The 100 yard 870 - how?

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mattw

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I've been seeing alot about 100 yard shots with smoothbore pumps, some people seem to be pretty good at it. My question is how to get consistant accuracy out of my 870 express for 100 yard shots with slugs.

I know i need to buy a bunch of different slugs and see wich one works best in my gun and my barrel. But what barrel do i get? would a 20" smoothbore rifle sights RemChoke barrel be good? I would like to stick with smoothbore barrels because i like the versatility. Should i use 3" full power slug loads for this or could I use 2 3/4 loads?

Is that all i need? a good barrel and ammo that the barrel does well with? are there some tricks to 100 yard shotgun accuracy?

I know i can shoot 100 yards no problem, but can my shotgun?
 
Your 870 can do it. I put some simple rifle sights on mine and I can keep 'em all on paper picnic plate at a 100 yards or so when I'm in practice.
Biker
 
I put a Hastings cantilever rifled barrel,laminated thumbhole stock and laminated forearm,Simms recoil pad and Nikon scope on an 870action.With sabot slugs I can shoot a 5 shot 3" group at 150
 
biker, what kind of barrel do you have on your 870? what kind of slugs do you use?
 
The 870 is smoothbore and Parkerized with a rib and rifle sights, 20" barrel, black synthetic furniture, so to speak. This year, I used the new Wichester 2 3/4 1oz slugs advertised at 1600 fps. They hurt some after a while. They group well, about 7", but nearly any slug I've shot through her will stay on the paper plate. We have a special Whitetail hunt here in which shotguns are acceptable and I always drop one with one shot although I've never had to shoot one over 50 yards away. Strangely, with the new Winchester slug I tried this year, I recovered the slug on the other side of the deer just under the skin. It was slightly deformed. This is the first time I've ever rcovered a slug. They've always gone through and through.
Biker
 
on my 870 express (all standard 18" that has been vang comped)... and standard bead sights, i put 5 rounds in about an 8" group without really trying hard... (felderal slugster rifled slug rounds)
 
damascusblade5 said:
I put a Hastings cantilever rifled barrel,laminated thumbhole stock and laminated forearm,Simms recoil pad and Nikon scope on an 870action.With sabot slugs I can shoot a 5 shot 3" group at 150
Click to expand...

I've always wondered how that can be called a "shotgun", but hey, laws are laws.:)

And it's absolutely amazing what a variety of guns you can turn an 870 receiver into!
 
Factory 870- 20 inch deer barrel w/rifle sights, screw in rifled choke + Winchester 2 3/4 1oz maximum rifled slug.

I covered the 6 inch bull with the front sight, slowed my breathing and squeezed the trigger on the exhale... put the slug right through the X in the daimond shaped bull (rifle sight-in target with vert and horiz. orange lines, diamnod bull) ... put the shotgun away before someone asked me to do it again.

But a 6 inch group at 100 yards is pretty good.
 
Sure you can do it, as the other guys have said. Just make darn sure you keep your magazine cap threaded very tightly. If it gets the least bit loose, your barrel/receiver fit becomes sloppy and accuracy suffers.
 
Not just 870s or 12 ga either.

One has to find out what slugs their bbl / choke prefers same as for pellet loads.

One of the fun things I like to do is lob slugs from a .410 single shot.

Dr.Rob ...

Kids sometimes feel like a .410 is a "kids gun", feel "talked down to". So as I do with a .22 lr (handgun or rifle) shoot a full soda and the kids see the spray and ragged hole. Demonstrates and re-enforces the idea these .22 and .410 are dangerous, deserve repect, 4 Rules and all that.

So the kids have seen this demonstration and are shooting with other adults. Me and some others are lobbing slugs at a 5 gal bucket "out yonder".

I get this kid with a impish grin with a full soda. "Mister, can you hit this can way out yonder with my new gun? [.410 single shot]

"I cannot see that can that far out". I thought I was off the hook...stupid me.
Kid gets a 2 liter bottle and has filled it with water. His mom is grinning, and now all the kids want to see this bottle hit "out yonder".

Damn kids...parents were not helping either.

That kid kept running out, [is he ever gonna stop?] about 100 yds. I got lucky and hit the durn thing on first try.


Never overlook Lady Luck...never.

That day some kids learned how lethal .22 and .410s are and hey are not "just for kids".


WOW! did you guys see what MY new gun did?

