Poor rifled 1187 accuracy

[yankytrash]

Buddy of mine is switching to slugs this year for shotgun season. He being the no-holds-barred kinda guy he is, he ordered up a fully rifled new Remington barrel with the cantilevered scope mount and a Leupold Vari-XII scope for his 11-87.

When he got it all together, we took it back to the range with a couple hundred dollars worth of various sabots. We had the Winchester black box Supremes, the Remington Copper somethingorethers, Lightfields, and Federal Hydroshocks. I also had a few boxes of rifled Winchester Super-X's for my smoothbore.

Try as we might, we couldn't get any better than a 6" group at 100 yards. Even at that, there was always a flyer at about 8" per box of 5. The best group was, no suprise, from the Remingtons.

Meanwhile, shooting side-by-side, my smoothbore 870 is, masked under layers of cheapo Wal-Mart camo tape, an 870 Express Magnum that was shortened from a 28" Remchoke to a 21" smoothbore with my handy-dandy chopbox and few beers. She was shootin around 3" at 100yd with only the cheezy clip-on rifle sights I bought at the local gun store last year. Hell, I abuse this gun so much that I haven't even cleaned it since last years salt-water duck hunting. Yet, all said, it was still shooting better than the 11-87's setup. We even tried throwing a few Winchester Super-X's in the 11-87 for kicks and giggles, knowing it wouldn't work, but we were desperate at that point.

What gives? Does the 11-87 with rifled barrel really bite the big one this bad, or did we get a lemon?

Thanks

 

[HSMITH]

I have not seen a sabot slug out of a Remington rifled barrel do much better than 4" and a lot of them around 6" at 100 yards. I am not really seeing where the problem is as it seems typical for the gear to me.

I have not seen a Hastings barrel that won't shoot though, most of them are right at 4" or so. One I have shot myself quite a bit and it will do 2 1/4" 3 shot groups at 100 yards all day long with the Lightfield slugs.

6" at 100 yards with slugs is really not too bad, especially with the high velocity controlled expansion type slugs, they hit like a TRUCK.

 

[Al Thompson]

Well, one point is that you'll hit with in 3 inches of your aim point - certainly adequate.

Have you tried tightening up or shimming the magazine cap? May not help, but seems that it would give you tighter barrel alignment.

Low probability, but are y'all sure the scope is good?

 

[kudu]

My 11-87 cantilever slug barrel will shoot consistantly under 4" at 100yds, even had some 2.5" groups with it. It only likes Rems copper solids. A friend's won't shoot the Remington slugs but shoots the Winchesters really well.
Could the scope be the problem? A lot of times the Trashcos and Simmons scopes won't take slug recoil very well, Bushnells are in the same catagory. Not saying that they are all bad but I have had 2 tascos go belly up and 1 simmons on heavy recoiling guns. It took a while but they couldn't take the amount of rounds I used to run through the guns.

 

[Dave McCracken]

First, go over that scope and mount and see if anything's loose.

Next, get the mag cap hand tight, then use padded vise grips to tighten it ONE click further.

You should now have scceptable accuracy for most whitetail hunting conditions.

Test and report back, please.

 

[yankytrash]

Thanks all, useful information as always. I'll try to drag him back to the range with those ideas in mind this week. I, too, was first suspect of the scope, Leupold or not.

 

[Jaegermeister]

A little more input

I use an 870 Wingmaster with a 24-inch Hastings barrel with the cantilever mount and an older Tasco World Class 1.5 to 5x. I can get 2.5 inches at 100 yards and sometimes the same hole at 50 yards using Barnes Expanders from Federal.

He is going to find which ammo that slug gun likes. I would recommend the Remington Copper Solids in the Rem barrel. Also, YOU DO NOT NEED 3-INCH MAG SLUGS. The 2 3/4 slugs are all that is needed for deer.

Even though the 11-87 is a semi, might it be that the shooter is to blame with fliching? Do you both shoot the same gun to compare for a fair comparison?

Getting the front nut tight is very important. Also is getting scope mount and everything secure as stated before. Locktite works well.

I was also wondering about the magnification of the scope. I would not recommend a 3-9x as the magnification is too high for slug gun ranges. A fixed 2.4, 4 or 1.5-5x would be better. Holo-sights are also pretty neat on slug guns.

When walking, I always back down to low power just in case a running shot presents itself. I only use the 5x when sighting in at 100 yards. If I do crank it up, I usually only go to about 3x.

If your friend gets frustrated with his 11-87 and still wants to go all out, there are some neat bolt-action slug guns out there that shoot really well.

When is deer season in your state? I always recommend making a hunting purchase in late July so all bugs are worked out and you are proficient by September. Then you can go hunt other things, go to the range and double-check everything one last time before slug deer season.

 

[yankytrash]

Well, he's decided to sell/give away the entire 11-87 slug barrel works, scope and all. Can't say as I blame him. A gun combo so persnickety on ammo selection is more for a tinkerer, not a serious hunter. He used to be on a winning skeet team, and also lays claim to having dropped hundreds of deer in his life, so skill isn't really the issue. Heck, admittedly, I'll hand him a gun on occasion to sight it in for me, to see what the gun is capable of; he's a crack-shot.

Maybe I'll buy the Leupold and slap it on one of the FALs. I've been wanting to turn one of'm into a easy-longrange gun for them days I'm feelin a bit lazy behind the sights.

 

[Al Thompson]

give away the entire 11-87 slug barrel works, scope and all.

Want my address? I can afford the give away part...