Hastings Paradox 870 barrel

T

triggerman42

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
45   0   0
I have a Hastings Paradox , 24" barrel with rifle sights , and a polished gloss deep blue finish , on my Browning Auto 5 , that I bought and have used for about 30 years. It's the best slug barrel I ever had. I recently acquired another barrel. It's also a Hastings Paradox 24" , rifled sights , with polished deep blue gloss finish , 3 inch magnum , Remington 870 barrel. I really don't need this one and am considering selling it. I looked online on the Verney-Carron web page and see they still offer these , but not with the nice dark gloss finish. All they offer now is a dull matt satin finish , that would be cheaper to produce ( less polishing).
The price was $355 and I assume that is plus taxes and plus shipping.
They don't ship to Canada . I looked around and couldn't find any other Canadian sellers of these.
Have these fallen out of favor ? Nobody sells them? They were well thought of 25 or 30 years ago , although not cheap then either ! I never regretted buying my barrel for the Auto 5. I seen Tradex had some , but they are gone now? Who sells them now in Canada? How hard are they to come by? Maybe I should keep this one , if they are getting rare ? I really don't think I will ever use it though.
The Auto 5 is my deer shotgun.
 
Last edited:
Tradeex normally has a couple of Hastings barrels in stock. I bought a rifled cantilever one from them a couple of years ago ...

https://www.tradeexcanada.com/

And you can import them from the US .... but yes, that is expensive .... I did that for a Hastings Cantilever Wad-lock barrel ....

My experience: they are good quality slug barrels ... though scarce in Canada ...
 
Tradeex is the only source that I know in Canada. They normally brought them in from France in larger shipments. Once a shippment arrived ... you saw a larger number of those barrels appear on their website .... and then stock would go down gradually.

I also know that Tradex is trying to scale down ... so maybe there are no more shipments coming ... give them a call to find out .....

Also, at the time I tried to custom order a particular Hastings barrel with Tradeex and the answer I got from them was that they could not do it. I then imported that barrel from the US .....
 
Last edited:
I bought my dad a Hastings for his Auto-5 maybe 20 years ago. With Winchester Supreme sabots and a low power scope it was an absolute tackdriver, rifle-like accuracy. The old man never missed a shot with this setup in the early November shotgun hunts, his buddy would borrow it for the December hunt every year, his record was 5/5.

I was tasked with sighting it in each year, and found that it's accuracy was dropping considerably. After looking at every possible cause, I settled on the ammo as the problem. My dad had bought a good number of older Winchester sabots (1200fps) that performed amazingly well. When his supply ran out, he replaced it with the newer, faster, 1450fps+ batches. I think the twist rate on that old barrel could not handle the faster slugs. No matter what ammo I put through it I could never get better than a 4" group at 100 with it.

Found him a Browning Gold with a rifled barrrel on the EE and now he's happy again!
 
Keep it...you never know. I have a wadlock and paradox for my Auto-5 mag and a paradox for my 870. Best barrels out there IMO.
One thing, not sure if it has to do with the age of the Paradox barrels that I have, but they group Rotweill Express (Gualandi) slugs in less than 2" @ 100yds without any leading issues, but I always clean my barrels after shooting.
 
Last edited:
Yeah , mine shoots rifled slugs very well too out of my Auto 5. They were made for sabots, but I've tried it at the range , and it was amazing with the cheapie lead slugs. I really didn't find it hard to clean afterwards either. I only fired 10 slugs though.
I stick with the sabots for hunting. I found both Federal , and Lightfield very good. Even the fast sabots , like the Hornady SST's that run around 2000 fps shot acceptably well . Not as good as the slower sabots. But , a 4 to 5 inch , 100 yard group is plenty good enough to hunt deer. That's better than some rifles shoot. Especially with iron sights! They are just great barrels.
 
triggerman42 said:
....
But , a 4 to 5 inch , 100 yard group is plenty good enough to hunt deer. That's better than some rifles shoot.
...
Click to expand...

Triggerman42, you see, I can get that sort of group with a smooth bore barrel and Federal TruBall Foster slugs. I guess slug technology has evolved and advanced in the last 30 years .... and if you are staying within that range you don't really need a rifled barrel. This might be one reason why the demand for rifled barrels has gone down .... or that is at least what I presume ....

https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/1857153-Smooth-Bore-100-Meters
 
You got me off topic . I am looking for information about who sells Hastings barrels nowadays. Not starting a "who shot the best 100 yard group thread". I see you already have one of those threads started , and I wish you good luck with it.
 
triggerman42 said:
You got me off topic . I am looking for information about who sells Hastings barrels nowadays. Not starting a "who shot the best 100 yard group thread". I see you already have one of those threads started , and I wish you good luck with it.
Click to expand...

