I'm wondering if there's a way to take a 18.5" barrel on a Remington 870 and add a compensator/choke and effectively turn it into a 20" barrel?

My fiance is wanting a predator gun like the one our friend has- he's a professional predator hunter and government trapper.  We found a Rem 870 in the classifieds that is EXACTLY what she wants except that it has an 18.5" barrel.  Our friend uses a 20" barrel and says that it's really better to "reach out there" with 3" #1 buckshot than an 18" barrel. The shotgun she's looking at is threaded to accept chokes but I'm wondering if she could have some sort of compensating choke soldered onto the barrel to give it a little more length as well as a tighter group- effectively turning it into a 20" (or slightly longer) barrel? Or is there a screw in choke, for a Remington 870 barrel, that is really long and would extend beyond the actual barrel and give her that effective length?

Can you recommend a good compensating 12ga. choke that would work- something available in Xtra-Full?

Am I out of my mind thinking this would be a solution?

20 gives nothing over 18.5 as far as extended range, its all in the chokes, and if you really want to reach out there with a shotgun, use slugs.....and is there some rule that you have to hunt with a shotgun? it wouldnt be my first choice for predator hunting...

Like matte said, barrel length means nothing here.   Shotgun powder is all burned up in the first 12" of the barrel so there is no ballistic benifit to having a longer barrel on a shotgun.  Sport shooters have longer barrels for shooting on the wing as it has to do with swinging the shotgun to a flying target.

The choke has nothing to do with the range either and simply gives you tighter patterns at a few more yards.  The shot goes the same distance no matter what choke you have.

your right, but the longer your pattern stays tight, the longer your effective range is..

I'm going to ignore all the OTHER questions and try to provide some choices to get you to 20"...

You can pick up a 20" barrel for as little as $130 or so new. You can probably pick up a used one even cheaper.

There are extended chokes, but MOST of those only extend about 3/4" past the end of the barrel, effectively
giving you a 19 1/4" barrel. I know that there are some rifled choke tubes that extend about 3", but you don't
want to use a rifled choke with shot.

There are some extended ported chokes ( such as Remington's tactical choke ) that bring you to almost exactly the
length of a 20" barrel with NONE of the benefits.

Good luck with your project. Let us know what you decide?

Sam

This choke tube will make your barrel look longer (and they come in a variety of constrictions)...but as others have mentioned the length of the barrel has basically nothing to do with the effective range.

Flite Control ammo or Vang Comp's barrel mods will do a better job of keeping the pattern tight than 1.5" of barrel.

Obviously I'm no expert but barrel length must have something to do with the pattern because otherwise goose guns would come with tge same length barrel as a quail gun.

I should have clarified- when I was talking about reaching out there, I was really talking about the group at extended range.

Shotgun is usually the best choice for what we do because of thick brush in most places we hunt, which mean shots inside 50 yards usually; and when we shoot from a helicopter a shotgun is WAY better and more forgiving. Picture chasing a hauling-ass dog ducking through brush while hanging out of a pitching helicopter that's trying to avoid trees and brush-

Then you should look into super full chokes (Turkey chokes)...

I remember seeing a choke tube, maybe in Cabelas, that added like another 15+ inches to the barrel. You just looked at it and asked, "WHY?"

they make extensions for
turkey shoots" or "Card shoots" they are exactly what your describing that you want, however your better off selling your 18.5 and buying a VR longer bbl.
Many many guys are looking for hte 18.5 bbls to convert fudd guns to HD type.

Me included.

IM me if intrested in tradeing yours for a longer bbl.