smallest choke for slugs

EMTDAD

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Picked up a couple of Winchester Super X Deer slugs for wife's hunting class this Saturday at Shirley R&G. She'll be hunting at Devens in December and cannot use buckshot. So they told her to bring slugs only.

What's the smallest choke size I can send these through? I have a Modified, and Full chokes... do I need an Improved Cylinder choke as well? Gun is a Rem 870 Express.

Thanks for helping out a noob hunter.

These are the rounds
http://www.basspro.com/shop/en/winchester-super-x-rifled-slugs-shotshells
 
Benelli FAQ's: https://www.benelliusa.com/customer-service/faq

Which chokes are recommended for slugs?
These chokes are recommended for slugs:
4 notches = Improved cylinder
5 notches = Cylinder

A cylinder choke is recommended for shooting rifled slugs in a smooth-bore barrel. Sabot slugs should only be shot through our fully-rifled slug barrels.

It is not safe to shoot slugs through chokes tighter than those listed here.
 
simple answer is read the owners manual for the gun you are using. If you don't have the owners manual.....you can download it. That's the simple answer.

Now.....there are about to be a veritable shit ton of guys on here any moment now that are going to tell you to NEVER shoot slugs through anything smaller than an IC choke cuz your gonna blow up your gun and kill yourself. Screw them......read your owners manual. I have a mid 1990s Mossberg 500 fixed full choke barrel....owners manual said slugs were fine. I've put at least 100 slugs through that gun no issues. Even took 2 deer with it. I've been trashed many times by "experts" telling me I'm going to hurt myself using a full choke with slugs. Yeah......screw them......I read my owners manual.

Read the owners manual. Did I mention read the owners manual?


Now.....as far as the BOW program she is going to......its a great program. My wife got her first deer on that hunt in 2015. 138 pound buck. They are great people running that program and I hope she enjoys it.


Also.....what sights is she using? what gauge? How much experience does she have?
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Benelli FAQ's: https://www.benelliusa.com/customer-service/faq

Which chokes are recommended for slugs?
These chokes are recommended for slugs:
4 notches = Improved cylinder
5 notches = Cylinder

A cylinder choke is recommended for shooting rifled slugs in a smooth-bore barrel. Sabot slugs should only be shot through our fully-rifled slug barrels.

It is not safe to shoot slugs through chokes tighter than those listed here.


BULLSHIT!!!! (that didn't take long) He needs to read HIS owners manual. Hes got a remy 870....... and your giving him info from benelli.
 
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Before all the worry warts start flaming me.......below is the info on Mossberg website for slug use. Bottom line......mossy 500 yes you can use a full choke but accuracy is better through more open chokes. mussy 935 and 835 you cannot. So........OP.......did I mention ready YOUR owners manual?

Can I shoot slugs or buckshot through a "smoothbore" field barrel with Accu-Choke™ tubes? (500/505/535/9200/88/930 models)
Yes, and with sabots or rifled slugs, the more "open" the choke tube, the better the accuracy ("Improved Cylinder" recommended.) The "full" or "modified" choke tubes are preferred for buckshot loads. Slugs, buckshot and steel shot loads are not recommended for use with an extra full "turkey tube" installed, due to the tube's tight constriction. Do not fire any load without a choke tube installed, doing so will damage the internal choke tube threads.



Can I fire slugs through my 935™ or 835® vent rib, Accu-Mag® choke tube barrel?
No, 935™ and 835® field barrels (those with a ventilated rib) are "overbored," and the extra inside diameter may cause the projectile to "wobble" producing unreliable accuracy. A projectile may wedge inside the barrel causing an obstruction. Obstructions of any kind can cause damage to the firearm resulting in damage to the barrel and/or personal injury to you or those around you. Dedicated fully rifled slug barrels are available for the 935™ and 835® models. Other 935™ and 835® Accu-Mag® choke tube notes: Buckshot and steel-shot loads are not recommended for use with an extra full turkey tube installed.
 
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Here's another link for you, platform specific: http://www.rem870.com/2012/05/06/shotgun-chokes-explained-cylinder-improved-cylinder-modified-full/

"It is recommended to use slugs with Cyl or Imp Cyl for better accuracy."

"If you have slugs, then it is okay to use them with a modified choke but it is not recommended. Gun experts will tell you that slugs are better used with chokes that have less constriction. If your chokes have too much constriction and you shoot a slug out of it then it can damage the weapon."
 
Can't find the exact manual online.. but the support page says that an improved cylinder is "recommended".. but does that mean it's unsafe, or just loss of accuracy? Regardless, I'll look for one in the next 3 days.. hopfully I can find one.
https://www.remington.com/support/help-center

seems like info is all over the place.. that's why I came to the NES braintrust..

thanks whacko.. new at all this hunting stuff.. so much to learn.. She's excited..

12 ga, 870 Express.. factory bead sight... she doesn't have much experience
 
And the modified choke has four notches even though it says modified. So I'm not sure that more notches really means anything since I just bought a full choke RedHead brand that has four notches
8cf33d82cf3d63d25146c969b8859293.jpg


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Can't find the exact manual online.. but the support page says that an improved cylinder is "recommended".. but does that mean it's unsafe, or just loss of accuracy? Regardless, I'll look for one in the next 3 days.. hopfully I can find one.
https://www.remington.com/support/help-center

seems like info is all over the place.. that's why I came to the NES braintrust..

thanks whacko.. new at all this hunting stuff.. so much to learn.. She's excited..

12 ga, 870 Express.. factory bead sight... she doesn't have much experience


OK. I'll tell you what I went through with my wife to give you some ideas. She could NOT handle the 12 gauge. The recoil with slugs is harsh.....period. It even is for me and I'm not recoil shy at all. I picked up a used mossy 500 20 gauge for her and it was much better. I even switched to a 20 gauge myself and have taken 2 deer using it.......20 gauge is plenty of power to drop a deer......and much easier on the shoulder.

Now I'll address the factory bead sight. That's a sight for bird hunting and using buckshot on deer in a pinch. I know devens does not allow buckshot so.......I tried my wife with the bead sight and slugs and it hit 6 inches high at 25 yards and was so high at 50 yards it was completely off paper. bird barrels with bead sights are set to pattern high. She's going to have trouble over 20 yards with that gun. My suggestion is if your dead set on the 870 you have in 12 gauge go buy a barrel with iron sights.......or a cantilever barrel you can mount a good red dot on. the iron sight barrels can be had for $100 or so. I know.....its more money.......but you want her to be confident with the gun. If you have the scratch available......I strongly recommend a 20 gauge. A used mossy 500 20 gauge can be had for under $200. It was the best $ I ever spent on a gun was that 20 gauge bantam 500 with a rifled barrel and iron sights. My wife actually enjoys shooting it and dropped her deer dead at 35 yards and it never took another step.
 
And the modified choke has four notches even though it says modified. So I'm not sure that no more nachos really means anything since I just bought a full choke RedHead brand that has four notches
8cf33d82cf3d63d25146c969b8859293.jpg


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those notches are for the choke wrench to tighten the choke with. Those are not the ones that tell you what choke it is. The notches the other guy is telling you about are rings around the base of the choke tube.....that was also from the benelli website.........most manufacturers use the same notch system......but like I said.....some don't use the notches at all anymore. That is a mod choke you have there
 
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OK. I'll tell you what I went through with my wife to give you some ideas. She could NOT handle the 12 gauge. The recoil with slugs is harsh.....period. It even is for me and I'm not recoil shy at all. I picked up a used mossy 500 20 gauge for her and it was much better. I even switched to a 20 gauge myself and have taken 2 deer using it.......20 gauge is plenty of power to drop a deer......and much easier on the shoulder.

Now I'll address the factory bead sight. That's a sight for bird hunting and using buckshot on deer in a pinch. I know devens does not allow buckshot so.......I tried my wife with the bead sight and slugs and it hit 6 inches high at 25 yards and was so high at 50 yards it was completely off paper. bird barrels with bead sights are set to pattern high. She's going to have trouble over 20 yards with that gun. My suggestion is if your dead set on the 870 you have in 12 gauge go buy a barrel with iron sights.......or a cantilever barrel you can mount a good red dot on. the iron sight barrels can be had for $100 or so. I know.....its more money.......but you want her to be confident with the gun. If you have the scratch available......I strongly recommend a 20 gauge. A used mossy 500 20 gauge can be had for under $200. It was the best $ I ever spent on a gun was that 20 gauge bantam 500 with a rifled barrel and iron sights. My wife actually enjoys shooting it and dropped her deer dead at 35 yards and it never took another step.
Yeah. We have only one shotgun at this time. Probably get her a 20ga on black Friday so she's stuck with this for the class on Saturday.

