Slug Shooting

[dak0ta]

Hi,

I was wondering if it's better to get a 20" smooth bore barrel for slugs as opposed to a 20" rifled barrel for sabot slugs.

I'm leaning towards the smooth bore so I can also fire buckshot out of it, but I'm not sure of the practical accuracy of rifled slugs.

Do most 870 smooth bore 20" barrels come threaded for chokes? Would adding a rifled choke help with rifled slugs? Sabot slugs?

 

[Sunray]

Buck shot is useless past 30 yards. It's not reliable under that either. Sabotted slugs are made for rifled barrels. Rifled slugs are for smooth bores and can give astounding 100 yard accuracy. Depends on the slug, of course.
"...Do most 870 smooth bore 20" barrels come threaded for chokes?..." Depends on what model you have. A 20 guage Wingmaster does. An Express does not.
Rifled slugs, as daft as it sounds, have the rifling on the slug. A rifled choke won't matter. Might help with a sabot slug. They're usually heavy jacketed bullets is a plastic sabot and are made for rifled barrels only.

 

[Dave McCracken]

One 20" RS barrel with Remchokes here has an amazing track record with maybe 20 kills on it. A rifled tube and KOs gives under 4" at 100 yards.

A IC or Skeet tube resides in that barrel outside the season. With the pet Estate load, 25 yard 00 patterns run 16-20". Good enough for my purposes.

Without the rifled tube, patterns open up an inch or two.

HTH....