Two of the three slugs you mention are pretty high velocity by slug standards. The rifling in your 1300 may not be able to stabilize them. Try slugs that are in the 1400-1500 fps range and you will probably have better luck.

Most MFRs recommend sighting in slug guns at 50 yrds. External factors really affect slugs beyond 50 yrds, and your groups will reflect that.

I sight in 2" high at 50, then shoot some at 75 and 100 or so, to see where I'm at.

Could the BSA scope be bad?

Well, I recon! Not all BSA scopes start out bad, but you are subjecting it to as much punishment as conceivable by using it on a slug gun. That broken mount should tell you something!

In addition, many guns will exhibit strange grouping patterns when shot with a recoil-absorbing rest like that lead sled. Could be you are suffering from a bad scope PLUS wild shots off that rest. Change to a scope of KNOWN ability to stand up to recoil punishment. A Leupold will. Then bite the bullet and fire it with nothing but your shoulder to stop the gun from flying away. You won't have the lead-sled withyou while you are hunting, and you need to find out how it shoots w/o the lead sled!

For example, at 100 yards my CZ 416 Rigby (Leupold 2.5X scope) puts its shots into one ragged hole, but when I use a Lead Sled, the hole is about 3" away from the ones shot w/o it. The lower, near-center hole is with the lead sled, the three in the upper right are w/o it.

I bet it has alot to do with your scope. I used to shoot the same gun you are, it really liked the winchester partition golds, but I ruined 2 scopes in the process - a simmons and the bushnell banner, they simply were not made to withstand the recoil of todays high velocity slugs. I switched to the Nikon prostaff 2-7x32 and I have never looked back.

No matter what the problem is I would definately lose the BSA scope and get a Nikon Pro-Staff 2-7x 32mm shotgun scope. I have one mounted on a Rem 870 slug gun. When mounting on a slug gun get the Prostaff made for shotguns. They have more eye relief and parallax is set for 75 yards.

Are you holding on to the forearm when shooting or not andjust letting it sit in the led sled?

I sort of can't understand why people let gunsmiths or gun shops mount their scopes. It is not very difficult to do yourself and in most cases one will put more attention to properly installing it than a gunsmith or shop who probably will slap it on in a half-ass-ed fashion. I would take the mounts off and reinstall them myself making sure everything is tight from the base to the rings. The BSA may not be the best scope, but even most cheap scopes these days should be able to hold a group for you and let you know how the gun is shooting.

I had it in the sled with a bag of shot hanging on the barrel to reduce jump. So that would help keep the forearm from moving + I was holding on to the back of it. With that said, I didn't notice every time, but when I picked it up to shuck the shell, I did notice a couple times the chamber was open an inch or so.

So you're thinking it's unlocking the chamber/forearm as the slug is still in the barrel, causing slight movement thats affecting accuracy? Seeing if I'm on the same page here...

What about the BSA scope - seems like everyone is pretty unaminous on saying it's junk?

In my opinion, I don't see this being the problem. Afterall in an autoloading shotgun the shell gets ejected and their is a heck of a lot of movement in the action as soon as one pulls the trigger. If that was the problem, then autoloaders would never be able to hold a group.

An auto loading gun remains locked up until gas farther down the barrel cycles the bolt and the projectile(s) are within a couple of inches of exiting the barrel. The 1300 bolt headunlocks before the hammer ever gets to strike the firing pin. If you are not holding on to the forearm the bolt begins opening up and moving rearward before the slug even gets out of the shotgun shell.

Hanging a bag of shot on the barrelsure as heck isn't helping you accuracy either.


I am glad you speak so highly of us gunsmiths there Steve863 considering you don't even know how a semi auto seems to work.

So if the bolt head unlocks before the firing pin strikes, why did they make the gun to lock up at all??? Was it just to keep the shell in the chamber while one is carrying it in the field? I am NO gunsmith, but I think you exagerate what actually is happening quite a bit here. I somehow think there would have been a lot of mishaps with this gun if the bolt remained in an unlocked position before the firing pin struck or the slug even got out of the shell. It would almost be like holding a shell in your hand while someone strikes a nail against the primer. I don't think anyone would want to try anything like that, don't you?

I am not accusing gunsmiths of anything, but I do know of a number of people who had their scopes mounted by them or gun shops and I, a complete amatuer, would surely have done a better job.