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Yeah. We have only one shotgun at this time. Probably get her a 20ga on black Friday so she's stuck with this for the class on Saturday.

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

Has she fired it with a slug yet? Have you fired it with a slug yet? I'm not being insulting.......you mentioned you are new to hunting so trying to get a feel for where you are at.
 
Not yet.. unfortunately.. just target loads

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OK. Your in for a surprise. 12 gauge slugs are pretty brutal. To give you some background......the only time I ever look at range time as "work" is zeroing the slug guns for deer season. They slap you hard. I run the plate shoots at my gun club on Wednesday nights in summer. Lots of guys use the plate shoots to practice for 3 gun matches and such. I had my 12 gauge slug gun with me testing out a new barrel before the plate shoots started. A "regular" was talking about how the next 3 gun match had a "slug" only portion of the event and said he never fired slugs before. I gave him a box of 5 standard Winchester superx slugs. First shot I though he was going to punch me in the face! If you don't pull the stock in TIGHT to your shoulder in the pocket its GOING TO HURT! recommend you pick up one of these

https://ads.midwayusa.com/product/3...MI-9mZ46KI1wIVRluGCh2uXQLsEAQYBCABEgJpzPD_BwE

I wear one when sighting in the slug guns.

If you can get to your club some afternoon this week......I recommend you go shoot a few slugs yourself.......so you know what you are getting your wife into.

Just so you know.......your in the exact same place I was in 2012 when I got hard into hunting. Had a 12 gauge with a fixed full choke bird barrel. I knew my limit was 30 yards accuracy wise using that gun with slugs. You just have to know what the limit is. Pick up an iron sight barrel and with practice you can reach out to 50 yards which is plenty far enough in the woods of Massachusetts.
 
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Thanks man... I'll see if i can find a recoil pad asap. Now, back to the choke question. Can I use the mod choke or do I need to get an IC?

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk
 
Thanks man... I'll see if i can find a recoil pad asap. Now, back to the choke question. Can I use the mod choke or do I need to get an IC?

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

Mod choke will be fine. Another guy on here above posted the Remington answer.......ic is recommended for accuracy but mod ok. See post number 5 above.
 
emtdad

this will help accuracy tremendously. I prefer a smooth bore barrel with iron sights rather than a rifled barrel (the wifes barrel is rifled and mine is not).......ammo is waaaaay cheaper and I hunt deer drives so moving deer at close range and super accuracy is not necessary.

Another question your bound to ask soon is "rifled slugs or sabot slugs"?

Here is the deal........sabot slugs are designed for rifled barrels. The are "safe" to shoot through a smooth bore but in my experience the accuracy is horrible.......I had sabot rounds hit the target sideways when using them in a smooth bore.

Rifled slugs or foster slugs are "best" in a smooth bore barrel but can be fired through a rifled barrel with GOOD accuracy. The problem with rifled or foster slugs in a rifled barrel is that the bore leads up bad with only a few shots. I use rifled slugs in my wife and sons rifled 20 gauge barrels........we just use de leading bore cleaner at the end of deer season.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Remington-...3305812&hash=item4d3ecd1323:g:Mp4AAOSwn45ZzLy~
 
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emtdad

this will help accuracy tremendously. I prefer a smooth bore barrel with iron sights rather than a rifled barrel (the wifes barrel is rifled and mine is not).......ammo is waaaaay cheaper and I hunt deer drives so moving deer at close range and super accuracy is not necessary.

Another question your bound to ask soon is "rifled slugs or sabot slugs"?

Here is the deal........sabot slugs are designed for rifled barrels. The are "safe" to shoot through a smooth bore but in my experience the accuracy is horrible.......I had sabot rounds hit the target sideways when using them in a smooth bore.

Rifled slugs or foster slugs are "best" in a smooth bore barrel but can be fired through a rifled barrel with GOOD accuracy. The problem with rifled or foster slugs in a rifled barrel is that the bore leads up bad with only a few shots. I use rifled slugs in my wife and sons rifled 20 gauge barrels........we just use de leading bore cleaner at the end of deer season.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Remington-...3305812&hash=item4d3ecd1323:g:Mp4AAOSwn45ZzLy~

yeah.. I did know that... Sabot = Rifled barrel... Foster(rifled slugs) = smooth barrel. thanks for the other info..
 
yeah.. I did know that... Sabot = Rifled barrel... Foster(rifled slugs) = smooth barrel. thanks for the other info..

