!!!!!!!!!Rifled Choke!!!!!!!!!!!! Good Idea or not?

[Christopher Quast]

I am going shotgun hunting this year and will be borrowing (possibly buying) my brother-in-laws Mossberg 500 20 guage and the gun has a non-rifled slug barrel on it now and I was thinking of putting a rifled choke in it for longer range accurate shooting. I really dont want to buy a rifled barrel for it especially if I cant buy it after the season. I would like to hear your comments on using just a rifled choke. Do they work and are they accurate and if so which slugs shoot the best through them.

[picksbigwagon]

How far are you thinking of shooting? almost all of my slug shots are within 100 yards. If you BIL puts some time in and gets some sights for his barrel rib, he should be okay in hitting an 8" paper plate pretty consistently at 75 yards and maybe even more. It really depends on how much practice he puts in. My buddy is pretty accurate with his 870 12 ga. smooth bore, but he shoots it quite a bit, starting usually sometime in July.

[96trigger]

I know at leat two people that used them and ended up buying a rifled slug barrel in the end. I think to get the true accuracy and distance from a sabot, you need the full rifling. I think it can help, but when you are spend 3-5 times the amount on sabot slugs, you want to get the most out of them. You will have to try and see what you can and cannot get out of them. I know a lot people will shoot the old foster style slugs out of smooth bore barrels and feel comfortable to 75 yards, I don't know if you are going to get much more than that out of a rifled choke.

Also, if the mossberg has a slug barrel on it, be sure that even has the threads for a rifled choke, every slug barrel that I have seen lacks the threads to install a choke. If it were me, I'd shoot the brenneke's or federal tru-balls out of the smooth bore and see where that takes you. The brennekes have some spin that helps with flight, while the truballs use a wad to help stabilize the slug. Just my thoughts, there might be others out there that have had great luck with the rifled choke, but still, you better check and see if you even have the threads on the barrel or use the vent rib with the rifled choke. You will have to play around with it. I shot smoothies for many years, I have since switched to rifled barrels for my beretta 390 and winchester 1300, I will never go back.

[Christopher Quast]

Hey thanks guys, picks I was prolly thinking around 100 yds and 96trigger Thanks this sounds like some great advice I never thought about checking the barrel for threads I know the bird barrel has them but not sure about slug barrel though.

Have you shot the truballs yet? If so how do they group out of your gun? Actually I have a model 1300 WIN of my dads that I could use otherwise I have an IC choke for it. Last time I shot it though seemed like a scatter gun with slugs.

Can you guys suggest some nice fiber optic sights for the mossberg slug barrel?

[96trigger]

TruGlo makes the fiber optics sights for most of the slug barrels. You can find them at just about anywhere. Don't worry so much about distance, its nice to be able to reach out and touch a deer at a great distance, but if you use your bowhunting strategies, you can be accurate with just about any slug within 50 yards, just remember, like bow hunting, the closer the better. Too bad you can't find a rifled barrel for the winchester, for me, that is a deer killing machine. Other memebers of our hunting group have nicknamed it "Deer Hog", because it can really stack them up. I even have a magazine extension for it, but haven't put it on in two years, I don't need the extra shots anymore.

I have shot the brennekes and really liked them. They had great knockdown power and I thought more accurate down range. I have personally never shot the tru-balls. But I have heard only good things about them, and I am not a big federal guy. If I was going to use a smoothbore, I'd probably buy a box just to see if they shot better than the brenekkes.

[picksbigwagon]

a buddy in Iowa uses a mossberg 500 20 ga with the truballs and loves them. of course they do a lot of drives and most of his shots are within 40 yards. They do make a slug barrel for the 500, check out GM, cabelas, even walmart has them, roughly 170 bucks. 96 is right, think of smoothbore slug hunting as bowhunting, and you will be fine

[smilee_54]

fleet farm has the barrels for cheaper around 120 with the fiber optic sights

[slabchaser]

rifled choke is a gimmick throw down the money for a rifled barrel. or save your money til next year and then buy one.

[Doug Smotherman]

Buy a H&R ultra sluger. 12 or 20 they shoot great and only cost abot $200. They will shoot with rifled moss,win or rem. Accuracy wise the only slug gun that will out shoot them are tar-hunts.