Cutting Down Slug Barrel?

canadian hunter312

canadian hunter312

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I recently purchased a used rifled barrel for my 870 and it measures 24" long which I now think is a bit too long for deer drives. I haven't shot any slugs through this barrel to determine it's accuracy, but I am wondering if shortening the barrel to 18" would have any impact on accuracy at all. I'd also like to have it shortened in order to remove the barrel porting, which I didn't realize this barrel had until it was in my possession.

What would the noise difference be between an 18" barrel and a ported 24"?
 
Noise difference with 3" slugs is very different, the muzzle blast with an 18" barrel is impressive. I would leave the way it is personally, the longer barrel will help with accuracy as well, especially with foster slugs.
 
The bbl length will have nothing to do with accuracy , the ported bbl will b louder but will control muzzle jump and lessen the recoil to some degree .
 
I like my longer slug barrel, but then again I don't hunt in brush where length would be an issue. I like the length because it gets the noise further from my ears, mine is not ported. I assume that as you did not mention a front sight, that you are running a scope.

I would at least test/use it as it is, and perhaps buy some other barrels to test/use. I have 3 or so slug type barrels, fully rifled, rifled choke, smooth and so on, and some ammo prefers smooth, some rifled, some is way too barky, and some are real nasty when it come to recoil.

I don't use the big power stuff, mid or low recoil works fine. I now cast my own, and they work OK as well.

Have someone take videos of you shooting it as is and again after you cut it down, I'd be interested to see the difference.
 
If you go with 20", just to get rid of that ear busting ported section, you might end up with a better compromise.
 
Don't cut it. I love my 24 inch rifled barrle.someone would gladly trade you for a 18 inch..24 is just right as far as bush walking still east yo swing not to loud.
 
Maritime Storm said:
Noise difference with 3" slugs is very different, the muzzle blast with an 18" barrel is impressive. I would leave the way it is personally, the longer barrel will help with accuracy as well, especially with foster slugs.
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Foster type slugs are junk in rifled barrels. Ye need full bore Paradox bullets or sabot rounds to get accuracy with the rifled tubes.

I had an H&R Ultra Slug Hunter with the 24" barrel that was good in the woods here and shot dang nice with Slugs-R-Us projectiles.
SLUGS-R-US Projectile.jpg
 

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bunny said:
You can’t cut it shorter than 18.5” legally
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Don't give advice if you don't know the law. Any manual operated long arms barrel can be cut to 18". It is only semi-auto that can be cut to 18.5". Read up on the liberal bull#### and learn something.

A longer barrel does give you a more accurate sight plane if you are using a front and rear sight. If you are using a scope it makes no difference. But if you are running dear drives a scope is a hindrance and takes to long to get an accurate sight picture IMO.

The old guy in my group shoots a plain barrel 30" 870 and kills a deer every year...

We don't do much drives anymore but he used it plenty doing them.

My Winchester rifled is 21". Smooth bore is 22".

First gun was a Mossberg 835 with a rifled 24" and it shot great on the deer drive with a red dot.

Just picked up a 24" rifled barrel for my ma's old 80s Lakefield Mossberg 500 20g. This will be my daughters first deer gun.
 
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