Accuracy of cut-down shotgun barrel?

MD

MD

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I bought a 2nd hand barrel for my 870 a few years ago and cut it off to 19 inches with a hacksaw then leveled it with a small carpenter's square and a file.

Didn't shoot it until this fall when I was going moose hunting in an area famous for its griz population. I figured it would be handy to have around while butchering.

I tried to shoot grouse and hares with it and missed every time. Found a big flat piece of metal for a target and tried it out and it was shooting well over 12 inches high at 30 paces.:mad: I have no bead on it. I just look down the barrel.

What would be the solution? I really like the handiness of the short barrel for quickly grabbing from behind the seat of the pickup. And I still think it would be a good grouse/hare gun.
 
Looking down the barrel is no good. Put a straight edge on the top of the receiver. That is your line of sight. If the barrel end of the barrel is below that, looking down the barrel will raise the point of impact. Usually the shorter the barrel, the higher the bead needs to be. Remington 18 1/2" barrels have a bead on top of a small pedestal. Adding a bead should solve the issue.
 
Im a retired gunsmith . when you have a barrel to shorten ,place a straitedge on front bead and receiver .measure were you are going to cut and measure there for front sight height . that will keep point of aim correct .That being said . you will need a much higher bead to correct your problem .Hope this helps
 
Your other option is to put a reflex sight or red dot on the receiver to compensate for the short barrel and high point of impact, I did this on one 12g I own but it was already drilled and tapped for a rail.
 
With no choke at all it's going to have a poor pattern good only for quite short ranges... and you need to practice where it shoots in relation to where you point it... a tall bead sight would help with that.
 
ken fowler said:
Im a retired gunsmith . when you have a barrel to shorten ,place a straitedge on front bead and receiver .measure were you are going to cut and measure there for front sight height . that will keep point of aim correct .That being said . you will need a much higher bead to correct your problem .Hope this helps
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Sound advice above.
I have a similar barrel (plain, cut to 20 inches, no bead) on an 870. It is the best grouse gun I have when it wears this barrel. It rains grouse with this setup but it shoots slugs at least a foot high at 30 yards.
Also have a proper slug barrel with sights for the 870. With this barrel on the 870, slugs shoot where you want them to out to 60 or 70 yards.
 
guntech said:
With no choke at all it's going to have a poor pattern good only for quite short ranges... and you need to practice where it shoots in relation to where you point it... a tall bead sight would help with that.
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Thanks. I was impressed with the quality of the patterns I got when I tried it out with old Imperial #5 lead shot, and I never intended to use it for waterfowling, just a bit of backup while moose hunting and some opportunistic bunny busting, but I agree wholeheartedly after trying it out that need a bead as you say and to pattern it properly. I'll talk to Shane at Reliable.
 
You certainly need a bead of some sort or you'll be looking for the nose of the barrel to "crown" up a touch from the "horizon" of the rear of the receiver. And that means you'll be shooting way high like you found. If the barrel had a top rib likely you'd have been fine for elevation. But I gather it's the simple round barrel.

With the bead and with the proper sight picture of having the bead sitting just on the "horizon" of the receiver it should be pretty close. But you may still find that you want to aim the bead just under that bunny.

Patterning your new bead on a big piece of cardboard with a round spot to sight for will soon tell you how much compensation it needs. Either aim that way or use the patterning info to select a taller sight.
 
I installed Scattergun technogies ghost ring sights and also Trijicon Ghost ring sights. They have tritium and glow in the dark. The front blade is purposely high and the rear is adjustable for elevation and windage. They are rugged and the best irons for shotguns, wheather you are shooting shot or slugs. I suggest a smith install them though unless you are patient and handy.
 
Interesting thread. I have just about finished resurrecting a CIL .410 that was in very bad shape. I think it may have been run over, the muzzle was damaged and the stock broken beyond repair. The barrel is now 20" with a total length of 27". The idea was to make a light and compact gun to carry on the quad for bird hunting. I want to pattern it before deciding to choke it and then put a bead on it. I like the idea presented above of a bead mounted on a ramp.
 
I had a Cooey 840 someone cut at 19" in 12ga without a bead. I had no issues shooting spruce and blues out to 20 yards instinctive point shooting.
 
A gunsmith cut a trap barrel for me to 26" and with two beads it produced 3" 3-shot groups at 50 yards that were 3" low and right.
Leaving a hole 0.729 in diameter gives way to a little margin of error . . .
 
Make a 1/4 × 1/4" ramp about an inch long and solder it near the muzzle.That should shoot dead on or a bit low. If too low then reduce the height of the ramp until you get the diesired point of impact. The POI may be different for slugs vs shot so try both.
 
Take a large paperclip, straiten it out and wrap it around the barrel at the muzzle. twist the ends into a straight tail, and turn the tail so it stands straight up.

This is a temporary very tall front sight.

Clip it with a side cutter at about 1/2" and shoot.

It will shoot low. Clip the sight a bit and shoot again.

Keep doing this until it shoots to where you aim.

Now you know how tall a sight you need.
 
Ganderite said:
Take a large paperclip, straiten it out and wrap it around the barrel at the muzzle. twist the ends into a straight tail, and turn the tail so it stands straight up.

This is a temporary very tall front sight.

Clip it with a side cutter at about 1/2" and shoot.

It will shoot low. Clip the sight a bit and shoot again.

Keep doing this until it shoots to where you aim.

Now you know how tall a sight you need.
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That is brilliant.
 
mac100 said:
I installed Scattergun technogies ghost ring sights and also Trijicon Ghost ring sights. They have tritium and glow in the dark. The front blade is purposely high and the rear is adjustable for elevation and windage. They are rugged and the best irons for shotguns, wheather you are shooting shot or slugs. I suggest a smith install them though unless you are patient and handy.
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This^^^^^^^^

I have done many installs but I have an original Scattergun Tech jig. Wilson never sold these. No it will not leave my premises because it is a coveted tool.
 
mac100 said:
I installed Scattergun technogies ghost ring sights and also Trijicon Ghost ring sights. They have tritium and glow in the dark. The front blade is purposely high and the rear is adjustable for elevation and windage. They are rugged and the best irons for shotguns, wheather you are shooting shot or slugs. I suggest a smith install them though unless you are patient and handy.
Click to expand...

Agreed, I can hit 2 liter pop bottles all day long at 50 yards with my 14" HP9-1.

I did manage to knock the front sight off when the blade hit something but I cleaned and roughed up the surfaces and clamped it with some JB Weld for a week and it's still on years later.
 
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