I have a 870 with a 26" barrel. I want a shorter barrel with rifle sights. I was thinking about getting the 20" Remington rifle barrel with the iron sights. This barrel is a smooth bore with screw in chokes. Do you think it would pattern any good. Or do the regular turkey barrel have something special done to them?
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"public land will make a turkey hunter out of ya"
I think what you'll have to do is try different choke tubes for this gun. With the right choke, you can make most any gun shoot well, however, well could be from excellent to fair. You'll just have to do some testing.
dog1
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It ain't the killing, it's the going and doing.
I think I'm right with this: With todays' powders, it all burns up fast in the barrel and you don't lose energy with short barrels as in the ole days. So to make the gun shoot well you need a good choke tube to hold the pattern at a given distance, takes some testing. I've got shotguns with, 20, 21, 24, 26, and 28 inches, some with and without choke tubes. Each has it's purpose, or did when I bought them. Now days you can just about take one shotgun, choke it right, use the right shells, and make it do just about anything you want it to do.
dog1
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It ain't the killing, it's the going and doing.
Mr. L, I did what you are thinking about only I got the scope mount barrel. Either way, it makes for a fine turkey gun with that 20" barrel. With the scope, I use an IC choke and some slugs to get the scope dialed in. Then I switch to my turkey choke to check patterning and then start hunting. Works great.
before polychoke and screw-in choke tubes came along,length of barrel meant something because the standard 26" barrel was an improved cylinder[for quail hunting] a 28" barrel was modified choke for all around hunting and a 30" barrel was a full choke[for ducks,geese,squirrel and long range shooting. yes you could order skeet barrels and different length barrels with other chokes.but now with the screw-in choke systems available on about all guns,you can get as short a barrel as you like and get it to do what you want it to at different distances with different loads and shot sizes.i just sent a 28" browning barrel to CARLSONS CHOKES and had it cut to 22" and a .670 turkey tube installed.i also ordered an imp cyl,mod,full and xtrafull along with the turkey tube.i can now use this gun for about anything i want to hunt.
New barrel for 870
