to adjust the sights. Express tactical has the ghost ring correct. Thats aprox 2moa per half turn.
I think its time to put the shot gun in the hands of a known good shot gun shooter.

Chokes can be FuBAR ....i had a browning choke labeled full but in reality it was IC and it was notvery concentric tossing the shot charge off to the side of the pattern board.
Sent it to browning and they replaced it with a nice new extended full choke. That shot dead nuts and tight pattern.

 

[bfm]

Testing Remington 870 Shotgun Barrels of Different Lengths and Chokes with Slugs

 

[mac1911]

I'll get flamed for this but wtf. Why would you use buckshot? You'll wound more deer than you'll drop. Use slugs. You'll take more careful and responsible shots. You're a Marine. You know how to shoot.
I hunted with a twelve ga. for years. Then I discovered the lightweight, Remington 1100, 20 ga.. Guess what I discovered? I discovered that twenty ga. slugs drop deer just as quickly as twelve ga. slugs, with a lighter shotgun and less recoil. Now I have two of them. they are both crazy accurate with fiber optic rifle sights. One has a smooth bore buck barrel. The other has a rifled buck barrel. The rifled barrel, is stupid accurate out to 150 yards, with Hornady, JHP slugs, for rifled barrels. They cost about $3.00 per slug, but that's nothing compared to what you spend for a week or two of hunting.

I'll get flamed for this but wtf. Why would you use buckshot? You'll wound more deer than you'll drop. Use slugs. You'll take more careful and responsible shots. You're a Marine. You know how to shoot.
I hunted with a twelve ga. for years. Then I discovered the lightweight, Remington 1100, 20 ga.. Guess what I discovered? I discovered that twenty ga. slugs drop deer just as quickly as twelve ga. slugs, with a lighter shotgun and less recoil. Now I have two of them. they are both crazy accurate with fiber optic rifle sights. One has a smooth bore buck barrel. The other has a rifled buck barrel. The rifled barrel, is stupid accurate out to 150 yards, with Hornady, JHP slugs, for rifled barrels. They cost about $3.00 per slug, but that's nothing compared to what you spend for a week or two of hunting.

Recoil is dependant on the shell and rifle weight.
A 1 oz slug going 1500fps puts the same recoil energy into the gun be it 12 or 20 and you with the the heavier gun having a bit less recoil.
A well fitting shotgun with the correct pitch will also lessen the felt recoil.
Its all good
You use what works for you in the end.

 

[Mark from MA]

In my 30 years of shotgun shooting experience.

Dont bother with sabot slug barrels in Remington guns. Foster slugs will be just as accurate out of a smoothbore at 1/5th the cost and they are way easier to find.

My only gun that shoots sabots similar to a rifle is my encore with a 26” rifle barrel. It is done very well.

Put a scope or red dot on if your bead is way off. Note that if the scope is on the reciever a few shooting sessions of sighting and taking the gun apart should verify that the gun will hold zero. If not sight gun then just wait til after deer season to clean it.

Buckshot is for 20 yards and in. If you use a full choke, maybe more. Much over that and your just leaving pellets under the skin. Most places in MA you dont need it. Better off with a slug.

A treestand in a super thick laurel patch is about the only place id use it. Even then I prefer a slug. But I used to hunt with an old timer that used a full choke 30” double barrel shotgun in the laurel. He was pretty effective with it, but always told me he couldnt see past 30 yards and his farthest shot was 20.

 

[whacko]

In my 30 years of shotgun shooting experience.

Dont bother with sabot slug barrels in Remington guns. Foster slugs will be just as accurate out of a smoothbore at 1/5th the cost and they are way easier to find.

My only gun that shoots sabots similar to a rifle is my encore with a 26” rifle barrel. It is done very well.

Put a scope or red dot on if your bead is way off. Note that if the scope is on the reciever a few shooting sessions of sighting and taking the gun apart should verify that the gun will hold zero. If not sight gun then just wait til after deer season to clean it.

Buckshot is for 20 yards and in. If you use a full choke, maybe more. Much over that and your just leaving pellets under the skin. Most places in MA you dont need it. Better off with a slug.

A treestand in a super thick laurel patch is about the only place id use it. Even then I prefer a slug. But I used to hunt with an old timer that used a full choke 30” double barrel shotgun in the laurel. He was pretty effective with it, but always told me he couldnt see past 30 yards and his farthest shot was 20.

Agreed...

Buckshot has its place but is very limited to specific scenarios.....like you said.....thick laurel patches and very close range.

 

[mac1911]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcIL5ko4eUo&t=816s

 

[JDL]

Cylinder choke for a 18.5 or 20 Tactical shot gun slugs or any shot .

 

[mac1911]

Took some of my reloads(lee 1oz slugs at 1200fps) to try in 2 barrels I have never used. I basically use the 28" field barrel on this 870 for everything. 5 shots each
I have not shot shotgun a few years.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGUfTfGwYVk&t=3s