I will be buying a slug gun soon and need some advice. I amconsidering theRem 870 in a 20 ga with a rifled barrel and scope mount. However the barrellenghtfor the20 ga comesis only18.5 inches. I was wonderingif the short barrel will have a negitive effect theaccuracy of this gun.I was also wondering how effective this gun will be out to 125 yards.Please let me hear from you.

Thanks
Tim

Honestly, I don't know diddly about anything in 20 gauge, so take this with a grain of salt (or a whole bag even).

I have a 12 gauge 870 with a longer heavy 23" rifled barrel. It was marketed as being longer to take advantage of the hot and fast sabots that do their thing at about 1,900fps. The longer barrel gives the bullet more time to accelerate while that extra gun powder is burning, yielding faster velocities.

In 12 gauge, 20" slug barrels are common so I imagine that that is all that's needed for the standard rifled slugs that fly at 1,300 or 1,500. It is quite possible that a 20 gauge only requires 18.5" to make use of the smaller amount of powder in the smaller shell, but it's really just a guess based on the 12 gauge info.

I believe the 18.5 barrels are for home defense. My brother just purchased a Mossberg shotgun with a 24 inch fully rifled barrel. With a scope, and the right sabot, I think 125 is a possibility, but I wouldn't try itwith the 18.5 smoothbore barrel.