Shot my hunting partners 12ga remington 870 with a hasting slug barrel and 3 inch ammo. Decided no way was I ever going to shoot a 12ga slug gun that thing knocked me silly. So I resorted to a muzzle loader and have did pretty well over the years. then one day I was cleaning out a drawer in my reloading room and came across some 20ga slugs, the old foster type.
Grabbed my model 37 with the mod choke barrel and went out back to my range. I will admit those were shot at 50 yards but I was impressed never the less. Decided I wanted a bolt slug gun and the 220 had just came out and I do believe the dealer got a whole shippment of seconds as some thing was wrong with every one I was given to look at.

Settled on a 870 Remington Slugger, counter person said he had one and it shot Remington buck hammers best in 2 3/4 size and was awful with any 3 inch load.

He explained his theroy that the 3 inch was so strong it was taking a big jump down the barrel before grabbing the rifling. Could be don't know. When remington announced the demise of the buck hammer ammo I bought every box I could find and hope I have enough to last my life time...



In retro spect to your problem I would get rid of the 12ga to start. a 20ga has plenty of what it takes to kill a deer.
Also for get the 3 inch ammo and go to to 2 3/4 inch ammo and give that a try.


:D. Al

It sounds as though you have covered all the bases well and in that light I don't think its you per se. How is your eye health? Had them checked lately? Do you wear glasses? Sometimes even a small change in the eyes can screw with how things look thru a scope and honestly this sounds more like a vision thing than a gun/ammunition thing.

Could be your mounts Cantilever mounts aren't the most secure mounting method. When I had to use a slug gun I hot an HR ultra-light and put Talley mounts on it. With the 50 caliber sabot slug from Winchester it would shoot 1 1/2 inch groups at 100 yards all day long. Tipped over a lot of whitetails with that rig.

You should switch shotguns with those other guys at the range and keep note of the results. Two things I can add from experience.

The recoil doesn't have to physically bother you to make make you flinch. I will admit I am a little less accurate with a 12 gauge due to the recoil. It gets worse the more I shoot even though I can handle it. Lots of practice with smaller rifles, cheaper ammo and less recoil and more trigger time at the range, greatly improved my shooting ability after growing up shooting strictly shotguns.

I've had bad scope mounts, lose scope mounts, bad scopes, banged up iron sights, heavy triggers, certain ammo, drinking the night before, too much caffeine and tobacco use in different scenarios mess my groups up. Good luck figuring it out.

Cantilever mount is most likely your problem.

Savage 220.

Have had 1187s etc...

Yes, from a bench resting forearm and stock on sand bags.


No. I pull the gun back into my shoulder and pull down on the forearm to keep the gun rested as solidly as possible.


The triggers are typical Remington Shotgun Triggers. I'm not getting a lot of crosshair movement while pulling the trigger.


Obviously the closer the target is the better the groups. In my 12 ga. Lightfields shoot ok at 50 yds. but open up to quite a bit at 100 yds.

I'll probably have to wait until next year at this point to have anyone else shoot them. We're midway through our 3 week deer season now.


Most shoot Remington 870, 1100 or 1187's.


NYH1.

I think Flags alluded to the same issue and I concur. It would seem logical to me that large and inconsistent groups could boil down to a scope/ mounting issue. When I decided to get a slug gun I eliminated consideration on all cantilever mounts due to what I considered to be a very fragile mount considering the hard shock brought out by a slug gun. Shooting from a bench with 3" mags with my new model 37 gave me my first and only idiot cut the first time I shot it. I was shocked and totally surprised at how hard it thumped me. I too came to the realization that there was no reason to go with 3" loads. If I had to set up another I would probably go with a 20.

No glasses. I do have slight astigmatism that I never knew I had until I started using Aimpoints on M4's. It's not a big enough deal to make much of a difference. I'm really good with those types of setups.


I shoot my Rem. 700's of different configurations and my accurized AR15's (Mk12 types) with Leupold's like I was made to do it. It's just these damn slug guns.

NYH1.

I only use 2 3/4" slugs.


NYH1.