Remington 1100 as HD gun?

[chhodge69]

First of all I'm more or less a shotgun novice. I found a great deal on an older Remington 1100 in great shape and took it to the range just to test it - it goes bang and cycles just fine. I'm just more comfortable using a pump action SG so I had every intention to sell or trade it for a pump HD gun.

Today at the gun show I found a 21" rifled slug barrel for next to nothing and now I wonder how viable this gun is as a HD weapon? I am not going to add gadgets and make it tacticool, but rather

1) Is it advisable for an inexperienced shotgunner to choose a semi-auto Rem 1100 for home defense?
2) if so, what condition would you recommend storing it? (loaded/chambered/safe/etc)
3) Is a rifled barrel a problem with buckshot at in-house distances? My longest longest LOS is about 40'
4) All my slugs are rifled - can I shoot them through a rifled barrel?

any thoughts or advice?

 

[Arkansas Paul]

1) Is it advisable for an inexperienced shotgunner to choose a semi-auto Rem 1100 for home defense?

I don't see why not. It's a good choice IMO.

2) if so, what condition would you recommend storing it? (loaded/chambered/safe/etc)

Depends on what you feel comfortable with. I have a young child, so I have my shotty with the magazine full and an empty chamber. If I had no children, it would be hot.

3) Is a rifled barrel a problem with buckshot at in-house distances? My longest longest LOS is about 40'

I wouldn't do it. I would imagine it would damage the rifling, but I'm not 100% on that.

4) All my slugs are rifled - can I shoot them through a rifled barrel?

Rifled barrels are best with sabots. I doubt you'd have very good results with rifled slugs through a rifled barrel. I don't know if it would hurt or not.

 

[bbq fan]

I have little experience with the 1100, but have some time the 870. I do not keep a live round in the chamber for several reasons. This is another fail safe should the safety be off, and trigger pulled to the rear; or dropped upon a hard surface... (The shotgun could truely remove limbs at certain distances.)

I suggest you spend some of your saving on patterning your new shotgun, as well as attending a local shotgun course taught by an NRA instructor. When you take the class, show up with your quality sling and flash light already mounted. It will be well worth it.

 

[FIVETWOSEVEN]

I have almost the same exact gun that you have but mine is a smooth bore and a mag extentsion that I added after buying it. It sits next to my bed loaded with 6 + 1 shells of #4 Buck. I actually traded my 870 for it because I decided I prefered a Semi over a pump. Its a wonderful gun just that I would recommend getting a smoothbore barrel as the rifling will ruin shot pattern but it won't be damaged if you don't. Replace the rifled slugs with sabot slugs and you'll be fine in that aspect.

 

[mnrivrat]

My 2 cents worth : No problem shooting buckshot, or your rifled slugs, from the rifled barrel. That is no problem because of the distances you are looking at for HD.
Not that a smooth bore wouldn't be a better choice but you will not damage the rifled slug barrel, you will just get differnt patterns , and possibly some lead fowling to make cleaning a little more of a chore. At 40' or less the pattern difference will not be a problem IMO.

Remington 1100 is a very reliable auto shotgun as long as you stick with proper loadings for it, and do proper maintenace.

 

[Eric F]

1) Is it advisable for an inexperienced shotgunner to choose a semi-auto Rem 1100 for home defense?
Yes as the gun will cycle its self, inexperience with a pump often leads to short strokes

2) if so, what condition would you recommend storing it? (loaded/chambered/safe/etc)
No kids in the house? if not the onlything a bad guy need hear is the gentle click of the safety coming off. Other wise load the tube but not the chamber.

3) Is a rifled barrel a problem with buckshot at in-house distances? My longest longest LOS is about 40'
I would think it wouls screw the patern all up. Sell the rifled barrel or keep it for hunting, get a screw in choke smoothbore 18-20in

4) All my slugs are rifled - can I shoot them through a rifled barrel?
I have heard this answered yes and no, personaly I do not know but if you did I would think it would lead to heavy leading in the barrel, I would not do this.

any thoughts or advice?
if its a good price you can not go wrong get it, go some place safe and shoot it a bunch learn to load reload shoot and patern the gun. At 40' your spread wont be much maybe 10-15 inches let us know what you do.

