Remington 870/slugs question

[ndolson]

I have a Remington 870 express magnum w/ 18" smooth cylinder barrel and I was wondering if I can shoot slugs through it? Forgive me if this is a total n00b question, but it's my first shotgun and I don't know a whole lot about them.

If so, what slug shells should I use? My groups at 15m or so with 00 buck are "torso sized" (only shot it at silhouttes) so I figure if I can shoot a slug I may be able to extend my accurate effective range a bit.

 

[Bezoar]

Federal Load, F131RS, nice 3 inch magnum rifled slug. Oddly enough with a crossbow scope on my 3 inch mag 870 with the same improved cylinder barrel you have. I could pop small mouth canning jar lids at 50 yards without much effort.

But as you need to take in accuracy and how well the casings cycle in your gun, your best off testing lots of different ammunition. Should get yourself a B-square saddle mount for a scope, iron sights on that 870 are a joke.

 

[ugaarguy]

With a smooth bore you'll want a rifled slug. The other type is a sabot slug, but these are used with rifled shotgun bbls (or rifled choke tubes).

Slugs are generally sold in boxes of five. I'd recommend getting one box each of several different brands or different loads from the same brand. Over the course of a few days - don't want to wear out the shoulder - see which slug hits closest to the point of aim of your shotgun, and which groups the tightest. Choose the slug that offers the best combination of the two. Also test fire at the same distance as the longest shot you intend to take either inside your house or on your property. You need to what kind of accuracy you get out your gun, and what range your accuracy falls off.

Please ask if there's anything else you need or want to know. Noob questions are fine - we were all newbies once.

 

[BOONER]

The rifle iron sights are more than enough to make hits on human-oid type targets out to 100yds

 

[ndolson]

iron sights on that 870 are a joke.

What, you mean the single front bead sight?!?!?!?!

I'd like a ghost ring setup or something.

 

[Bix]

iron sights on that 870 are a joke

I replaced the factory iron sight setup on my 870 with XS Standard Dot Express sights. For a fighting gun, they are more than adequate.

ndoldson, buy several different brands of slugs and hit the range. You will likely find one or two brands print better than the others.

 

[Fred Fuller]

ndo,

You might find that you can do pretty well with a bead sight- give it a try before you start worrying about more complex and expensive solutions to a problem you might not have.

I'd suggest you stay away from 3" slugs, unless you have to fend off brown bears. Plain old 2 3/4" slugs will do fine. I have been pleased with Brenneke KO slugs for some years now. They are plenty accurate and don't cost a whole lot.

Do your evaluations shooting from a standing rest- benching a shotgun with slugs as if it were a .22 is a good way to develop a flinch...

Stay safe,

lpl/nc

 

[redneck2]

You might think about some reduced recoil slugs. 3" slugs are brutal. Also, make sure you've got a GOOD recoil pad. Makes a world of difference. Some guns couldn't hit a barn from the inside, and some are very good with rifled slugs.

 

[ndolson]

OK, another possibly dumb question. What does a rifled slug accomplish on a smooth bore barrel?

3" slugs are brutal

More brutal than say, a 3" magnum of 00 buck?

 

[rkh]

The "rifling" allows the slug to more easily deform if fired from a gun with a tight choke.

More brutal than say, a 3" magnum of 00 buck?

An ounce of lead is an ounce of lead. It doesn't matter whether it's birdshot, buckshot, or slugs.

 

[kellyj00]

on a cylinder bore shotgun you could shoot just about anything. I've heard concerns that shooting steel shot through a choked barrel could knock the choke tubes around if not mash the threads, but that was just gun shop gossip.

You could probably load that cylinder bore with nails or rocks and it wouldn't hurt it. DON"T TRY IT! I'm just saying, a cylinder bore is solid as it comes.

I used to have a Mossberg 500 with 20" cylinder bore, I discovered the winchester 12ga rifled slugs at walmart are a lot of fun. Shoot one across a field and you can watch it hit the ground in the distance and kick up a bunch of dust, pretty cool. They also were $6 for 15 of them back in 2001. We shot the snot out of them.... after the first 10 or so your shoulder is so numb that you may as well keep shooting.

