just bought my first shootgun. a model 870 with a rifled barrel.i know its a slug gun,but how bad will my barrel be affected if i shoot a small amount of 8 shot?
  thanks

You can probably shoot some shot through it, but what for?  You'll get absolutely piss-poor accuracy and patterning, you may also suffer some pressure trouble from the wadding and the rifling.

Do yourself a favor and spring for a proper barrel with replaceable chokes.  Shouldn't cost you too much amd you'll actually have a safe and working solution rather than a potential mess.

thanks

have to respond here on the subject of replacement barrels for 870s.  last time I went looking you could just about buy another gun for what the barrel, esp. one with rem-chokes, would cost you.

and before anyone says "well buy a old/used barrel" when they came out with rem-choke they changed the mating of the barrel and receiver so that a rem-choked barrel couldn't be put on a pre-change receiver and vice versa.  so you have to know the age/manufacture date of the gun.


(note the following is my opinion only and I have been known to piss folks off, my apologies in advance)

if you want a shotgun to shoot anything but slugs meant for a rifled barrel. trade the rifled 870 in and get a used (or new) 870 express.  in fact except as a deer gun in states that don't allow rifles for deer. I can see no utility to a rifled barrel on a shotgun.  there are slugs out there that are intended to be fired from a smoothbore.  thus a smoothbore shotgun can do almost anything you'd want defense-etc. wise out to 100yds while a rifled-slug barrel can only shoot slugs.  

to me and many others (including a good number of instructors at Thunder ranch if I read the info on classes correctly) the smoothbore is to be preferred b/c by simply changing your ammo type you change what it can be effectively used for. while a slug gun is a one trick pony.

Get a new barrel. You don't want to ruin the rifling, especially if you'll use sabots or slugs. With the new sabots out on the market today, you can easily sight in at 150 yards and still make a shot out to 200.