The old paradox. One hell of a fine barrel
No one stocks them as a regular inventory item not even state side that I recall anymore other than hastings themselves . Tradex god knows where they found some and got them cheap and bought them to canada
They have been discontinued for a few years now state side by all other distributors??
Yes they are a great OLD barrel but with 30/40 year old technology and an old 1/34?? twist rate few today will pay top dollars for one for a 870 and yes I did own one over the years. Can do the same with an extended rifled choke tube
Slugs have made huge improvements over those 30/40 years as another member says to the point the same of better accuracy can be achieved today with cheap fosters and smooth cheap barrels especially available now for a 870. In fact I seem to remember one could not even run remington sabots in these parodox barrels years ago and came with a written warning paper on it in the barrel box for the 870.
It is yours to do as you see fit but if no need for it why keep it since it's value is not going to go up for a 870 model
Just my 2 cents
 
Last edited:
triggerman42 said:
You got me off topic . I am looking for information about who sells Hastings barrels nowadays. Not starting a "who shot the best 100 yard group thread". I see you already have one of those threads started , and I wish you good luck with it.
Click to expand...

triggerman42 said:
...
I looked around and couldn't find any other Canadian sellers of these.
Have these fallen out of favor ? Nobody sells them?
...
Click to expand...

My apologies Triggerman42 if my post came across the wrong way .... all I am trying to say is that I believe demand for rifled barrels has gone down over the years ... and because smooth bore slug accuracy has improved with more modern slug designs.

And less demand would translate into less value or money for existing Hastings barrels ....
That is all I am trying to say ... and it is just an opinion!
 
Maybe I am wrong but not all of these were fully rifled either. Early ones it was just the end for a few inches like a choke tube that is rifled today
Cheers
 
I have two for a Browning Auto 5 Mag 12. One is a Paradox barrel while the other is a 24” rifle sight, wad lock CT2 barrel. I obtained both from Gunbroker. If you have a contact in the US and you are not in a hurry, it’s the way to go. I watched the Wad Lock barrel list 3 times before I bRoke down and bought it for $200. If you contact the seller, most will sell to a Canadian if they ship to a US address. I am lucky, I live 2hrs from Buffalo NY where I have a friend.
 
3macs1 said:
Maybe I am wrong but not all of these were fully rifled either. Early ones it was just the end for a few inches like a choke tube that is rifled today
Cheers
Click to expand...

3macs1 ... you are right .... but the evolution of the Paradox barrel is a long story .... From my research the short version of the story is ... that Holland & Holland around the end of the 19th century bought up the rights to that patent and trademark .... and they produced guns with those Paradox barrels .... i.e. partial rifling towards the muzzle. The idea was that you could shoot shot out of that barrel with an acceptable shot pattern .... and a slug with acceptable accuracy. It seems the rifling was enough to stabilize a slug .... but not enough to put much spin on shot ... Many many years later .... and down the road Verney-Carron acquired the right to the Trademark ... and then they sold their rifled barrels as "Paradox" barrels .... even though there was no more "Paradox". The Hastings Paradox barrels were fully rifled and for slugs only .... that at least is my understanding ...
 
It seems the short answer is , they are no longer imported into the country. I guess I better hang onto this one. Thanks to all , for the replies.
 
triggerman42 said:
It seems the short answer is , they are no longer imported into the country. I guess I better hang onto this one. Thanks to all , for the replies.
Click to expand...

If you read the french manufacturer's site they say this but that has been there for 8 years :(

Verney-Carron SA, France oldest and largest hunting gun maker (ww w.verney-carron.com) and historical manufacturer of Hastings barrels is in the process of reorganizing the distribution of Hastings shotgun barrels for the US market.
 
dutchhunter said:
Thu also made one with straight rifling groves for trap shooters
Click to expand...

WOW never knew that. I still see these barrels the odd time but mostly as a extra barrel on an old browning being sold. Guys that have them never sell it alone without the shotgun going with it
Cannot remember the last one I seen for a 870 or 1100. A lot of years ago I know that
Cheers
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom