870 slug options

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870 slug options

Postby armedwalleye on Tue Aug 25, 2020 11:51 am

I may be forced due to a change in ownership of my regular hunting property in northern MN to hunt a shotgun zone this year.

Looking for thoughts/guidance. I've got an old 870, the high gloss Wingmaster, pre screw in choke model, but it's only a 2 3/4"

Thinking on picking up a used older wingmaster or an express in a 3"" and outfitting it with either an iron sight slug barrel and adding a saddle mount for a scope, or buying a cantilever barrel/scope combo.

Any guidance from the group one versus the other? Pretty sure regardless I want a rifled barrel. Seems to me the saddle mount, with a picatinny rail on top is going to give me a non-existent cheek weld.

While we're here, I did find a Mossberg 835 with a cantilever. Thoughts on that one?

Thank you
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Re: 870 slug options

Postby ttousi on Tue Aug 25, 2020 1:35 pm

Have used an older 870 as you described for years. rifled slug barrel, open sights and not 3".............pretty successful
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Re: 870 slug options

Postby crbutler on Tue Aug 25, 2020 1:51 pm

Firstly, if you are using foster or brenneke type slugs, you do not want or need a rifled barrel.

That only improves things with the sabot slugs.

I personally have been able to keep them on a pie plate at 65-70 yards.

The sabots, in a rifled barrel are better... but even so, pie plate at 150.

The foster slugs were shot with just a bead or a red dot only, maybe they would work further, but there is drop apparent at 50 yards.

The rifled barrel guns were a Winchester SX2 and a H&R single shot. Both with scopes.

The sabot slugs can be a real rodeo to find the ones that shoot decently at range. All shot pie plate at 30 yards, but only one lot out of 50 I tried shot 1” at 100, and that was lot specific (meaning I brought more the next year and the new ones shot 2” at 100.) The auto loader shot better than the single shot with what it liked, but the single shot did better with “most”.

I don’t think the brand of gun makes much difference for accuracy, you just need to find the ones that the particular gun likes.

The cantilever barrel is best if you are thinking of using the gun with multiple barrels and swapping them, as it’s attached to that barrel- but the group will move a bit each time you take it out of the gun regardless, in my experience (read cleaning) with non single shots.

For slug hunting, say inside 75 yards, there is little advantage to a rifled barrel, and frankly, even with the sabot loads, while you can hit further, they don’t have all that much knockdown compared to the fosters, so I’m not inclined to shoot over 75 yards with a slug gun regardless.

You might be happier hunting with a handgun, if you are used to rifles.
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Re: 870 slug options

Postby Ghost on Tue Aug 25, 2020 2:17 pm

I’ve killed a lot of deer (guessing 80+) with an 870 express using both 2 3/4” and 3” Remington slugs, cheapest available. Slug barrel but not rifled. Don’t overthink a shotgun.
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Re: 870 slug options

Postby 870TC on Tue Aug 25, 2020 2:56 pm

good luck finding one or slugs for it
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Re: 870 slug options

Postby Bitter Bastard on Tue Aug 25, 2020 4:02 pm

Not a deer hunter but my smoothbore 870 with ghost ring sights can do about 6" groups at 100 yards with the cheap Remington slugs. At deer rifle sight-in at my gun club, a good modern shotgun with optic can do 3-4" groups at 100 yards and likely better but the shooter is often the weak point there. If you know your drop, I'd think out to 150 yards would be pretty doable with the right slugs. I honestly don't think a 3" and rifled barrel is really going to be necessary unless you intend on shots longer than 150 yards. Oh, and different brands of slugs shoot pretty differently. Don't expect a zero with one type to be even close at 100 yards to zero with another type. If you are going to shoot much, I'd lean to a cheaper slug and buy quantity so you don't have to constantly re-zero as you change ammo.

I have sights that screw/clamp onto the vent rib on my Mossberg 500 and they work great. If you have a vent rib on your gun, it might be worth it to try a set of those and see what your results are. On the other hand if you are just looking for an excuse to buy a new gun for slug hunting, well, that's more than OK too!

These are similar to the sights on my 500: https://www.midwayusa.com/product/100600150?pid=671251

Good luck!

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Re: 870 slug options

Postby OldmanFCSA on Tue Aug 25, 2020 6:09 pm

870TC wrote:good luck finding one or slugs for it


I have a variety of 12 gage slugs available as I no longer hunt, some Foster-style, some Brenneke, some others.
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Re: 870 slug options

Postby Holland&Holland on Tue Aug 25, 2020 9:02 pm

crbutler wrote:Firstly, if you are using foster or brenneke type slugs, you do not want or need a rifled barrel.

That only improves things with the sabot slugs.

I personally have been able to keep them on a pie plate at 65-70 yards.

The sabots, in a rifled barrel are better... but even so, pie plate at 150.

The foster slugs were shot with just a bead or a red dot only, maybe they would work further, but there is drop apparent at 50 yards.

The rifled barrel guns were a Winchester SX2 and a H&R single shot. Both with scopes.

The sabot slugs can be a real rodeo to find the ones that shoot decently at range. All shot pie plate at 30 yards, but only one lot out of 50 I tried shot 1” at 100, and that was lot specific (meaning I brought more the next year and the new ones shot 2” at 100.) The auto loader shot better than the single shot with what it liked, but the single shot did better with “most”.

I don’t think the brand of gun makes much difference for accuracy, you just need to find the ones that the particular gun likes.

The cantilever barrel is best if you are thinking of using the gun with multiple barrels and swapping them, as it’s attached to that barrel- but the group will move a bit each time you take it out of the gun regardless, in my experience (read cleaning) with non single shots.

For slug hunting, say inside 75 yards, there is little advantage to a rifled barrel, and frankly, even with the sabot loads, while you can hit further, they don’t have all that much knockdown compared to the fosters, so I’m not inclined to shoot over 75 yards with a slug gun regardless.

You might be happier hunting with a handgun, if you are used to rifles.


This is excellent advice. The .300 Blackout AR pistols are dear culling machines in the shotgun zone.
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Re: 870 slug options

Postby BigDog58 on Wed Aug 26, 2020 1:39 am

Does MN allow the new 350 Legend to be utilized in the Shotgun only areas? I know that many states have begun to permit them.

A buddy down in Iowa shot several deer with his 350 Legend last year, and he said it hits like a hammer.

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Re: 870 slug options

Postby Holland&Holland on Wed Aug 26, 2020 7:45 am

BigDog58 wrote:Does MN allow the new 350 Legend to be utilized in the Shotgun only areas? I know that many states have begun to permit them.

A buddy down in Iowa shot several deer with his 350 Legend last year, and he said it hits like a hammer.


If it is in a pistol configuration then yes.
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Re: 870 slug options

Postby armedwalleye on Wed Aug 26, 2020 11:20 am

[quote="BigDog58"]Does MN allow the new 350 Legend to be utilized in the Shotgun only areas? I know that many states have begun to permit them.

A buddy down in Iowa shot several deer with his 350 Legend last year, and he said it hits like a hammer.

Something like a 300BO is not outside the realm of possibility in an AR pistol, but I'm researching that separately.
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Re: 870 slug options

Postby Ghost on Wed Aug 26, 2020 12:07 pm

Comparison with 350 legend, great for straight wall requirements like Iowa.

https://www.chuckhawks.com/compared_6-5_6-8_300_350.html
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