[Med 10]

I need a weapon for bear defense, short range deer hunting, boar hunting in south Alabama, turkey hunting, something to keep in my truck, and home defense.

I currently have a Winchester 1300 with an 18" barrel and bead sight. Now how do you folks feel about simply getting a rifled barrel with rifle sights. I know Mossberg sold a combo like this but I havent been able to find it.
i think this would cover all the bases. Just change the barrel for different applications. What do yall think? am I over simplifying this?

Getting another barrel is a lot cheaper than a couple of new rifles and I'm tired of borrowing others guns.

Thanks for the help.

[Okiecruffler]

I know a fella who only has an 870 with a couple of barrels, uses it for everything and has killed more deer than most people have seen. No reason you couldn't do the same with the 1300. Barrels might be harder to find.

[sm]

Agree with Okie.
Nothing wrong with "shoot one gun and know it"...just change bbls/chokes.

[Rupestris]

I agree with just adding another barrel but I'd stick to a smooth bore with chokes and rifle type sights. Maybe in the 22" to 26" range. If your deer hunting is going to be short range and you'd like something for turkey then stick to the smooth bore/chokes.
26" would turn that 1300 onto a nice clay games gun if you were so inclined.
Winchester 1300 barrels at Cabelas (http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/horizontal-item.jhtml?id=0005580210862a&navAction=push&navCount=1&indexId=cat20805&podId=0005580&catalogCode=XD&parentId=cat20805&parentType=index&rid=&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fcatalog%2Fitem-link.jhtml.1_A&_DAV=MainCatcat20712&hasJS=true)

If you go with the longer barrel (which isn't offered with the rifle sights) you can look into the TruGlo type fiber optic sights. I have 'em on both 870's.

[Med 10]

Thanks for the replies. Rupestris, wouldnt shooting slugs through a smooth bore be inaccurate?

[Brian Williams]

wouldnt shooting slugs through a smooth bore be inaccurate?

Yes to a degree, what distance are you shooting and what slugs are you shooting.

Many 18" smoothbores shoot Breneke slugs in 4" at 100yds, while not MOA but it is a slug....

Keep the 18 for HD and real close range,
Get a 22" for turkey and and a nice ribbed 26 or 28 or 30 for birdies and games.

[Rupestris]

wouldnt shooting slugs through a smooth bore be inaccurate?

For close range Forster style (rifled) slugs for smooth bore can be quite accurate. What you lose is range. With my 26" barrel and a Imp. Cyl. choke I can put 3 slugs inside three inches at 50 yards. That is with the barrel supported but not bench rested. I'm sure the gun and slugs can do better than that but I need practice.
I wouldn't be afraid to stretch it out to 70 yards. Where I hunt in Michigan most shots are less than that.
The key is finding the (rifled) slug that performs best in your gun/barrel/choke.

[MrMurphy]

I have a smoothbore Benelli Nova SP, 18.5" barrel with ghost ring sights, and with standard Foster Slug type Remington Reduced Recoil (or full power) slugs, from the prone position at 100 yards I can do headshots on a human silhouette on demand, and body hits are ridiculously easy.

A rifle sighted barrel, or one of the removable cantilever scope mounts with a low power scope (2X or 4X) would certainly do the job on deer, boar, bear at close range, etc. Keep the gun you've got, you're familiar with it. Just add another barrel. :)


Or, you can swap out your current bead sight, get a ghost ring sight from LPA or MMC (cheaper) and have a gunsmith put it on your gun. As long as you know putting a ghost ring on the reciever precludes swapping out a long barrel for birdwhacking. My Nova SP is strictly an antipersonnel or ground based target gun, so I don't mind a bit. :)

[Das Pferd]

You might not even need another barrel unless you can find one for cheap.

I asked the same kind of question a few days ago, about the minimum length barrel for bird hunting etc.

The answer I received was that the length does not play as much of a role as does the choke.

Test out your barrel with different loads to see what its like. You may find that you dont need another one.

I dont know how much it costs or even if chokes can be installed. That may be another option.

http://thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=91932

[TNT]

Your Winchester sounds like the Defender model which has a extended magazine tube. The only other Winchester barrel that will work is the camp defender barrel which is 22" long with screw in chokes, IF I remember correctly.:o

[scubasteve]

what kind of bear is there in GA? (or any southern state for that matter)

[Fred Fuller]

Steve,

We have a scattering of black bears here and there. Sometimes they cause trouble, most of the time they don't but if there are bears around it pays to be able to handle the troublesome ones.

lpl/nc

[mondocomputerman]

TNT, you're right. I've been looking at a 1300 camp defender for a while now. It has the high magazine capacity of the defender, and a 22 inch barrel with choke tubes. I would think that would be pretty versitile by changing out the choke tubes.

[Med 10]

Steve, the black bear problem is so bad at times that the jacks river falls area of the Cohutta wilderness was closed to the public for a while. {dont know if its open again} I have seen some rather stout specimens in N. Ga recently and they seem to be getting bolder as the human population increases in their areas.

I dont think they have many bears in S. Ga, but like the previous poster said its better to be able to handle the trouble makers however unlikely that would be. Trouble makers with 2 or 4 legs.

Anyway thanks once again for the great advice folks. :)

[Bill B.]

Remington makes a HP copper jacket sabot slug in a 12ga. that's susposed to be bad medicine for bears. I can't speak for how accurate they are from a smooth bore. I do have a friend who killed 6 deer with this load last year with his rifled Remington 1187 with a scope. Per him and his experience he said he was as comfortable with it as a rifle out to about 120 yards. I did see some of his recovered slugs from the deer they mushroom beautifully! All his deer were one shot kills by the way.