Rifled Shotgun Barrel

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FishHog

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I have a Rem 870 that I put a rifled 12g barrel on. It has scope rail and I added a 4x scope. Spent a couple hundred on different slugs to test and can't say I'm all that happy with the grouping with any of them.

I realize these aren't tack drivers, and in most cases its acceptable for the ranges I'm hunting. Have taken 2 bears and 3 deer with it in the past few years, but I'm thinking there must be a way to tighten my groups up.

Thinking of trying to shim the barrel to take some of the slop out of it, but wondering if any has any tips?

Thanks,
FishHog
 
I installed the Timney trigger for the Remington 870 series in my slug gun. Made a noticeable difference in how the gun shot. The combo of the new trigger and Federal's cheap plain jane sabot slugs was an eye opener. Gun is now long gone but the Timney is now in my Remington 760 pump. A good trigger helps a lot. You are up against the old problem in most slug guns, a sight mounted on receiver and a take down barrel delivering the charge. (unless you have a canti lever barrel, you did not say) I have not read or heard of any attempts at tightening a barrel to a shotgun receiver (pins, weld etc) that made any difference worth the effort.
Darryl
 
I was in same boat and ended up selling the rifled barrel, bought a Savage 220 and didn't look back.

I could get 3-4" groups at 100 yards with rifled barrel, But after that it was like 6" at best. I tried couple hundred $$$ worth of shells to.

I was shooting 4" groups at 170yards with my 220. Which is max for where I hunt anyways.
 
I have a Mossberg 835 with a rifled barrel. Scope is on the receiver and I never take the rifle barrel off. Tried many different slugs including Winchester, Remington, and Hornady. Was happy with Hornady SST sabots but I find that after a few shots (3? 5?) the plastic sabot leaves enough residue in the barrel to affect my accuracy at 100 yards. So now I SCRUB the barrel ever few shots. I feel it makes a difference. At almost $6 per shot, I have put through more $$ in sabot slugs at the range than the gun cost me (yes - probably 10 boxes of 5 shells).

Bought a 50 cal muzzleloader and every year I have the debate - 1 shot muzzleloader good to at least 150 yards, or a 3 shot shotgun good at 75 yards (and maybe ok at 100 if ...)
 
I have seen my friend's 1100 with a barrel pinned to the receiver by a smith (he drilled and tapped the receiver and purposely had a slight longer screw for the scope rail) he swear the accuracy improved significantly.

However, one season I let him borrowed my A bolt slug gun after I filled my tag he called one evening breathing heavily say he just dragged out a deer from the field and that was a longest shotgun deer he ever shot and wanted to buy my gun lol (he own the property and know the boundaries he said it was just a shy of 200 yards).

Depending on what type of accuracy you after most pump / semi shotguns has it's shortfall (poor trigger pull and barrel to receiver mating surface etc) and it will be difficult to achieve the consistent accuracy of a dedicated slug gun and for this matter a bolt action rifled bore shotgun like another poster suggested.


That being said was told the Ithaca Deer Slayer is supposed to a one hell of an accurate slug gun being a pump action but I have yet to seen one myself let along firing one.

Used to have many slug guns including a Benelli M2, 935 (all rifled bore with cantilever scope mount) and a 210 but ended up with 2 H&Rs Ultra slug hunter one is 12ga other in 20ga, an A bolt and a recently acquired 695 and the A bolt being my favorite as it has the best trigger.

Really wanted a Tarhunt but can't afford it (at least this moment).
 
FishHog said:
I have a Rem 870 that I put a rifled 12g barrel on. It has scope rail and I added a 4x scope. Spent a couple hundred on different slugs to test and can't say I'm all that happy with the grouping with any of them.

I realize these aren't tack drivers, and in most cases its acceptable for the ranges I'm hunting. Have taken 2 bears and 3 deer with it in the past few years, but I'm thinking there must be a way to tighten my groups up.

