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Shotgun Accuracy
I just purchased a Remington 11-87 Sportsman Deer in 20 gauge w/ 21" fully rifled barrel. I have a 2x7 scope shooting the 260 grain core-lokt sabot slugs.
How accurate should this be at 50 yds? First time out I was shooting 6 inch groups at $3 bucks a hole, ouch! |
RE: Shotgun Accuracy
Find the right ammo and you might find yourself 6-inch groups at 100 yards.
Every shotgun is different. Gotta experiment with different slugs to wring the most out of them as you would with any gun. |
RE: Shotgun Accuracy
[/align]I'm not too familiar with 20 gauge ammo. Do they have 2 3/4 and 3in like 12 gauge? When I got my fully rifled 12, the 2 3/4 didn't shoot accurately compared to 3in ammo. And it also definitely liked some ammo better than others. At that time, remington copper solids were all the rage, but my gun sure hated them. What worked best for meturned out to be the federal ammo with the barnes expander bullets, but I bruised the hell out of my shoulder trying out every brand of ammo wally world had to offer. It's expensive, but worth it. As for what you should expect, mine overlapped shots at 60 yds with the federal stuff and iron sights, can shoot it accurately to 100 yards under perfect conditions. But every gun is different, and you just might not get those results out of yours. Good luck! |
RE: Shotgun Accuracy
I have the same set up only 12 gauge, you should be doing way better than 6 inch groups at 50 yards. Make sure your scope mounts are tight. I usually shoot a couple of rounds tighten everything shoot a couple more, and so on. I can shoot clover leaf patterns out to 100 yards with plain ole Remington Foster Sluggers. Check your mounts to make sure things didn't loosen up, Make sure you have a decent scope, and practice. It may be your 1187 does not shoot the core locks well.....you may need to change brands of slugs. I going to try some Lightfield slugs this fall. Not because I'm trying to get better groups but the foster slugs leave too much lead in the rifled barrel and it's a pain to clean it out. Good Luck and let us know how your shooting later.
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RE: Shotgun Accuracy
I have the leupold VX-I Shotgun scope. I am heading to cabelas tomorrow to get some of the federal barnes sabot's and will give them a try.
Dumb question, but will the rifled slugs shoot ok in a rifled barrel. I was under the impression that only the sabot will shoot in the rifled barrel? thanks |
RE: Shotgun Accuracy
I would say you only want to shoot sabots with the rifled barrel.
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RE: Shotgun Accuracy
ORIGINAL: mwaite I'm not too familiar with 20 gauge ammo. Do they have 2 3/4 and 3in like 12 gauge? When I got my fully rifled 12, the 2 3/4 didn't shoot accurately compared to 3in ammo. And it also definitely liked some ammo better than others. At that time, remington copper solids were all the rage, but my gun sure hated them. What worked best for meturned out to be the federal ammo with the barnes expander bullets, but I bruised the hell out of my shoulder trying out every brand of ammo wally world had to offer. It's expensive, but worth it. As for what you should expect, mine overlapped shots at 60 yds with the federal stuff and iron sights, can shoot it accurately to 100 yards under perfect conditions. But every gun is different, and you just might not get those results out of yours. Good luck! |
RE: Shotgun Accuracy
My slug gun loves the Federal barnes expanders also.
At 50 yards 5 shots will all cut the same hole around it.As mentioned absolutely make sure all screws are loctited and dried before sighting in as slug guns will really loosen up the screws.Let us know how the new ammo shoots. Mike :D |
RE: Shotgun Accuracy
since you have a rifled barrel... you might also want to consider the Hornady SST slugs. i shoot these out of my 870 epress and can leave all three shots within a 1 and a half inch group at 50 yards with open sights.
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RE: Shotgun Accuracy
ORIGINAL: starhunter21 I have the leupold VX-I Shotgun scope. I am heading to cabelas tomorrow to get some of the federal barnes sabot's and will give them a try. Dumb question, but will the rifled slugs shoot ok in a rifled barrel. I was under the impression that only the sabot will shoot in the rifled barrel? thanks |
RE: Shotgun Accuracy
I used to shoot regular slugs outta my rifled barrel. But after about 3 shots accuracy declines drastically due to all the lead in the rifling. i'd shoot sabots accuracy will be much better
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RE: Shotgun Accuracy
ORIGINAL: life_is_short_hunt_hard since you have a rifled barrel... you might also want to consider the Hornady SST slugs. i shoot these out of my 870 epress and can leave all three shots within a 1 and a half inch group at 50 yards with open sights. |
RE: Shotgun Accuracy
first of all and MOST IMPORTANTLY, you need to find out what twist rate your barrel is.Rem. barrels are usually a 1:28 twist where as Hastings barrels are a 1:34 twist. If your twist is under 1:28, forget about the high speed, light bullet slugs, they simpley will not stabalize and will shoot all over the place. i know slugslike the core lokts and hornadys SST's look pretty, but if you dont have the proper twist rate, dont waste your $$$. On my setup, the bore sizehastings and rem. buckhammer slugs shoot best with the attached sabot tail. witha red dot sight i can shoot 2" groups @ 50yds all day. also, worth a mention are the brenneke golds, they have shot well out of anyslug gun for me.
