Slug Gun

[Big Dave2]

The only thing negative I would have to say about the whole Remington vs. Mossberg discussion is that unless they have recently changed, Mossbergs have a tendancy to rattle when you are carrying it. If you only stand hunt then a Mossberg would probably be OK but I prefer Remingtons. An 870 is almost bulletproof and are really not much more expensive than a Mossberg.

[Kodiak]

well yes i did just yesterday, it was supposed to be bore sighted when i got the scope @cableas. Guess what it wasnt, at 100yds it was 10ft high and 2ft to the right...so after 2.5 boxes i am still 3ft high and 7inches right.. i am just going to take it to gander and have them bore sight since the guy at cabelas must have been crosseyed. it was supposed to be dead on at 100yrds. I found the hornady sst slugs down in iowa this weekend so i am using them now.

[lawdog]

For whatever its worth, boresighting equipment is not very good for shutguns so its hard to do. I have a shotgun/.50 cal arbor for my boresighter and I tried to use it on the set up I have now and it really didn't work worth a darn. I've done many scopes with the various caliber rifle augers and they all went fine, but I couldn't make that thing work on the shotgun... Its expensive sighting in with $8 sabots though!!!

[Hotspotter]

Funny you should mention that. Mine was 2 feet high, 3 inches to the right at 50 yds after they "boresighted" it. I should have known better when I asked them how long it would take, and if I'd be on paper. The response was, "It's an inexact science, and you 'should' be close." In other words, I'm sure they never boresighted it.

Joel

[Hines R]

Remington 870 or Mossberg is a pretty minor debate since they both work really well. I personally shoot an 870 and I prefer the trigger on the Remington's. Neither of the triggers is rifle quality though unless you have some work done by a gunsmith. Get a fully rifled barrel and I would personally recommend you get one with the cantilever scope mount.

The best slug gun made in my opinion is the Ithaca Deerslayer. It was designed with a fixed barrel to the receiver just like a rifle. It's basically a pump slug gun built like a rifle. You can mount the scope directly to the receiver which is designed for it. My hunting buddy has one and I was just cleaning it and oiling it up for the hunting season last night. He lives in Colorado so his slug guns stay in Minnesota. It is an awesome gun. He uses this as a stand gun though. He has a Winchester smoothbore with open sights that he uses for drives. He shoots Brenneke's out of his smoothbore gun and that's what I would recommend for smoothbores.

Lots of different slugs to shoot but I've looked at study's that have been done that found that a 2 3/4 inch slug is much more accurate than a 3 inch slug. The added powder pushes the slug down the barrel to fast and it makes for inconsistency. I switched over to the newest Winchester slugs that had more of a saboted bullet inside with higher speeds. I used these for a year and then switched away from them. I found them to be to inconsistent shooting out of my gun. I have about 18 left and I load them as the 4th, and 5th shots out of my gun.

I really want to give the New Hornady SST slugs a try to see how consistent they are. It's basically a muzzleloader sabot that they designed or put into a shotgun slug now. The Hornady SST is supposed to be a pretty good muzzleloader bullet and I would imagine it would shoot well out of a slug gun with a fully rifled barrel.

I'm actually going to carry my muzzleloader with this year when I'm in my stand. I've got a peep sight on it so it's legal for the true muzzleloader season and it's probably more accurate than my slug gun due to the fact that right now I'm still shooting a Tasco Pro Point red dot type sight without any magnification. If I have the time I bought the any season tag and I might try to slip in a weekend of deer hunting during muzzleloader season. It depends on what we shoot during the regular season though. If your mainly going to be hunting out of stands and not doing drives a TC Omega Muzzleloader would be a great way to go. A TC encore with the ability to put different barrels would be an even better way to go though.

I could talk about slugs and slug guns for hours.

Ryan

[Ole #1]

Thanks for the info Hines.

I'm looking at getting a rifled slug barrel with cantilever mounts for my 11-87, could you tell me roughly what I'll be spending? I would also be looking for a good shotgun scope if you could recomend one and what that might cost.

