shotgun hunting

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lilrinn1019

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New to the forum Guys so heres my first question. since MA is a shotgun only state for deer, what will give me better accuracy out of my shotgun a fully rifled barrel of shooting rifled slugs. i have shot rifled slugs before never for hunting just for range fun and its pretty accurate. i was just wondering how much of a difference the rifled barrel will make
 
im thinking i should get the barrel because with the rifled slugs out of my smoothbore i can only dream of 200 yard shots lol
 
yea im gonna get the remington 870 express combo gun. the only other shotgun i have is an old wingmaster that is way too pretty to bring in the field. dont wanna beat it up seeing that it was my first gun ive ever had. the old man gave it to me and since then i have loved the 870s
 
You will definately get better than "pretty accurate", with the saboted slugs, but you may need to try more than a few different brands and types of slugs.

Kind of expensive, but worth it once you find the sweet spot.

Lower part of lower Michigan is the same way. Its more fun hunting "Up North" though.....with rifles...
 
I got by for 30 years using a smoothbore with scope. Then the woods grew up and shots came mostly over 50 yards rather than under 50 yards as before. Now I shoot a TC Encore with Remington sabots and get 3'' groups at 100 yards with a 7x scope and 57 year-old eyes. Match the gear to the conditions.
 
If you get a Remington or Mossberg, fully rifled barrels are available by the handfulls.

Buy a shotgun in the smooth barrel configuration, get a saddle type scope mount for it and see how it shoot rifled slugs, you may be very suprised. Some smooth barrels shoot sabot type slugs very accuratley too!

If either type slug doesn't shoot very well then you can buy the rifled barrel set up.
 
When I lived in Wisconsin, I would use a Mossberg 500 with the rifled barrel and a red dot scope. I killed a few at 100+ yards (standing) and had no problem dispatching them with the Federal 2-3/4" sabots.
 
In a lot of those states, you are allowed, also, to shoot BP rifles in deer season, not sure about YOUR state. Given that option, I'd go BP as I like BP hunting. You can extend ranges to 200 yards with some combos of gun/load, the powerbelts and that with good BCs. But, I sticlk to 100 or a bit more with mine and shoot cast Lee REAL bullets in my CVA. I just got it last year, so I haven't shot anything with it, yet. Wife passed away last summer and I really wasn't in a hunting mood last season, but I'm getting ready for this season. I can use rifles here, but rifle hunting got boring and I've been there, done that with handguns. I would go archery, but archery season is HOT and when it's wet (not this year), the skeeters are miserable. I'm just not going to mess with that. LOL

Anyway, if you HAVE to use a shotgun, get a rifled barrel and some sub caliber sabot slugs. That is your most accurate and fartherest shooting set up. 12 gauge, of course.
 
New England (H&R) makes some dandy single shot, fully rifled shotguns. They shoot well and they are light for eay carry. The recoil? That can be a concern.
 
I have a 10 gauge H&R. It's the frame on which the 12 gauge rifled barrel is used for their slug gun. The thing is 9 lbs in 10 gauge and the 12 gauge has a bit thicker barrel. 3.5" steel T shot ain't too bad in that 10. I've fired nearly a box in a morning (fantastic hunt) in that thing, sore shoulder next day, but not too bad.
 
im usually the odd man out when it comes to this subject. i recently switched to fully rifled barrel but i refused to switch to sabot slugs. whenever i needed ammo all i could ever find were $15 a box sabots and the bulk packs of winchester & remington foster type slugs (which i had previously been using in my smoothbore with pathetic accuracy). some of the guys in my hunting group were using the bulk slugs with rifled barrels and suggested that i do the same. once i found a decent deal on a rifled barrel i tried my bulk slugs. i was expecting some serious leading but it wasnt that bad. accuracy was greatly improved as well. i resolved to simply scrub the bore really well after shooting.

shortly after the season began i found a local guy who carried a few types brenneke slugs. one that i was most interested in was the green lightning. they are made of a harder lead that i was totally unable to scratch with my fingernail. i picked up three boxes and figured i would give them a shot on the last weekend of the season. i shot a few in practice and accuracy was great. a three shot clover leaf at 50 yards and thanks to the harder lead...no leading left in the barrel! their performance on deer was also much improved over the softer lead slugs, all in all it was a total homerun! they do cost a little more than the bulk packs but they are nowhere near as bad as sabot prices.

for a while i did concider breaking out the muzzle loader and just using that, but we hunt as a group driving deer and help fill each other's tags. it is not at all uncommon to find yourself in a position where you are expected to make two or three fast and accurate shots within just a few seconds. not gonna happen with a muzzleloader.

as far as the difference in accuracy, that will vary by gun. i have shot smoothbores that shot really good and would not gain enough of an improvement in accuracy to make it worth it. my shotgun on the otherhand shot terribly with a smoothbore. mine shot around 6-7" groups at 50 yards before i swapped barrels. the price of the new barrel was well worth the improvement for me.
 
i was looking at the express combo gun because its way cheeper than buying a smoothbore and then a seperate rifled barrel does this sound look a good way to go ??
 
I have tried many different sabots in my moss 500 with a fully rifled bbl while accuracy was ok with some none were as accurate as plain old rifled slugs. The only problem is that the slugs are pretty soft and tend to splatter when they hit hard bone or the shoulder plating on big boar hogs but they do a decent job on deer. I think the litefield slugs sound like a good compromise guess ill have to do some more testing ( I love testing ).
T
 
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