mossberg 535 turkey barrel for deer?

fratri

fratri

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Hi there, just wondering if anyone has used there 535 shotgun turkey barrel for deer using rifled slugs after changing the choke to modified and if so what were the results of the grouping with the fibre optic sights?

I am thinking a shorter barrel with fibre optic sights through the bush would work well or are the fibre optic sights to thick/big to get a clear view out to 70yds?
 
The 535 I bought is back in the store because I tried what you described. I, like you, thought the short barrel and iron sights would be great for the thick bush. Problem was, there wasn't enough elevation adjustment in the rear sight. It shot 6" high at 25 yards with Challenger 2 3/4" slugs at max adjustment. It might have been particular to my gun and certainly could have been fixed with some modifications, but I went with an 870 due to that and several other issues with the 535.
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i have a 535 turkey andjust love the gun i have had it for several years now and never a problem .i did try the turkey barrel with slugs but was not that happy with the results so i got a rifled slug barrel on the ee for a very good price in fact i ended up with two of them both are full camo fully fifled with cantalever scope mounts .and boy dothy ever shot nice 150 yards is a nice shot for this combo i am be willing to part wiht one of these barrels DUTCH
 
thinblueline said:
The 535 I bought is back in the store because I tried what you described. I, like you, thought the short barrel and iron sights would be great for the thick bush. Problem was, there wasn't enough elevation adjustment in the rear sight. It shot 6" high at 25 yards with Challenger 2 3/4" slugs at max adjustment. It might have been particular to my gun and certainly could have been fixed with some modifications, but I went with an 870 due to that and several other issues with the 535.
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same problem, my rifled slugs were about 8 inches high at 25 meters. I never used it for hunting, but wouldn't trust it with some proper sights.
 
Yep, same experience with my 835. The sights do not have enough adjustment. You will have to hold over (or under, don't recall which), or replace the sights with better ones that have more adjustment. The 835 turkey barrel works great for turkey, but not so well for sighting slugs. Like Dutch, I have the cantilever slug barrel as well. These are cheap to buy, but then you of course would need a scope and mounts too.
 
oneskilledshooter said:
Yep, same experience with my 835. The sights do not have enough adjustment. You will have to hold over (or under, don't recall which), or replace the sights with better ones that have more adjustment. The 835 turkey barrel works great for turkey, but not so well for sighting slugs. Like Dutch, I have the cantilever slug barrel as well. These are cheap to buy, but then you of course would need a scope and mounts too.
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Thought those could only shoot sabot slugs?
 
well, i guess mine might be set up a bit different, i got good groupings out of mine (535 turkey barrel with cylinder choke)this morning, 3" groupings out to 75yds from a bench....i also shot some sabots through the scoped 535 rifle barrel and had a little better results, i guess the rifle barrel shines out to 150yds, which doubles the smooth bore length and accuracy...
so in the end it turns out that the turkey barrel would be great for the bush, the rifled barrel great for watching fields....
 
fratri said:
well, i guess mine might be set up a bit different, i got good groupings out of mine (535 turkey barrel with cylinder choke)this morning, 3" groupings out to 75yds from a bench....i also shot some sabots through the scoped 535 rifle barrel and had a little better results, i guess the rifle barrel shines out to 150yds, which doubles the smooth bore length and accuracy...
so in the end it turns out that the turkey barrel would be great for the bush, the rifled barrel great for watching fields....
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We were all shooting high at 25 yards, so it makes sense your accuracy would be better at 75....I bet there wasn't much elevation adjustment left on the sights though?
 
hey fratri, the more I think about it, to do the job that you are talking about, I would just get some better fibre optic rifle sights for that turkey barrel. I would get the third party mossberg specific ones. By the time that you get a barrel, scope, mounts and some sabots, you are going to be in it for quite a few bucks. And for what? Rifled slugs to 70 works great, as everyone has attested to. you can always get the barrel and crap later if you want to extend your range, but your deer spot sounds like mine - 70 would be a loooong shot; most are much closer than that.
 
Onagoth said:
We were all shooting high at 25 yards, so it makes sense your accuracy would be better at 75....I bet there wasn't much elevation adjustment left on the sights though?
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Absolutely right...turkey barrel sights went down to the bare minimum...Took it out again yesterday and it's shoots about 2.5" high at 30yds...3, 2 3/4" win super X 1 oz slugs all touching each other..

I went to 50yds and the 3 shot grouping was roughly 3" and average 1" high.....

I then went out to 75 yds and the 3 shot grouping was roughly 6-7" with one being dead on and one being 3" high and the other 3 " low... This will be its maximum range with the stock turkey barrel and stock fibre optic sights, this slug shoots pretty good and is inexpensive.....

I also tried the rifle barrel with sabot win super x 2 3/4"... 3 shot group at 30 yds touching dead on centre...

I then went out to 75 yds with same sabot slug and had a 3 shot group of 3".... bullet drop was 4" though...

I then went out to 100yds and these sabot slugs failed bad.... my 3 shot group was 8" with a 6" drop...not very impressed @ 100yds.....

I had a box hornady sst sabot slugs...I shot them all 5 from 100yds (rifle barrel) and found the grouping to be acceptable at 3.5"...they shot 3" higher then POA...That can be fixed.....
Anyone have any experience with these hornady sabot slugs some of the reviews say accuracy is great but lacks killing power, don't expand on impact or something like that was the concern?.....

I even tried some of those cheap 2 3/4 win super x riffled slugs out of my riffle barrel (don't worry cleaned it really good afterwards) and here are some of my results....

1" group at 50 yds about 1" high from POA...not bad...

4" group at 75 yds with no bullet drop...still not bad...

din't have any more shells to try so no report for 100yds...

All in all a good shooting day.... I look forward to more shooting/testing :)....... I just wish shells weren't so expensive:(
 
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the turkey barrel on the 535 is a good barrel for deer hunting .but the sights thaT COME ON IT FROM THE FACTOR LEAVE A LOT TO BE DESIRED .i would change them out as soon as posible i lost my front sight the first time out .i have found that to get the most out of your turkey barrel is to use a scope .you an get the most out of your pattern and .it works just as well with slugs .a red dot for turkeys and a 1.5 to 4.5 for slugs seems to work best for me DUTCH
 
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