 

[chhodge69]

Reviving this old thread with further questions... same gun same topic.

I still have the old 1100 in the safe but the rifled barrel is long gone. I now have a chance to buy an extra smooth-bore barrel so I may revive this project. What are the odds of this gun cycling properly if I cut a 26" fixed IC non vent-rib barrel down to 20"? Can it be done reliably? Any advice?

Thanks

 

[Virginian]

If you cut it that much you may/probably will have to open the gas ports slightly to get reliable operation, but you won't know til you try. Not hard to do, just don't over do it. Go up one drill size at a time with the lightest loads you want to shoot. One time USUALLY does it.

 

[mnrivrat]

I think the majic number is about 22" minimum.

It is not only the amount of gas regulated by the port size, but the timing, regulated by the distance between the muzzle and the gas port.
Shorter than 22" is a gamble that may cost you a barrel.

 

[Sav .250]

That combo will work....... No problem. Buck shot for HD is a deadly option.

 

[RickMD]

You'll notice that the shortest barrel that Remington offers for the 1100 is 21". A friend of mine, a Remington sales rep at the time, told me that Remington found any barrel under 21" to be unreliable due to the design of the gas system. You may find that opening the gas port as Virginian suggests would improve functioning with a shorter barrel but then you'd be rolling the dice insofar as reliability with different loads is concerned. 21" is fairly short to begin with and cutting off an additional 2" - 3" to me doesn't seem to be worth the effort or the possible irreparable damage that you might do to a perfectly good barrel.

 

[snooperman]

The 20 ga 1100 youth gun is used by..

a young man who works on a neighbors farm. After shooting it , I was impressed with it as a home defense gun. It was light but with a mild recoil, even with buckshot loads. Try shooting that same load in a 20 ga pump and their is a big difference. It is a good choice.

 

[snooperman]

+1 on barrel length

As others have stated, you will need about 22" for proper functioning and a "Smooth" bore for acceptable patterns with buckshot loads.

 

[MtnCreek]

I have an 1100 with a factory short barrel (~22") and it's a little picky on ammo compaired to another 1100 w/ a 28" barrel. That said, it's picky about cheap / LV shells; it shoots feochie (yea, spelled wrong..) HV bird shot like a champ. If it were me, I'd try to trade or sell and purchase for a shorter barrel.

Since this was purchased used, I would swap out the o-ring prior to using for HD, even if it shoots fine as-is.

 

[CoRoMo]

My 18" TAC-2 runs like a waterfall. From the light target loads, field loads, buckshot and slugs, it hasn't stopped. If it's picky, I'm going to have to do a lot of shopping to find whatever it is that it won't eat.

 

[FIVETWOSEVEN]

I had a Remington 1100 with a 21" barrel that served as my HD gun till I sold it. It works just fine for HD.

As others have stated, you will need about 22" for proper functioning and a "Smooth" bore for acceptable patterns with buckshot loads.

Mine with a 21" barrel worked fine with slugs and buck or are you talking about birdshot as well?

 

[Virginian]

I'm not home so I can't check, but I think the Remington factory short barrels have bigger gas ports.

 

[PT92]

Personally I would call Remington Support. I have talked to them a few times and they were both prompt and helpful--if anyone's curious as to why I had to contact them I bought a new 1187 and my first shot resulted in a dusted clay but no ejection--turned out I had to manually take it home and polish the chamber with a drill and steel wool after which it was and has been the best semi-automatic shotgun I have ever fired (though my Saiga 12 is really sweet). Shot-shell hulls swelled up as they should but Remington allowed the gun to leave the factory with incorrect chamber specs. Quality-Control sucks across the board in this world we live in today as all that matters is the bottom line.

Back to your OP (and sorry for the tangent but I had to rant ), call them and determine if gas port adjustment will be required.

-Cheers