With a cantilever mount it shouldn't make a difference unless you whack the scope on something when the barrel is off. That is the whole point behind the cantilever set up. You can swap out barrels from slug barrel to shot barrel and not have to re sight in the gun. Now if you were talking about a receiver mounted scope with a removable barrel then yes, in almost all cases you will lose your zero if you remove your barrel, even to clean it.

I know many people with 870 and mossberg 500's with cantilever barrels and they always hold zero after removing and re installing the barrel. And I'm talking guns that shoot around 2 inch groups at 100 yards off from a bench, not minute of deer.

Paul

I'm going to have to agree to disagree with everyone saying it doesn't matter with a cantilever scope. I have two, one on a 1187 and another on a Mossberg 500. Everytime I remove the barrel I always check to make sure I'm good. Like I said in my earlier post, 1. it'll only take a few shots to make sure your sighted in, if your worried about the cost of a fewslugs maybe you shouldn't hunt, and 2. You owe it to the deer. Thats just my 2 cents......

Well thats an extreme rarity. There's a good reason tarhill and other custom sluggers pin these barrels. Its a rarity to take out a barreled actionfrom even a properly bedded gun out of a fine stock and expect it to be within 1.5MOA of where it was.

I have a set up just like yours only it's on a Remington 1100 with a Leopold scope. If I were you I would always re-checkyour zero after putting on the barrel. Not because the scope will be out of adjustment. If it's a quality scope it should hold zero and being mounted to the barrel via a cantilever it should be rock solid.

What does move....and what some have already posted is the fit between the barrel and the receiver. Take ANY Remington shotgun 1100 or 870 and you will be able to move the barrel once it's been installed. There will always be some play between the two, it's just the way it is. Some are tight enough to where you will get a reliable zero time after time, some will need to be rezeroed.......and some, well some won't hold zero from shot to shot, there is just too much play between the barrel and the receiver, especially if your slug barrel is an aftermarket type like hastings etc...Don't get me wrong they are good barrels but the fit is not always perfect.

So, re-check your zero after you put your slug barrel back on, it may be fine.....it may not.

That being said, I don't hunt with that gun. It tends to hold it's zero but I find my Ultra Slug hunter is far more accurate a slug gun, even my Mossberg 695 will out shoot it. Both are far better "slug gun" platforms than the Remingtons especially at longer distances.

I never said not to check it, I check all my guns before any hunt, even my single shots. Just saying the whole point behind the cantilever barrel is that you don't need to re-zero the scope when switching barrels. This is something that came about when people were using reciever mounted scopes and removable barrels.

I see what you are saying, but the scope is mounted directly to the barrel, simply removing it and putting it back should not change anything. Now whether the gun is accurate to begin with is a whole different story. I know way too many guys with cantilever mount systems that work great to say there is something wrong with the system. It's really not much different than the H&R I own, the scope is mounted directly to the barrel and the the barrel hinges from the reciever. Same with many break open high end pellet guns.

Unless I am mistaken the Tar hunt guns and others like it do not use a cantilever mount, they use a reciever mount and pin the barrel so it doesn't move. They better be more accurate, they cost between twice and 4 times as much.

If the cantilever mounts didn't hold zero or were not that accurate I highly doubt they would sell that well. I live in a shotgun only state so pretty much everyone I know uses a shotgun of some sort. It's absolutely no different than a slug barrel with iron sights, except it has optics instead.

Paul

I don't know if you spend much time at gun range Paul.But I do, and every fall Iwould like to have a dollar for every guy who swears hit gun was zero'd when he put it up last year. And now is 5"-3' off. Could be the springs used in the scope. Could be after cleaning.

I would say alot of people on here live in slugbarrel only, so we are not that much different.

Paul, have you played around bedding a barreled action or putting pressure on front of a barrel and saw what happens? Next time you shoot, lay your barrel on your sand bags instead of your forearm and shoot long range. next time you shoot your rifles, put a credit card or thicker material between your barrel and forarm and see what happens.

I have a Benelli Nova with Cantilever Slug barrel and bird barrel and my 14yo uses an 870 20ga with same setup. We both have Bushnell holsights.

We hit the range before the start of the season to verify zeros (and ourselves), then swap barrels many times between deer and bird hunts through the winter. Because the cantilever mount is independent of the receiver (the whole idea of the cantilever mount), swapping barrels has never caused a change for us.

Our guns still had the bird barrels on from last year and I put the Slug barrels on and we went to the range last week. I punched the 10 out of the center at 50 yds. My son's first shot was in the 10 ring.

In the immortal words of Ronald Reagan..."Trust, but verify"

Wow, I can't believe I'm going to disagree with a few certain members on here!

I have a 12 870 with a hastings cantilever barrel and scope.

I don't have to re-zero each year. Maybe it comes down to your rings...maybe it's how you handle the barrel while its off the gun...maybe it has to do with tightening the capscrew the same (I always get it as tight as I can...then I'll use a dry dishrag and make funny faces till I can squeeze one more 'click' out of it.)

You should check zero each year regardless!!!

And since you'll be checking zero each year take comfort in the fact that you will be on paper and it should take no time at all to re-zero if it did move.