870 shooting 10" high with slugs and an 18" barrel

S

Scott Bear

Regular
Rating - 100%
87   0   1
Location
Prince George
I put an 18.5" barrel with a bead sight on my 870 and it shoots high with slugs. Shot is dead on, but the slugs are 1600 ft/s and end up shooting about 10" high at 25 yards. Any one else have the same problem and what did you do to correct it? I was thinking of putting on one of those snap on fiber optic sights on it to raise the front sight a bit.

Any ideas?

Scott
 
That seems pretty odd if you're maintaining the same sight picture...

Forgive me asking, but is there a chance you're holding your eye higher away from the gun in anticipation of the extra recoil?

By my math, raising your eye .27 inches would put it 10" high at 25 yards
 
Last edited:
how long was the barrel you removed and what type of sight did it have ? Assuming you were shooting the exact same slugs with the previous barrel ?
 
10 inches is a significant deviation at 25 yards. Like REALLY significant. I don't mean to criticize, but I have to think it's something you are doing differently. Mind your fundamentals and try again?
 
Yail Bloor said:
10 inches is a significant deviation at 25 yards. Like REALLY significant. I don't mean to criticize, but I have to think it's something you are doing differently. Mind your fundamentals and try again?
Click to expand...

Yup.... 10" at 25 it is certainly your technique.

Try adjusting your cheek and eye position, to find where it should be.
 
Adjust your cheek so you can only see the bead over the receiver(so you can't see any of the barrel). The point of impact should be at the top of the bead, even with slugs.
 
Daver_II said:
Yup.... 10" at 25 it is certainly your technique.

Try adjusting your cheek and eye position, to find where it should be.
Click to expand...

Yup, this is why I asked about original barrel length. 30" vs 18.5", takes a little bit of experimenting to get cheek & eye position correct. Find I have to get a touch lower on it with the shorter barrels.

Have no doubt he'll sort it out.
 
Find a short barrelled bead sight shotgun that does not print slugs relatively high compared to point of aim or differing considerably from shot loads. I am telling you this is very very common, without some kind of front and rear sight, compensated for slug shooting. Not that many years ago Remington placed the front bead on a short pedestal for their 18-20 inch 870s.
Not sure why they stopped this very intelligent modification.
 
Exactly.

A short barrel with a low bead will always shoot high. If you lay a straight edge on top of the receiver you will notice the bead being quite a bit below the height of the receiver - it's like having a shorter front sight on a rifle. Make the barrel longer with the same bead and the angle becomes smaller and the effect is less pronounced.
My 14" barrel with low bead was over a foot high at 25 yards. I put on an XS big dot bead and now it's almost point of aim, my guess is it'd be perfect with an 18" barrel.
 
ichbins said:
Exactly.

A short barrel with a low bead will always shoot high. If you lay a straight edge on top of the receiver you will notice the bead being quite a bit below the height of the receiver - it's like having a shorter front sight on a rifle. Make the barrel longer with the same bead and the angle becomes smaller and the effect is less pronounced.
My 14" barrel with low bead was over a foot high at 25 yards. I put on an XS big dot bead and now it's almost point of aim, my guess is it'd be perfect with an 18" barrel.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but he's not talking about going from shot in a long barrel to slugs in a short barrel. He's talking about shot in the 18 inch barrel patterning 10 inches away from where the slugs are patterning in the same 18 inch barrel. THAT shouldn't be the case, right?

Or am I misinterpreting what you meant?
 
Yes, but without having seen those patterns I would guess that the sample size isn't big enough to determine the exact centre. With open choke those patterns will be quite large at 25 yards. Quite likely the bird shot was high as well, it's just much harder to tell
 
Install a saddle mount on your 870. [about 50.00] and scope it with a red dot. You'll have dead deer all around you. Good luck.
 
Has the barrel been cut, and re beaded? The shorter the barrel the higher the front sight has to be. If it has been re Beaded with only a bead, it will shoot high That is why the rem 18 1/2 factory barrels were on the pedestal. The really short barrels (8 1/2") sold by canammo were notorious for being like 3 ft. high at 25 yds. Dlask short barrels always had a tall front blade sight. To be honest, most people don't do so good with slugs and bead sights, so it could be a combination of all these things. If you are using slugs on a regular basis, you may want a proper slug barrel with irons. If you want to check, put the shotgun upside down on a table. With the top of the receiver touching the table, the front bead should also be touching, or very near so. If it isn't, that means when you are sighting, you are raising the front bead to the same plane as the receiver and shoot high
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom