New to shotguns

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

I don't own a shotgun, but I plan to soon. I don't know anything about shotguns, so I have a few questions. First I know there are smoothbore barrles and rifled barrels. Can one fire slugs through both kinds? How about buckshot, birdshot and the like? Is it safe or will it mess my weapon or myself up? Also I have heard the term choke, but not quite sure what it means. The shotgun I am thinking about getting is Remington 870 Express Magnum 12ga with a 20" rifled barrel. I think it has no choke, but not sure what that means.

[Smith]

You can fire slugs through both barrels; however, smoothebores use rifled slugs and rifled barrels use sabot slugs. I am pretty sure that you can fire bird and buck shot through some rifled barrels, but I think it may damage some kinds. I'm pretty sure that depends on the barrel (I've heard that the barrel will say if it can be used with bird/buck shot). Either way it will mess up your patterns. As for choke, this link explains it well. http://science.howstuffworks.com/shotgun8.htm I am somewhat new to the shotgun world myself, so if anybody sees any errors in my post, please correct me. Hope that helps.

[Dave McCracken]

Guys, hit the search button, then hit advanced search.Type in 101 for the subject and my name for the author. Hit submit.

That takes you to Shotgun 101 ,an instruction manual for new shotgunners.
Read and enjoy....

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

Well I just did that and no Shotgun 101 thread is shown...got a link? :)

[Dave McCracken]

COllectively it's shotgun 101, but it's not titled as such in the database. Did you enter 101 or Shotgun 101? 101 is correct.

[Rem-brent-browning]

Welcome to the world of shotgunning! You will become quickly addicted to the sport and its many diciplines. Our readers have offered good advice for you which I hope you will take to heart. I will add my two cents by the way of this post

I will start by saying that the gun you want to purchase is very specialized in its use. You might want to shoot other types and styles before making a purchase. Visit a shooting venue that offers many types of shotgunning opportunities. Observe the various games, and select the one that intrests you the most. After you select the dicipline, get quality instruction from a professional. This is where many aspiring shooters get off on the wrong foot- they lose interest and get the wrong gun for the shooting they want to do.

Try different action types before you make that first shotgun purchase. Don't get hooked on the "Cool factor". Looks don't break clays or bag game. It will take time- go slow.

Be patient, practice often, and good luck!

[Snarlingiron]

Guys, hit the search button, then hit advanced search.Type in 101 for the subject and my name for the author. Hit submit.

That takes you to Shotgun 101 ,an instruction manual for new shotgunners.
Read and enjoy....

I had some difficulty finding it myself. If you will change the search option from "search entire posts" to "search titles only" you will get a lot less results to wade through. When you search the entire posts, you also get every post that refers to Dave's excellent 101 series. By changing it to search titles only, you just get the posts with 101 in the title.

Maybe that will help.:)