Thanks

Ole

[CrappieJohn]

When I replaced my old scope with the bushnell trophy on the slug gun, I had the same thing happen at Cabelas. I shot two at shots at ffity yards and knew this was not going to be a good adventure.

I took an empty AA shell and cut the crimp end off. I wrapped scotch tape in two places arond the palstic portin of the casing until it fit very snug in the chamber. Inside the shell case I put one of those el-jap-o-cheap-o laser pointers that I had taped up to fit very snug with the switch on. I aimed at a target dot placed on my archery target and set off at twenty five yards and did my own adjusting using this. When I was done adjusting I popped the light out of the casing and turned it off, cased up the gun with targets and shells and went back to the range. The first shot at fifty yards was 6 inches high. I dropped it to shoot three high at fifty and it is so close to dead nuts at 100 it isn't funny. 5 shots total.

[Hines R]

I'd call around looking for different prices. One of our guys got lucky and got an awesome price a few years ago on a clearance or used Hasting Rifled slug barrel with the ventilated barrel. You could go with either the Remington Rifled slug barrel or the Hasting Rifled slug barrel for you specific gun. Both are great. I think everybody with a Remington in my group of hunters other than the guy with the Ithaca Deerslayer that I covet has a Hasting's rifled slug barrel.

As to scope. Look at all the different scopes but I'll say that after my brother, Dad, and buddy with the Deerslayer all did this they bought the Nikon scope for Shotguns. Worth the money without spending a ton. Remember it's a long term buy, and your probably going to be shooting this gun for years. Spend a little extra to get the right thing. Saves you money in the long run.

As to sighting in. Boresighting might get you on the paper. It's not exact by any means. buy some of the Federal 2 3/4 inch Foster type cheap slugs. Buy like 3 boxes. Shoot these until your getting to within a foot to 1/2 foot of being on. Now switch over to whatever your going to shoot for a Sabot. If you can get somebody else to do the initial shooting so your fresh when you start with the Sabots. I would personally buy 2 boxes of Federal Barnes Expanders in the 2 3/4 inch, and 2 boxes in the Hornady SST 2 3/4 inch. See what groups the best out of your gun and go get more until your sighted in. I personally would lean towards the Hornady's right now, but the Federal's have been proven to be accurate for years and most of our group shoots one of the 2 types of Federal Sabots.

Don't worry to much about getting your gun exactly into the center of the target until you look at what groups the best. Then start the fine tuning process. Make 2 good shots then adjust your sights. 2 good shots again then adjust!

Not sure on pricing. You could look up the Nikon Scope online, and the rifled slug barrels online and that would tell you what you'll spend in about 10 minutes of surfing on Cabelas HSOforum.

Ryan

[Kodiak]

yeah, it would be nice to be at least on the paper, not a STOP SIGN high!!!! oh well...i will have the guys at cabin fever in victoria bore sight it for me so i can at least get on paper and take another couple boxes out of my hornady sst "stash"...I went to my parents house this weekend in iowa and found a sportstore with a boatload of them and i spent a ton of cash, i had to cut myself off...i was getting a little out of control because i have been trying to find them all year! I think i will got back this weekend and get more LOL

[Hines R]

I was going to mention this after I did my last post. I would recommend that you sight in at 50 yards which will help alleviate the inconsistency. Sight in at 50 yards 2 to 3 inches high. Personally I would go with 2 inches high. Even with a rifle I would never start sighting in a gun further out than 50 yards that just had the scope mounted on it. Once your completely sighted in with a slug gun at 50 yards switch out to 100 yards to see how things look their.

Since you started out with a Bore sighted slug gun at 100 yards I would have recommended that you shoot at the side of a barn to figure out where you were hitting. Next time maybe bring out a whole 12 foot section of sheetrock if your going to start at 100 yards.

When I sighted in my muzzleloader I was tacking dimes right where I wanted it to be at 50 yards with 100 grains of powder after my second 4 hour session of shooting. I went to the 100 yard range and found that I was still shooting to many grains of powder. I dropped my powder load down to 90 grains and everything was right where I needed it to be.