I learned parents are worse than kids on challenges and putting one on the spot. :D
 
Rifled barrel

In Ohio,we can't use rifles for deer.I could squirrel hunt with my Ruger 405 if I felt like it,but no deer.A rifled barrel is totally legal and as close to a rifle as we can get.
 
With my Maverick88, 18-1/2" cylinder bore barell, plain bead sight, I can usually keep them 4"-5" @ 50 yards.

If I had the rifle-sghted barell, I could probably hold that to about 6"-8" @ 100 yards.

MY shotty likes the PMC Brand 2-3/4" slugs the best, but Your Mileage Will Vary.

A shooting buudy was busy wearing out a paper plate @ 75 with his rifle-sighted 870...so yes, it can be done.
 
I can pretty comfortably group slugs in the -0/-1 zone of an IDPA target at 75 yards using my 18" smoothbore, fixed IC 870. Things open up a bit at 100 yards, but not much.

The 'trick' is to (i) find slugs that group well through your barrel and (ii) spend a lot of quality time with your trigger :D
 

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If i did get that 20" rifle sighted smoothbore RemChoke barrel (which is looking better and better every day i read this thread) do you guys think it would be a good idea to try different choke tubes as well? As I understand it regular rifled slugs can be fired from a cyl bore all the way up to a full choke with no problems and no harm to the barrel or choke tube. Also, has anyone tried one of those "sabot discarding" chokes, or a rifled choke? How do they work?
 
I shoot a thirty-year old 870 Wingmaster with a factory slug barrel. No rifling, open sights (which are in the same setting as when out of the box 25 years ago). I've only used the cheap rifled slugs from Federal or Remington and they're very consistent at 100 yards. Minute of paper plate is easy.

A brother-in-law has an old Win. Model 12 that is a precise shooter, too.

JB
 
Heres an idea. If you live in ohio, get those THR guys who developed those rediculous full brass shotguns to sell you one.
 
I've got a Mossberg 500, with a cantilevered scoped mount rifled barrel and if I'm doing my part can produce 3" groups at 100 yrds and 5" groups at 150 yards.

Fartherest I even taken shot at (and dropped) a deer is 88 yrds. Since I got the rifled barrel with scope, never had to fire a second or finishing shot. Fartherest any deer has run is roughly 50 yrds before piling up. I llllllloooovvvveee Winchester Platinium Tip slugs. :D
 
1911JMB said:
Heres an idea. If you live in ohio, get those THR guys who developed those rediculous full brass shotguns to sell you one.
Click to expand...


huh? the whole shotgun made of brass? that wouldn't work. would it?
 
I've got a friend that uses a smoothbore 1100 20 ga with slugs. He's made some shots I consider amazing. Normally, I think what he was telling me was BS, but he's got 5 deer in the Indiana record book.

I know you said smoothbore, but the typical difference between rifled and smoothbore is amazing both in accuracy and trajectory. I sight my 12 ga 870dead on at 125 and it holds baseball sized groups. Ends up being pretty equivalent to a .45-70.
 
Old saying around here- "Ya never know how ya look, until ya get your picture took." In other words, try it... .

I'd suggest Kent/Brenneke KO slugs as an early ammo experiment, the 2 3/4" in ANY slug is all you need. A 20" 870 smoothbore barrel with rifle sights ought to do fine (works better with buckshot too). The newer ones have ImpCyl chokes from the factory, they tend to shoot slugs a little better but a lot of CYL bore barrels do just fine. The tip about being sure the magazine cap is on tight is a good one, tighten it as much as you can with bare fingers, then go _one_ more click with padded pliers.

Be sure the gun fits you and you have a first class recoil pad mounted. Don't do too much shooting at any session, don't shoot from a bench rest. Shoot standing with a rest on a post etc to help you handle recoil better. Sighting in a shotgun with slugs (and that includes ammo testing) is a good way to cultivate a flinch.

Good luck with it,

lpl/nc
 
I know i can shoot 100 yards no problem, but can my shotgun?
Click to expand...

The longest shots I've ever taken were at ~100 yards with my Mossberg 500 at an Adv. Shotgun class. We were all hitting the Pepper Popper? fairly consistently. If I can do it without ever having taken a shot longer than ~20 yards, pretty much everyone else on this forum can too.
 
I am seriously thinking about ordering a remington 870 police with a 20" RS remchoke bbl and 3 round extension from the factory. I was giong to buy a winchester 1300 walnut or 1300 defender while they are still less than $500, but I might just say screw it and buy the 870P
 
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