Thinking of trying to shim the barrel to take some of the slop out of it, but wondering if any has any tips?

Thanks,
FishHog
Click to expand...

I put a Hastings rifled barrel on my Rem. 870 about 30 yrs. ago. I drilled & threaded an 8 x 40 screw through
the front of the left side of the receaver into the barrel extension. Ground the screw flush with the inside of the
extenion I also have scope bases on the barrel which I have a red dot sight. I crowned the muzzel with a ball
bearing welded to a small rod & using valve grinding paste. It was very easy to do. I have shot many 100's
of Foster Slugs @ 100 yds. with that gun over these 30 yrs. Usually get a 3" group. Same sighting @ 50 yds.
I get a 2" group and only 1-2" higher. I tried a few brands of Sabote slugs ,,,,,,,,, no better !!!!
 
Plastic sabots quickly foul barrels and affect accuracy.

As soon as your groups start to open, scrub the barrel really well with a cleaner and wire brush.

Will fix 95% of the slug gun accuracy issues.
 
See if you can find a cantilever barrel and use a scope . My mossy 500 drops 3 SST’s in a 3” group at 100yrds.
Longest kill shot… 125yrds verified by laser range finder. Pinning the barrel will also help.
 
thanks guys, it is a cantilever barrel.
Might be a reason to buy a new gun, but was just hoping for some tips. I do clean it frequently, but will step it up and see if that helps. I know the trigger is a lot of the problem, so maybe I'll work on that.
 
scope issue/slug issue? I have an 870 with cantilever Brl I shoot federal power shok 1oz slugs at short range and remington core lokt untra sabbots at the longer ranges taken deer at 125 yards. Nikon shotgun scope think its a 3-7
 
I would try the “shim” idea to remove any “slop” (looseness?). Materials are plentiful (aluminum foil or cans) and free. A nice snug barrel is a good way to narrow down the likely reason for inaccuracies. You didn’t say what your groupings were ... but, in my book, 3” @100 yds is pretty good (which is what I get with Lee .690 round ball hand loads). For those of you who want to avoid the sting of paying hundreds of $$ for commercial ammo, consider casting and hand loading (can you say “50 cents a shot”?). Finally, for those who claim wad fouling affects accuracy, try smearing a bit of Crisco next to the roll-crimp on your sabot slugs (obviously not necessary for rifled slugs). I use a fold crimp and smear Crisco in the creases ... no complaints.
 
I had a problem getting acceptable accuracy from my Mossberg rifled barrel with Sabot Slugs, after I had rough sighted it in with soft foster type slugs. The problem was that the soft lead foster slugs had badly fouled the barrel and required aggressive cleaning to remove the lead build-up. With a clean barrel the sabot slugs shot very well and were effective when deer hunting. WK
 
Try this method first if you decided to shim the barrels.

https://www.shotgunworld.com/threads/soda-can-barrel-shim-on-870-with-pics.197756/
 
Anyone ever hear of using JB weld to take up the slop between the barrel and receiver. I thought of applying release agent on both pieces so removal wouldn't be too difficult.
The wheels are turning.
 
Try using attached wad slugs like score and challenger instead of sabots

Cheaper, less plastic fouling and always had good accuracy in my rifled barrels
 
conor_90 said:
Try using attached wad slugs like score and challenger instead of sabots

Cheaper, less plastic fouling and always had good accuracy in my rifled barrels
Click to expand...

I’ve thought about trying that, have a bunch of Challenger slugs I picked up when they were being blown out at Crappy Tire awhile back. I’ve always thought a rifled 12g setup would be a fun black bear hunting rig. I see them a lot within acceptable ranges of a sabot but my sabot testing has always been lacklustre past 50y, hell even at 50y it was pretty lame. Challenger even states on the box it’s safe to shoot through chokes and rifled barrels iirc, they shoot well for me and I know they penetrate deep. I’m going to have to see how they shoot in my rifled barrel, maybe it’ll be a winner.

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