Hello there. I picked up a 1987 HK M1 Super 90, which I managed to get for $625(a pretty good deal as far as I can tell). The problem is that it has an 18.5" cylinder bore barrel. It's not an issue until I need to knock down plates at longer range.

Now I could modify the existing gun, for which I see two options: 1. Thread my existing barrel for chokes, which doesn't solve the velocity problem, but it would allow me to put more shot on the target. 2. Buy an M2 barrel and forend. My main issue here is that a new or used barrel is 50-60% of what I paid for the gun. In that light, it seems better just to sell the gun and buy a used M2 with that extra $400. Problem is, I don't want to spend $400 on a new gun or a barrel.

The other option that seems somewhat palatable is selling my M1 for probably a bit more than I paid for it and buying a Stoeger. Would that even be a good idea? I haven't shot a Stoeger and I don't know what the quality difference is. Is the M1/M2 that much better than the Stoeger?

Any advice?

You are not losing velocity with an 18.5" barrel, if you choke it you will have no problem with steel. The only thing is if you want more shell capacity your mag tube sticks out further past the barrel and a longer barrel swings better for flying targets. Max velocity in a shotgun is somewhere around 14" of barrel.

I actually use a 18.5" M1 for 3gun and like it. It's very light and fast in the hands. Velocity isn't a problem because shot shells peak pretty quickly. I do have interchangeable chokes though, and I think if you get targets much farther than 18 yds and smallish you probably will have problems. I've never looked into threading a barrel, so I can't help there.





I did the standard set of mods to mine. Got rid of the pistol grip stock, ported for quads, extended chokes, new Airtech Limbsaver, bigger bolt release, fibered up the front ghost ring sight, +5 Nordic (thinking of going longer).