is it worth buyin a rifled barrel for a rem. 870 20 gauge?

ive got one for my 870 12 gauge but i think itd be better if you had a bigger gun

thats what i was wondering. im still trying to get my first deer after hunting for 4 years and its getting depressing so i dont know what ill do.

Get a rifled barrel for that 20g 870.Install a decent scope and it will do as well or better than any 12g out to 150 yrds. If I'm tellin you a lie I'll buy you somethin nice

Rifled are better for slugs, but as long as you pattern it, shouldn't much matter..

For what reason don't you like the setup you have now? Are you not able to pattern well with it? Let's dig into what you have now and see if that will help you out at all. Rifled slug barells will certainly help your groupings and the overall distance you can shoot, but if your not shooting the shell that your gun likes and if your not steady when shooting...a rifled slug barell isn't going to help much.

i have a saddle mounted scope and a smooth bore barrell on it. it just doesnt get me the distance that i need where i hunt.

20 gauge will take a deer just fine. Rifled barrel should give you increases distance over a smoothbore. The accuracy should theroetically inprove also, but that's up to you the shooter more than anything else.

I took two deer last year with my .20g with rifled barrel. Shot one out at 85 yards and it dropped it like a bad habit.

What kind of accuracy and what kind of distances are we talking about? In almost every case a rifled barrel will be more accurate than a smoothbore. However I want to make sure you don't have unrealistic goals in the first place.

How does your current gun shoot? What kind of groups are you getting and at what distances?

And if you do get a rifled barrel get a cantilever scope mount. This will let you mount the scope directly to the barrel instead of to the reciever. It is a more accurate way to mount the scope since the barrel in these guns are not fixed to the reciever. When you take the gun apart to clean it do you re-sight it in? Because you should. It is very possible for the impact point to shift when you remove the barrel and put it back on. Heck if the barrel is loose enough in the reciever it could shift from shot to shot. I highly doubt that is the case though.

As far as a 20 vrs a 12, shoot whatever you like. Obviously a 12 will have more power than a 20, but they will both kill deer just fine out to 100 yards with the proper ammo.

Keep in mind a rifled barrel will not make you a better hunter. It will just make the gun more accurate. Depending on how your gun shoots though it could double your effective range.

Paul