Posted: 8/11/2013 7:47:41 PM EDT
| I will be hunting in a state where rifles are prohibited in hunting. so im going to use a Remington 870 express 20 gauge. Right now I have a smoothbore barrel with modified choke. My question is for deer will I need a rifled barrel? Or will the smoothbore and rifled slugs work? Thanks for the help guys |
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Your set up will work just fine for deer. Grab a few boxes of shells and head to the range and see how accurate you are at different distances. Thanks! And will do. I have read somewhere that since I have the ribbed barrel that I can put clamp on sights to increase accuracy are those gtg? |
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I would suggest buying a proper slug barrel. I prefer a smooth bore barrel and when you get a slugh barrel you gain iron sights plus the barrel will be cylinder choke as opposed to your modified tube. The issue with any tube, even if you switch to an IC tube is the slug might not shoot as well as the slug barrel plus the slug barrel will be shorter and handier. From there, get a few varieties of foster slugs (I like the Berinikee foster slugs best in my 12gauge 870) as different guns will do better with different slugs.
Do NOT use sabot slugs in a smooth bore shotgun, they will not shoot for shit without a rifled barrel! |
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Since your new just use what you have. The most important thing you can do is go to the range and shoot. Become comfortable with your shotgun and know when you aim at that deer it will be a good shot.
Id just use the bead - unless you just want to spend money. If thats the case buy a rifled barrel and use sabots @ $15.00 a box |
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Since your new just use what you have. The most important thing you can do is go to the range and shoot. Become comfortable with your shotgun and know when you aim at that deer it will be a good shot. Id just use the bead - unless you just want to spend money. If thats the case buy a rifled barrel and use sabots @ $15.00 a box Thanks for the input everybody. I think I will do this and see how it goes this year and if needed buy a new barrel before next year. |
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Thanks! And will do. I have read somewhere that since I have the ribbed barrel that I can put clamp on sights to increase accuracy are those gtg? Quoted:
Quoted:
Your set up will work just fine for deer. Grab a few boxes of shells and head to the range and see how accurate you are at different distances. Thanks! And will do. I have read somewhere that since I have the ribbed barrel that I can put clamp on sights to increase accuracy are those gtg? Although I don't have any experience with them, I'm sure they would help with visibility. If it was me I would just try with the plain old bead sight. I took my first deer with a smooth bore single shot 16 gauge with a 2-3/4 slug. He dropped right in his tracks at about 30 yards or so. |
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Although I don't have any experience with them, I'm sure they would help with visibility. If it was me I would just try with the plain old bead sight. I took my first deer with a smooth bore single shot 16 gauge with a 2-3/4 slug. He dropped right in his tracks at about 30 yards or so. Quoted:
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Your set up will work just fine for deer. Grab a few boxes of shells and head to the range and see how accurate you are at different distances. Thanks! And will do. I have read somewhere that since I have the ribbed barrel that I can put clamp on sights to increase accuracy are those gtg? Although I don't have any experience with them, I'm sure they would help with visibility. If it was me I would just try with the plain old bead sight. I took my first deer with a smooth bore single shot 16 gauge with a 2-3/4 slug. He dropped right in his tracks at about 30 yards or so. Nice! And I think I'm going to use what I have now. With the bead sight. And see how it goes this year. And improve next year. |
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Check your laws before using buckshot. Illegal here. Yeah, its illegal for me too. And also, I bought some rifled slugs and have been shooting them, but my accuracy is not as good as I would like it to be. Any tips for improving accuracy with the bead sight? |
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How far you shooting? What kind of groups/pattern you getting? I tend to aim just a little high when shooting slugs.
I personally would try around 50 yards or so myself. I know your setup will take a deer further than that but, that's where I would feel most comfortable at. |
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Since you are new, just buy several different boxes of slugs and go to the range. See which type is the most accurate in your shotgun and go with that. I’m sure others will disagree with me, but at the ranges (distance) you will probably be shooting, the bead sight will be fine.
I killed my first several deer with a 20 gauge Stevens double barrel shotgun – bead sights and Improved Cylinder & Modified choke barrels. I have also killed numerous dear with a 12 gauge Browning A5 with a bead sight and Polly choke set for cylinder. |
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I still hunt with guys that just use a bead sight.
Rule of thumb is "Bear down on the bead"....its like aim small miss small. Honestly, tru-glo sights are cheap enough to install and use and would instill more confidence for my shooting. Trust me, when slugs hammer into a deer they wont care how you sighted in. Just take ethical shots!! |
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How far you shooting? What kind of groups/pattern you getting? I tend to aim just a little high when shooting slugs. I personally would try around 50 yards or so myself. I know your setup will take a deer further than that but, that's where I would feel most comfortable at. I'm not that far back yet. Working my way back and trying to get more accurate. Not sure on exact groups but I would say most hit the target but arent where I am trying to put them. And yeah I tend to aim high as well. I think I'm going to go ahead and keep practicing and use the smoothbore barrel this year. I may upgrade to a rifled barrel if I find I need it for the areas I'm hunting. |
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I have shot rifled slugs out of my smooth bore 12 ga 870, and sabot slugs out of my rifled barrel 20ga Mossberg 500.
Theses are two different types of guns, but I thought I would let you know what I found. The 12ga worked, and at up to 50yds was accurate enough to hit vitals. It would repeatably hit inside a paper plate size target with all brands of slug that I tried. I actually bought a 20ga Mossberg combo, and have tried accuracy testing between switching barrels. The rifled barrel came with a little red dot scope. I have tried several types of slugs in it and the Lightfield have done the best by far. The biggest difference is that I can almost drill the same hole at 50yds with this setup, where the other was not nearly as accurate. The biggest thing that I noticed is that the Mossberg's rifled barrel maintains its zero. I shot a few slugs, switched to the smooth bore and shot some pellets, then went back to the rifled barrel and the zero was still dead-on. IMPORTANT: whatever you decide, make sure that you are using the proper type of projectile. Sabot slugs for rifled barrels, and rifled slugs for field barrels. DO NOT use rifled slugs in rifled barrels. |
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I have practiced some with my 870 with just the regular smoothbore barrel and bead, and at 50 yards I can keep all my shots inside about a 6" group. More than good enough. Never actually taken a deer with a slug, myself, but I've seen the damage that slugs can do, and it's impressive.
I use the regular Winchester rifled slugs. |