Multi-use shotgun

[Plumber576]

I sold my Benelli Nova about a year ago, and I am foolishly shotgun-less. In that same time, I have picked up the love of blasting clays while using friend's guns. Now I am beginning the search for a new 12 gauge, and my brain is racking.

My question is this...I want a shotgun that is just as comfortable next to my bed as it is knocking orange discs our of the sky. I am open to all opinions. I have also picked up an expensive love for autoloaders, but I'm not suck on either pump or auto.

I have recently thought that something like a used benelli m1 practical could fit the bill, but they are $$$$. Should I maybe think about buying something like a police 870, then buying a 24" barrel? I know that with something like a benelli nova, new barrels can cost almost as much as a new shotgun.

Basically, I'm just fishing for opinions. Unfortunately, I don't think something like a Stoeger coach gun could blast clays very well, and I don't want to have to investigate something in my hosue in the middle of the night with a 26" barrel.

Thanks!

 

[lawson]

you can get a Remington 870 Express Combo, it comes with a 26" barrel, and a 20" barrel.

 

[Dave McCracken]

A combo will work. So will buying a second barrel for an 870. Lots of old 18" barrels with beads out there. Lots of old fixed choke barrels too.

One favorite of mine is the 20" RS slug barrel with Remchokes. Quite suitable for deer and HD.

 

[LaEscopeta]

A lot of posters on this board have made a run at the one-shot-gun-for-everything Holy Grail, and most have given up and brought additional shotguns. I haven’t given up – yet.

If all you want is a 2 purpose shotgun, HD and clay, I would think that should be pretty easy. I have an 870P with an 18” improved cylinder barrel that works fine for HD and Skeet. Extra vent rib barrels in 26”, 28” or 30” for trap or sporting clays have a MSRP of $219, but I’ve seen them on sale to $180-200. Mossberg has extra 870 barrels for a little cheaper. A new 870 Express gun has a MSRP in the low $300 range, and are frequently on sale in the mid $200s.

The combo idea posted above is a good one; you might want to look at stock #25571, 20" imp. cylinder rifle sighted barrel and a 28" rem choke vent rib one. It lists for $443, don’t know what a good sale price might be.

One thing I‘ve learned, changing barrels on an 870 is easy until you start hanging mag extensions, flashlights, etc. on them.

 

[mrmeval]

I had a Mossberg 500 with the stock barrel, a rifled slug barrel and a rifled black powder barrel. Of the three the black powder would do 1moa at 100yards with the Goex. The rifled slug barrel would do alright with some foreign brand I can't recall just now and with a friends handloads but not as good as the BP. The stock barrel did alright for skeet though I didn't use it much.

 

[sm]

Pump: Hard to beat one of the Combo sets.

Semi: Older 1100, Beretta 303, 390 , Browning B-80, ...

Here is MY take on a GP shotgun, based on experiences, observations and what folks are actually using.

Best kept secret is a 1100 20 ga.

Remember a semi uses a gas system, if the barrel is shorter than 23", dwell time is affected and the gun won't / may not run with all load offerings.

A gun is designed to run with certain loads - mess with something, and other things are affected. I do not understand folks fixing what is not broke. I do not understand folks always thinking they know more than gun designers.

Rem Bird Guns, with the straight "English " stock are 23". These run target/ bird loads, buckshot and slugs.

2 3/4" chamber is all you need, to bust clays, take game from birds to slugs for deer. Waterfowl - use Bismuth and 'take 'em' closer in, I'm not one to skybust anyway.

I know of so many 1100 20 ga guns, with fixed Skeet choke barrels, doing bedroom/ home duty, taking clays, and taking game. These have done so for years, and will continue to.


Not just single lady households either. A bigger person can shoot a smaller gun - a smaller person cannot shoot a bigger gun.

Families have these 1100 20 ga guns, more than one I might add. Anyone in the home, From Dad/Husband, to Mom/Wife, to teenage boys and girls can use this gun.

Folks forget, one might have to cover something or someone while they call for help, and these guns allow one to do so better than a 11# shotgun , and especially for a smaller person.


HTH

 

[Fred Fuller]

A good used 870 Express, an older model with an aluminum trigger plate and no magazine dimples, should be pretty readily available to you for $200 or less in pawn shops or gun stores. They are generally sold with 26- 28" vent rib barrels fitted for RemChokes.

An extra short barrel- a 20" smoothbore with rifle sights, or an 18" with a bead- will do fine for HD. You should be able to find a short barrel for $100 or so if you shop around.

You can add any other accessories you want- magazine extension, Sidesaddle, SureFire fore-end (get a spare fore-end tube for that one to save trouble changing it out)- whatever else you want to bolt on. You'll find 870s very user friendly, easy to field strip and add/remove accessories.

This is not intended to provoke a "what's best for a pump shotgun" argument. There are some 8 million 870s out there, with an attendant number of spare barrels and accessories. Yield to the power of market saturation and get an 870 this time, adapt the gun to you where you can and adapt yourself to what you can't change about the gun. It won't cost you much, and you can almost certainly get your money back out of it if you decide to sell it.

lpl/nc

 

[slow944]

I just saw a Mossberg Maverick for $137.00 at Acadamy yesterday in a pump. Guy bechid the counter said it was a great truck gun for just knocking around with. Don't remember if it had replaceable chocks or not. but for the price it's pretty hard to beat.

 

[sm]

Oh Phooey!

I'm having too much fun shooting a NEF Youth 20 ga Single Shot for everything.

Shoot doubles ? Yeah, I do that. I pretend mine is a "Half Double Gun"

Gotta have that second shell in weak hand fingers, and practice getting the action broke open, expended hull 'pops' out, shove in that shell from weak fingers, get action closed , hammer back and fire again fast.

Target thrower can toss two at a time. Now not long ago, folks got...well you see...we come up with stuff.

Got a Coffee can out younder, and two clays in the target thrower. Three targets, and you have to break the clays before they get out to a certain distance - then the deal was to see whom could break them closer "than that in".

Clay - Coffee Can - Clay

Then we substituted a tennis ball for the coffee can, and it would get tossed out...

We cannot "see" the targets in the thrower to know if One or Two are going to be tossed, nor the Color, because we have "no shoot" and "bonus" colors we shoot at.

We do this with Repeaters [ pumps and semis] and O/U and SxS's - General Purpose guns , folks use for everything.

Two barrel guns? Yep we practice getting them spent shells out and fresh ones in as well. It would amaze and shock folks to see two barrel guns in action. Cowboy Shooters know this, as do others, some would be totally awed if they have watched Cowboy Shooters and those that practice this - shoot like this.


Just the Single shots, sure make for fun challenges!