Kodiak:

You already know where the gun is shooting so make an adjustment to correct it, and then start sighting it in at 50 yards. Buy 2 boxes of cheap slugs to start. Switch to the SST's when your close.

I'd say on average to get one of these sighted in well I've always shot up about 5 boxes of ammo with 5 to 10 of those shots being the foster type slugs. That's why I'm not switching to the SST's this year. I'll switch when I get my Nikon scope next year and site it in exactly like I just said.

Once you get it sighted in at 50 yards let me know how the SST's we're grouping for you. My main concern is that these won't be accurate out of my gun due to pushing down the barrel to fast which creates inconsistency.

Ryan

[MikeYager - Suzuki]

I've found over the years the vast majority of my shots are 50 yds or less so I sight in at 50 dead on. I then shoot 100 to see where it's at there. I also test at 25 but it's very close to 50. I usually hunt thick woods so close shots are the norm and I want pinpoint accuracy at the range I am most likely to shoot.

[Johnny B]

I am going to try and do a little shopping this weekend. Gander has the “Gander-Bucks” promo going on and that may be tough to beat even if other stores will match their price. I will post the final decision: thanks to all for the input.

Ryan,

By chance do you work at the gun shop located in your hometown?

[Hines R]

I work at a hospital as a medical professional. If I worked at a gun shop I don't think I'd be waiting on the Nikon scope that I'm going to get next year. I did work in the hunt and fish department years ago at Galyan's when I was in graduate school. It was right when they opened here in the twin city's. To be honest I didn't know enough at the time I was working their. Now that I hunt and fish like I do I would be way more qualified but still would need to learn a lot more to really know all the aspects you should know to be an expert.

I'm just way pumped up to go Deer hunting in a few weeks, and wish I could hit Mille Lacs on Friday night with my brother for a little Walleye night fishing. I'm heading out of town tomorrow for work training for a couple of days and will be back early afternoon on Friday, but if I try to go night fishing after being gone the wife will kill me. She's been way understanding lately anyways and I need to be careful not to be abusive. I fished 2 nights last week, and I already have 11 days in the mountain's muzzleloader hunting for elk in September. 6th season of elk hunting and it was the worst ever. We only saw one shootable elk, never heard an elk bugle, and pretty much completely tore the wheel off a Ford Expedition. Had to have it four wheel drive towed off the mountain.

I've got an 11 month old at home, and as stated by the wife I need to be home nurturing my little future hunting, and fishing buddy. You can only call it scouting for the future so long before they start to get the idea you might be full of it.

Ryan

[jake125]

i dont have a rifled barrel should i use sabot slugs in my remington 870

[Hines R]

My buddy who shoots a non rifled Winchester slug gun on drives has always sworn by the Brennekes. They have a stabilizing portion in the back that is supposed to help stabilize them. The have vains on the bullet portion that causes them to spin while in flight.

I wouldn't use sabots in a smoothbore.

He's taken a ton of deer with this gun and the Brennekes. One year he and another guy shot at the same deer. He was pretty sure he had been the one to hit it but didn't really care. All of a sudden we found a lump on the other side of the deer and guess what. It was a Brenneke. Debate pretty much ended right their since the other guy was shooting copper sabots.

Ryan

[irvingdog]

Jake125 No! Then again, you should have had the answer to that by now. The season opens in roughly 48 hours. Get to know how your gun performs before you go to field with it. It is in the best interest of you, your quarry, our past-time and the other 400,000 other people in the woods this weekend.

[Fish On! Guide Service]

Does the B square allow you to see your steel sights also?

[Mr Special]

Not if you're using rifled sights. But if you have a bird barrel, you can still see them. I used to hunt with a bird barrel/cylinder choke and scope setup. All I had to do was take the scope off the rail "don't remove the rings off the scope" and whola it's a bird gun again. Then when I would put the scope back on it was still on target. Still shoot a few round to make sure though.

Good luck this weekend everyone