Smooth-Bore shotgunning for deer

firejim

firejim

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Hello All;

I have a 12g Rem 870 3 1/2" and would like to hunt deer in the shotgun season this fall. Unfortunately, I don't have a rifled barrel for it, and finances may leave me left with the smooth bore for this season. Are there options, ie buckshot, SSG, etc. that will allow effective/humane hunting?

Thanks in advance for your help.
 
There are a lot of slugs for smooth bore, You are limited to your range pending your shotgun and quality slug. Practice and Practice your shoting until you are confortable. Shot a lot of deer with plan slugs and smooth bore barrel.
 
nothing wrong with slugs and a smoothbore -- but much depends on your particular shotgun, the choke and the ammo.

the important thing is to buy at least 3-4 different brands of slugs, then go out and see how they group in your gun at the ranges you intend to hunt deer at. if you have several chokes try different ones with foster slugs - theyre designed to squeeze through chokes. id be more careful with brennekes however as they are hardened, although there are people who will assure you those are safe to fire through tighter chokes as well. my best results have been through either IC or modified, worst results through cylinder bore by far.

slugs can be finicky in smoothbore barrels and with different chokes. for example one slug that groups 4" @100yds in one of my smoothbores might group 12 in another very similar gun.
 
Some of the guys in our hunt camp use a smoothbore barrel & 00 buck with good results.(We hunt in thick bush and run dogs =close shots)My son used his 870 with smoothbore,rifle sighted barrel and Remington rifled slugs with good results.
As manbearpig stated try your gun with various types of ammo and use the one that is most accurate in your 870.If you are going to use buckshot,keep your shots close. Cheers Bac4
 
Thanks very much for the suggestions, guys. I will definitely put some slugs through the gun and find out what seems to work best.
 
I use two smooth bores (a Franchi and a Mossy 500A). The Franchi likes the Federal Tru-ball and the Mossy likes Winchester slugs (Crappy tire ones); If I interchange them I get an Minute of football stadium accuracy. Going to try the Breneke, I've only heard good things about them.

Mossberg makes a rifled barrel for Remington 870 and is cheaper then a real Remmy. Might be worth looking into.
 
Use Challenger slugs in my 870, work great, but so do the Winchester attached wad and tru-ball. Get a bunch of boxes and see how they pattern at 50 yards. Also I advise that you pickup some adjustable sights for your rib, you can take them off for every other season but they really help when shooting slugs.
 
trubluscrew said:
I use two smooth bores (a Franchi and a Mossy 500A). The Franchi likes the Federal Tru-ball and the Mossy likes Winchester slugs (Crappy tire ones); If I interchange them I get an Minute of football stadium accuracy. Going to try the Breneke, I've only heard good things about them.

Mossberg makes a rifled barrel for Remington 870 and is cheaper then a real Remmy. Might be worth looking into.[/QUOTE If in the future you decide to go to a rifled barrel, the mossberg barrel mentioned above is nice and alot cheaper than the remm... put one on my wingmaster last year for about $225. and love it. Tight groups.
Click to expand...
 
The best advice, is simply to take a handfull of slugs, and some buckshot out, and try it.

See where your shotgun shoots slugs, and find out at what range they can be accurate enough to satisfy you.
Put up a 12" target (approximate white tail kill zone), put it on a larger pattern board, and try buckshot at various ranges. A good smooth bore should be capable of keeping at least some of the shot on the paper at 30-40 yards. Check the pattern board to see where your densest pattern is.
One pellet is all it takes to kill, if it goes in the right place. But one pellet is all it takes to wound as well.
Pick a range where your shotgun will deliver a lethal load of lead, and learn where you have to hold your shotgun to deliver that load..
 
Years ago a friend of mine purchased a rifled choke tube for his Remington 870 Express and some rifle sights that were designed so that you could attach them to the shotgun rib. I believe that it shot decently with sabot slugs (though the spin on the Challenger slug went the opposite direction of the tube and threw it off really far). Even just the site setup and regular slugs through the smooth bore, you should at least be fine out to 50m, perhaps alot further if you find a good load as suggested above. I believe that the choke tube cost around $50-70.

My friend who tried this option eventually found a place to hunt where he uses centrefire only, so I cannot really say much else about his setup.

Cheers,

Frank
 
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