Let me know how she does Saturday. My wife was very recoil shy and developed a nasty flinch. I did some drills with her that fixed it!
 
Just out of curiosity what is the difference in him posting from the Benelli manual and you going nuts on him then you posting from the Mossberg lol.

To your point though I do have an old Sears 20ga full choke that shoots slugs just fine. Killed my first 3 shotgun deer with the gun.
 
Just out of curiosity what is the difference in him posting from the Benelli manual and you going nuts on him then you posting from the Mossberg lol.

To your point though I do have an old Sears 20ga full choke that shoots slugs just fine. Killed my first 3 shotgun deer with the gun.

Well....they are two different manufacturers. Two different guns. Two different types of chokes. The op owns a remington and the guy quoted from a Benelli manual. I actually told the op to read his manual.

Shotguns are not like rifles and handguns.......they differ wildly in actual bore size, choke style, etx. If you took a moment to read my post from Mossberg you'll even find that a Mossberg 500 can safely fire slugs through a full choke but not on a Mossberg 935 or 835. It even differs by model among the same manufacturer. So how is the op supposed to get a REAL answer when someone quoted a Benelli website and he owns a god damn Remington?

That's why.
 
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Good grief man I thought it was funny take it easy, did you read the second half of my post? I apologize for finding it funny and thank you for explaining to me the difference between a shotgun and rifle... I also did read you full post and actually tried to second your info by saying I too have a shotgun with full choke that shoots slugs just fine. I really don’t know what happened to this place. Everyone gets so butt hurt over nothing, people need to lighten up life is too short.
 
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The choke question has been best to death so I will add a few other things.

A standard 2-3/4" slug is plenty. There is no need for her to beat her shoulder with a 3" or 3-1/2" slug.

They do make rifled chokes specifically for shooting slugs if this is going to be more than a one time thing you might consider that.

If you are going to buy her a specific shotgun make sure that it fits her. Proper fit is important. My wife is of small stature so she has a 20 gauge pump in the youth model as it fit her best. It is hard to beat the bird/deer combos.

Good luck to her. I hope that she has a wonderful experience.

Bob
 
simple answer is read the owners manual for the gun you are using. If you don't have the owners manual.....you can download it. That's the simple answer.

Now.....there are about to be a veritable shit ton of guys on here any moment now that are going to tell you to NEVER shoot slugs through anything smaller than an IC choke cuz your gonna blow up your gun and kill yourself. Screw them......read your owners manual. I have a mid 1990s Mossberg 500 fixed full choke barrel....owners manual said slugs were fine. I've put at least 100 slugs through that gun no issues. Even took 2 deer with it. I've been trashed many times by "experts" telling me I'm going to hurt myself using a full choke with slugs. Yeah......screw them......I read my owners manual.

Read the owners manual. Did I mention read the owners manual?


Now.....as far as the BOW program she is going to......its a great program. My wife got her first deer on that hunt in 2015. 138 pound buck. They are great people running that program and I hope she enjoys it.


Also.....what sights is she using? what gauge? How much experience does she have?
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BULLSHIT!!!! (that didn't take long) He needs to read HIS owners manual. Hes got a remy 870....... and your giving him info from benelli.


This ^^^^^^^^^ RTFM. At the range with a buddy, both of us have a VP9. He pulls out a box of aluminum 9mm ammo starts to tell me about how good of a deal he got at wally world. I then mention to him that the owners manual stated NOT to shoot aluminum ammo through the gun.. Don't believe me go read
 
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I own nothing except modified choke guns (except one sxs that also has improved) and shoot slugs fine.

I did have an old bolt action mossberg and I cranked the poly hole to full for slugs with no I’ll effects. It’s lead, it’ll squeeze through a steel barrel.
 
I own nothing except modified choke guns (except one sxs that also has improved) and shoot slugs fine.

I did have an old bolt action mossberg and I cranked the poly hole to full for slugs with no I’ll effects. It’s lead, it’ll squeeze through a steel barrel.

I hear you!

We are just talking about slugs here. Wanna open up another can of worms.......start discussing if steel shot is safe through a shotty manufactured prior to steel being mandated for waterfowl. [pot]
 
I shoot 20g slugs in Mossberg sa-20 through a full choke. Kicks more but its dead on accurate. Have to tighten the choke every three or four shots though.


Three slugs in the same hole at 50 yards
 

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