If you've got a 3.5" magnum or two laying around, load them up deep in your magazine tube and hand the gun off to a friend. after a few rounds of 2.75" shells he'll hit that 3.5" and you'll get a laugh.

 

[Fred Fuller]

No dumb questions here...

As was noted, the 'rifling' on rifled slugs allows them to deform enough to get through chokes. 'Rifling' doesn't really impart spin to the slug- shotgun slugs are stablilized by air resistance in flight, like a badminton shuttlecock. They are designed with weight at the front. The Foster designs are hollow based, the Brennekes have an attached wad at the base to work sort of like the fletching on an arrow.

Hope this helps,

lpl/nc

ETA:If you've got a 3.5" magnum or two laying around, load them up deep in your magazine tube and hand the gun off to a friend. after a few rounds of 2.75" shells he'll hit that 3.5" and you'll get a laugh.

DON'T DO IT. It's cruel, sadistic and may well turn off a new shooter's interest in shotguns. It's a bad idea (and potentially dangerous) to load shells in a magazine for which a shotgun is not designed/chambered- not that many shotguns have 3.5" chambers.

Jason, that is not a High Road suggstion.

 

[GRIZ22]

You might think about some reduced recoil slugs. 3" slugs are brutal.

The reduced recoil slugs are fine for HD and probably most hunting applications. The reduced recoil slugs travel about 1300 fps vs 1600 fps for the full power. I guarantee if you hit most targets with a slug at 1300 fps it will swear that slug was doing 1600 fps.

 

[noeyedeer]

I tried just using the bead on my 870 Express 18" with 2.5" Remington sluggers at 80y. I would not want to be on the receiving end, even compared to .223. Neglidegable drop.

 

[innerpiece]

great info in this thread, thanks to all the contributors!


ip.

 

[redneck2]

We deer hunted for years with smooth bore shotguns with bead sights. I got my first deer (11 pt., 213#) with a 16 gauge bolt with a Poly Choke that was opened as far as it would go. That gun would shoot like a rifle. Super accurate. We could hit pop cans at 30 yards about every shot. I had an 1100 that couldn't hit a 5 gallon bucket at the same distance. Just depends on the gun/slug combo.

 

[Kingcreek]

I deer hunt with an 870 set up with a smooth bore IC choke and iron rifle sights. works fine out to about 100 yards but 80 or less is my preference.
Mine shoots best with plain ol remington sluggers. 4-5" groups at 100 yards from the bench.

 

[kmrcstintn]

my potential setup:

started w/ Remington 870 12 ga SPS-T (older style black synthetic) w/ 20" smoothbore 'turkey' barrel w/ Hi-Viz adjustable sights (came w/ x-full turkey choke; added modified, full, imp cylinder chokes)~~recently acquired Hastings 20" rifled slug barrel w/ cantilever mount & added Mueller 2-7 x 32 Multi-Dot shotgun/muzzleloader scope

smoothbore: 20" barrel; Hi-Viz sights; imp cyl choke; Federal Premium 'TruBall' Reduced Recoil rifled slugs

rifled: 20" barrel; Mueller scope; Lightfield 'Lite' reduced recoil sabot slugs

optic mounted rifled slug barrel is primary; open sight smoothbore slug barrel is backup if optics get jarred or dropped

 

[Dave McCracken]

Jason, I'm with Lee on this one.

Inflicting pain on one's buddies is uncool. Doing it to a new shooter is quite counter productive.

 

[GRIZ22]

You might find that you can do pretty well with a bead sight- give it a try before you start worrying about more complex and expensive solutions to a problem you might not have.


Shooting slugs with a decent degree of accuracy with only bead sights is not all that difficult. I was LE Firearms Instructor and the agency I spent 27 years with would qualify with the shotgun using slugs. Most of our shotguns had only bead sights and most of the shooters shot 60 rds a year with the shotgun (5 slugs for qual and 10 00 for familiarization four times a year). I would say about half the shooters could shoot a 6" group at 50 yds with bead sights which all in all is not bad.