From Browning’s web site:


What is back-boring?
Better patterns and increased shot velocity help you hit what you're shooting at. A back-bored barrel is a shotgun barrel that has a bore diameter increased beyond standard specifications. Increasing the bore diameter of a shotgun barrel greatly enhances its performance. A larger bore diameter reduces friction of the shot charge against the barrel wall. Instead of trying to overcome friction, powder gases expend more energy on the wad base, resulting in an increase in shot velocity. Because there is less constriction or pressure from the barrel walls on a shot charge, there are fewer deformed shot pellets. A greater number of ballistically superior round pellets in a shot charge gives you exceptionally uniform patterns -- delivering more shot pellets in the effective part of your pattern.

The effortless transition of a shot charge through a barrel with a larger bore diameter results in a reduction in perceived recoil. Every reduction in recoil results in an increase in shooting comfort.  Therfore, less felt recoil makes your shooting more enjoyable.

Who benefits from back-boring? A first time hunter, seasoned wingshot or competitive target shooter all benefit from a back-bored shotgun. More uniform patterns result in better hits and more smoked targets.

Back boring is like porting on shotguns.

Sells guns but doesn’t really do anything.


http://www.claytargettesting.com/Bore_Diameter/Bore_Diameter.pdf

It most certainly does something for buckshot.

I don't bust clays so I leave that to others, but I see the results of Vang's barrel treatment on buckshot on a consistent basis and it works.

As much as I like semi-auto guns (my go-to is a Beretta 1301), the simple truth is that pump guns are a better choice for most people.

A dedicated user who is going to train religiously with their semi-auto will be just fine.

The typical person I see in a class (who is seriously atypical in that they are actually taking training) isn't doing enough of that work to use a semi-auto shotgun with the proficiency required to get it into action in a difficult moment. The simplicity of a pump gun has its benefits.

...and you may not with that particular buckshot. Every barrel has its own preference. I'd say your non-modified barrel shoots the S&B a little better than the typical 870 barrel. I have put about 3,000 rounds of S&B buckshot downrange. It's been my primary training buckshot because it's cheap. It's also pretty terrible.

The ammunition most often used in conjunction with the VangComp barrel work has been the Federal plated, buffered buckshot. I had a client with some Federal Vital Shock 12 pellet 00 and it shot like Flight Control out of the Vang Comp 870 we had in the class.

Even though the barrel has the VC treatment, it doesn't mean that it will shoot all buckshot equally well. Generally speaking the VC treatment will make the gun shoot a good buckshot load considerably better. Try some of the plated, buffered stuff and see how that shoots.



I agree. I'm not a huge fan of the porting as I don't find it necessary with push/pull.