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RE: Shotgun Accuracy
I have a 20 in 2 3/4 and I use slugs. Groups great at 75 yards with ironsights.
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RE: Shotgun Accuracy
ORIGINAL: ReDoT first of all and MOST IMPORTANTLY, you need to find out what twist rate your barrel is.Rem. barrels are usually a 1:28 twist where as Hastings barrels are a 1:34 twist. If your twist is under 1:28, forget about the high speed, light bullet slugs, they simpley will not stabalize and will shoot all over the place. i know slugslike the core lokts and hornadys SST's look pretty, but if you dont have the proper twist rate, dont waste your $$$. On my setup, the bore sizehastings and rem. buckhammer slugs shoot best with the attached sabot tail. witha red dot sight i can shoot 2" groups @ 50yds all day. also, worth a mention are the brenneke golds, they have shot well out of anyslug gun for me. dd |
RE: Shotgun Accuracy
While we're discussing slugs, if any of you have Brenneke brand slugs, DON'T SHOOT THEM UNTIL YOU HAVE CHECKED THEM OUT!!!! I just opened the new issue of field and stream and they have a recall in there for certain brenneke slugs. I won't try to go into specifics. I don't want to make a typo and cause someone to get hurt thinking that theirs are ok. Just please check it out, look it up on the net or open up field and stream and check it out. I'm also glad to see that I"m not the only one who loves the federal barnes slugs.
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RE: Shotgun Accuracy
ORIGINAL: ReDoT first of all and MOST IMPORTANTLY, you need to find out what twist rate your barrel is. Rem. barrels are usually a 1:28 twist where as Hastings barrels are a 1:34 twist. If your twist is under 1:28, forget about the high speed, light bullet slugs, they simpley will not stabalize and will shoot all over the place. i know slugs like the core lokts and hornadys SST's look pretty, but if you dont have the proper twist rate, dont waste your $$$. On my setup, the bore size hastings and rem. buckhammer slugs shoot best with the attached sabot tail. with a red dot sight i can shoot 2" groups @ 50yds all day. also, worth a mention are the brenneke golds, they have shot well out of anyslug gun for me. Lastley, can you adjust the trigger on the 11-87. I appears to be set at around 6-7 pounds. |
RE: Shotgun Accuracy
UPDATE:
I decided to head down to my local gunsmith today, I wasnt sure how to disassemble completely and wanted to give it a good cleaning, plus I wanted him to adjust the trigger. As he was showing me how to remove the trigger assembly, the feed latch fell out onto the floor. He said this is supposed to be tacked (soldered) to the receiver. Not sure if that affected the accuracy or not, it is not a good thing to have happen. Luckily I found out before heading to the range again. |
RE: Shotgun Accuracy
ReDoT, interesting findings concerning twist rate of your barrel. Normally, the faster the twistrate of the barrel, the more, not less, easily you stabilize bullets. I had a T/C Thunderhawk muzzleloader with a 1:34 twist, and was able to shoot the .44 cal. saboted Hornady XTP 300 grain bullets really well. My friends shooting Hawkins, with the 1:48 twist couldn't hardly stabilize anything but real light (short) bullets, and roundballs. Guns that shoot balls the best, are normally really slow twist guns, like Kentucky long rifles with 1:66 twist rates. I am sure you can over stabilize a bullet with a really fast twist rate, just not sure how fast is too fast. The 1:28 twistrate is fantastic. Pretty sure all Knight muzzleloaders, and most sabot designed guns sport a twist rate similar to the 1:28.
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RE: Shotgun Accuracy
ORIGINAL: DoctorDeath ANY IDEA WHAT THE TWIST RATE IS ON AN ITHICA DEER SLAYER IS? dd |
RE: Shotgun Accuracy
at 100 yd i put 5 shots in a 6 in circle, nothing left of the bullseye.....i prefer hornady sst slugs, i flipped 2 deer last year at 50-60 yds w/ them. i was shooting single shot new england 12 gauge w/ simmons pro diamond scope
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RE: Shotgun Accuracy
ORIGINAL: Follower ReDoT, interesting findings concerning twist rate of your barrel. Normally, the faster the twistrate of the barrel, the more, not less, easily you stabilize bullets. I had a T/C Thunderhawk muzzleloader with a 1:34 twist, and was able to shoot the .44 cal. saboted Hornady XTP 300 grain bullets really well. My friends shooting Hawkins, with the 1:48 twist couldn't hardly stabilize anything but real light (short) bullets, and roundballs. Guns that shoot balls the best, are normally really slow twist guns, like Kentucky long rifles with 1:66 twist rates. I am sure you can over stabilize a bullet with a really fast twist rate, just not sure how fast is too fast. The 1:28 twistrate is fantastic. Pretty sure all Knight muzzleloaders, and most sabot designed guns sport a twist rate similar to the 1:28. yea i know, for some reason its backwards when it comes to slugs? i just can stabalize the light fast slugs, but the bore size attached sabots are really accurate for me |
RE: Shotgun Accuracy
Sabots with a rifled barrel has always worked for me. I get 3 inch groups but I think most of that is "pilot error".
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