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Posted: 10/22/2013 10:18:38 PM EDT
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I'm still new to everything and before I make some dedicated purchases I want to see some recommendations.
What type of sights do you recommend for home defense and range shooting with a shotgun? What is the difference between rifled and smooth bore barrels AND would that impact me using my weapon for home defense and recreation? |
Rifled bore has a helical groove inside the barrel to create spin on a solid projectile such as the Sabot slugs. An oxymoron in a shotgun if you ask me.
Smooth bore has no grooves and can be threaded for various choke tubes. Foster slugs, birdshot, buckshot, etc is recommended. Sabot is not recommended. Shells can interchange between both given using the right choke*, but performance will suffer gravely. I recommend ventilated rib and ghost rings for HD. Because you can eventually use Vent rib for clays and 3-gun and tacticool guns have ghost rings |
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On barrels, rifled shotgun barrels are specifically intended for use with special sabot slugs.
While it's "safe" to fire a regular slug, shot or buckshot in a rifled barrel, it's not recommended, because the slug or shot tends to lead the barrel heavily and you get "blown" donut shaped shot patterns with a big hole in the middle. A smooth bore shotgun barrel can shoot any standard slug, birdshot, or buckshot. If you buy a barrel with a screw-in choke you have a pretty much universal gun that can be used for home defense, deer hunting, clay bird sports, duck and game bird hunting, range plinking, and any thing else you can think of by just changing the choke to whatever is needed. A standard defense shotgun typically has a barrel without a screw-in choke and is usually either Open Cylinder Bore (no choke at all) or these days most have an Improved Cylinder Bore, which gives excellent results with standard slugs and buckshot. For sights, you have a number of choices including scopes and electronic sights, barrel-mounted rifle type sights, the receiver mounted aperture type sights commonly called "Ghost Ring" sights, and standard bead or light gathering "fire" sights on the muzzle. For a true home defense gun, the best options are the barrel mount or ghost ring rifle sights, or a bead type on the muzzle. Unless you intend to shoot slugs or would like to have the option of using the sights, the rifle and ghost ring sights are not really needed on a true home defense gun due to the short ranges the gun is used at. The muzzle mount standard bead or modern "fire" sights are excellent and the fastest type of sighting system to use on a shotgun. Shotguns are not aimed so much as "pointed" at the target. The front sight gives a reference sight and your eye forms the rear sight as you look over the barrel at the bead. This is an instinctive type of sighting that's extremely fast to get on target. Beads come in silver, white, and gold. The "Fire" sights that are now available are fiber optic "rods" that gather and magnify available light and seems to glow with fluorescent colors. These are good even in lower light conditions but usually are not very good inside a darkened house. So, if you're looking for a true home defense gun to be used at typical HD distances, a smooth barrel is the best choice, since you can shoot any available load whether birdshot, buckshot or standard slugs. Even standard slugs can be "minute of man" accurate at up to 100 yards. For sights, it's going to be personal choice. Rifle or ghost sights give you the option of more accuracy with slugs, but are not really required at the less than 35 yards that buckshot is effective at. However, you can use rifle or ghost sights as a "flash reference" when shooting shot. In other words you look over the barrel like when using a bead sight and the front sight is used just like a bead sight. Beads or fire sights are very effective, cost much less, and are the fastest to get on target with. You can get acceptable accuracy with slugs even with a bead sight at ranges up to 50 yards with practice. |
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I'm going to be buying the UZK-BR99, not the typical HD gun, but I'm going to use it for shooting slugs too. I had actually considered a red dot reflex sight for slugs and mostly using a bead for HD. I'm definitely decided on the gun but not so much on the full intricacies for shotguns or they really work, and finding the right accessories for what I'm going to do with the gun will be really helpful.
The insight on the barrels were great thanks guys |
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True, too bad Benelli does not make plain old bead sights for their barrels.  Quoted:
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You won't see any serious 3-gunner using ghost ring sights. True, too bad Benelli does not make plain old bead sights for their barrels. Of course they do, what are you talking about? |
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http://puu.sh/4Ym7d.png I don't see it, and im not talking about the ghost ring front sight by iteself. Seriously? Look at the bottom barrel. Their vent rib barrels have bead sights. |
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Quoted:
I'm going to be buying the UZK-BR99, not the typical HD gun, but I'm going to use it for shooting slugs too. I had actually considered a red dot reflex sight for slugs and mostly using a bead for HD. I'm definitely decided on the gun but not so much on the full intricacies for shotguns or they really work, and finding the right accessories for what I'm going to do with the gun will be really helpful. The insight on the barrels were great thanks guys If your buying decision is already made for the BR99, a lot of the rest of the discussion is meaningless. AFAIK, there is no option to get a rifled barrel for that shotgun. Likewise, with the hand guard, it's not feasible to use a bead sight. The BR99 has a cylinder bore barrel accepting threaded chokes, so again, decision made for you. It comes with some chokes, although I don't recall or see what they are. For 3 gun, light modified is the one generally most used, and won't be terrible across a range of loads, including if you need or want to shoot a (rifled) slug on occasion. Whomever mentioned ghost ring sights on 3 gun shotguns is mistaken; GRS are generally seen as the slowest sights available for 3 gun/fast shooting. GRS and rifle sights can be nice for longer slug shots, though. Considering the layout of that shotgun and inability to use a simple bead on it, I'd opt for something like a Trijicon RMR. Going cheaper, I'd try to find a low mount height red dot for it. |
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