Nathan67

I have a Remington 870 exp. mag. with a Mod. choke I will be deer hunting with, my first season. My main question is, do i have to have a rifled barrel, and is a Modified choke the right choke? (or does it matter?) Thanks -Nathan

bigcountry

Yea, it will work. If you insist on using that barrel, why not chip in and get a screw in rifled choke? If you plan on using it alot, I would definately get a cantilever scoped rifled barrel. I got tired of passing up 80 yard shots shooting sluggers with a big ole bead from my shotgun barrel. Only took me two seasons when moving to MD to change over. That bead will cover up the whole vitals of a deer at 50 yards. Really knocks the confidence down.

Nathan67

I dont have the cash to get a scoped rifled barrel at the moment, but I can get a rifled choke? Does it help with accuracy?

Vapodog

Rifled slugs are usually available in boxes of five. Buy a box and see how your gun shoots " as is" .....unless you have some serious flaw, you can shoot rifled slugs with the equipment you currently have.

I have a smoothbore shotgun (barrel sawed off to 19" , iron sights added, that shoots well inside of a grapefruit at 40 yards. (cylinder bore.)

You might want to consider that with your current barrel and buy a second barrel with screw in chokes for next year' s upland bird season.

JeramyK

I have a 21" cantilever scoped barrel on my 11-87. I use a rifled choke tube and it' s been good up to 100 yards. I like the convenience of being able to quickly switch to my turkey tube as well.

akbound

Hi Nathan67,

It has been my experience that the biggest issue limiting the effective range of a shotgun with slugs....is the " sighting equipment" . Your shotgun my actually shoot one brand or another of the " Foster style" slugs or Brenneke' s quite well, but if all you have is a shotgun bead you may have difficulty shooting well with it! Shotgun beads and ribs were intended to aid in sighting and shooting " shot" and can do quite well in that regard. But they really do NOT do a very good job at precisely placing a single projectile!

Give it a try and see how you do. Limit your range on deer to the range that you can put all of your shots into a paper plate sized target at the range.....WHATEVER range that may be. If you are willing to do that...then a " beaded" shotgun will work. If on the other hand you are willing to spend between $75. to $100. or so, you should be able to find either a used or a new " smooth bore" barrel with rifle sights. For a little more money you can get a " rifled barrel" with iron sights. Either of those with the appropriate slugs will make a much better deer gun.

If I' m not mistaken....I' ve recently seen that Mossberg is making sighted slug barrels for Remington' s 870. The advantage is that they are less expensive than Remington' s barrel. I honestly think you would be much happier with a barrel with rifle sights as opposed to a shotgun bead. (And of course it may not be as precise as a scoped barrel...but it saves you the cost of a decent scope!)

Good luck....let us know how it turns out!