Macattack

Hey guys i have a few questions that you can hopefully chime in on.
I have a remy 870 express magnum that has a huge barrel on it. I want a smaller hd barrel(18 or 20) I have seen several on ebay for like 100 bucks but they are turkey or slug barrels. Will these work just as well? or do i need to buy a actual hd barrel(they are a bit more expensive)
Also, will regular remy 870 barrels work on the express?
Any help would be awesome.
-mac

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HOLYROLLER

Hey Mac, I have the same shotgun and want to do the same thing. Considered chopping it (18" of course), but was a advised against it by a friend. Found 20" barrel for $100 or so @ Cabela's, unsure about the barrels fitting. I do know that the Magnum model uses a different choke for larger slugs, check out Remington's website for some info. Thanks and God bless, Mike.

obxned

I don't know how good an idea it would be to shoot buck in a turkey barrel. The way buck is packed in the shell allows little room for it to compress through the tight turkey choke.

If the 'slug' barrel is rifled, I would be interested to see what sort of pattern it produces. The spin of the rifling should open up the shot pattern very quickly, which would actually be a very good thing for a shotgun that is to be used at very close range under extreme stress. Has anyone tried this?

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chiefs-special-guy

Aha, something I know something about. A miracle!
1. Using a rifled barrel will have virtually no effect on a buckshot load at home defense ranges. Weirdly, at such short ranges it does not even do anything noticable to a slug load. You need to get to 15 yds or more before anything can be noticed.
2. tight chokes and buckshot- a constant point of debate. you must test your barrel. to quote the late don zutz, "every shotgun barrel is a law unto itself." many people use full chokes for their deer hunting buckshot loads, with success. others swear by modified. some manufacturers, such as remington and mossberg, offer defense barrels that are 18 (or 18.25) inches with cylinder chokes (i.e., no choke). go figure. buckshot is at most a 40 yd proposition, but at 10 yds choke is basically irrelevant with standrd shells.
3.foster type slugs are very inaccurate in most shotguns, period, regardless of choke.
4. sabot type slugs are great in rifled barrels designed for the purpose. 3-4 inch groups at even 80-100 yds are possible. this is not a defensive weapon, but is used solely for deer hunting.
5. you can buy "rifled chokes" to attempt to impart stability to sabot slugs in smooth barrel guns. they do not really work.
if I were you, i would spring for an 18 inch defensive type barrel. they usually fit on 870s very easily, but not always. also, when you say you have an 870 magnum, do you mean an 870 with a 3.5 inch chamber? that may be relevant to the barrel you need to buy, although not having owned one, i am not sure.
God Bless

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AKsrule

You can find a NEW 18 1/2" barrel on Gunbroker.com
for about $100.

They are actually made by Mossberg.
These will work on any 870.
They are cylinder bore and will allow you to shoot ANY commercial
Slug or Buckshot load.

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PapaScout

Of course for $100 more you could pick up a dedicated shotty and keep your bird gun. Winchester 1300 Defender or such.

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cvhoss

If your primary use will be with buckshot, I would suggest staying away from a rifled barrel, at least on a Remington 870.

I have a Benelli Nova H2O. It has rifle sights but is a smooth bore. A friend wanted to compete in a 3-gun match and borrowed this gun. The shotgun portion consisted of 5 IPSC targets shot with slugs and 5 popper knockdown targets shot with shotshells. All firing from 20 yards. On the IPSC targets, he hit all 5 in the “A” chest zone and took down all 5 knockdowns. He decided to buy his own shotgun and bought an 870 Remington with a rifled barrel. Using sabot slugs, this gun is deadly and I’m sure more accurate at distance than my smooth bore Benelli. However, with buckshot, this gun is terrible. At 15 yards on a full size B-27 target with 2 ¾ Winchester 00 buckshot loads, only 2 of the 9 pellets hit anywhere on the target on our first try. We repeated this test over and over and never had more than 3 pellets hit the paper and no single pellet ever hit the 9/10 ring. I didn’t have my Nova the day we were testing his new shotgun, but I had my SBE (mod. choke tube installed) so I tried it with the same shell at the same distance and it virtually ripped out the 10 ring. Granted, for a defensive shotgun I’d want a little more spread than the SBE, but this is a bird gun, not a defensive gun. BUT, I would also want more than 20% of the pellets to hit a man size target at 15 yards like the 870. Given this performance, I have no doubt that the 870 would NOT have taken down the 5 knockdown targets in my friends 3 gun match.

I DO NOT have extensive experience with rifled shotgun barrels. This is the ONLY one I’ve ever seen used but based on that experience I would NOT purchase a rifled barrel if my primary use was going to be shotshells.

Randy

Redneck Repairs

Personaly i would pick up about any 20" or so remchoked barrel , that way you can choke it as needed inexpensively , and use it as a fine little upland/quail gun by going from the cyl bore , or even rifled choke to a tighter choke . MMC used to make a set of sights that bolted onto a vent rib and gave a " rifle " sight picture if you feel the need for that . Just throwing out thoughts for you lol.

Superhouse 15

There is a blown up rifled barrel on my workbench at the gunshop. It appears the owner fired a birdshot load in it and left a wad stuck in the barrel. The next shot blew out a 3 inch section of barrel and bulged the rest badly. Looks to my untrained eye like the plastic wad was gripped too tight by the rifling and stopped. I am not a scientist, but be warned.

As for defensive ammo I had a chance to pattern Federal's "PFC154 low recoil" 00 buck load in the open choke shotgun we keep behind the counter. Every pellet hit an area the size of a coffee cup at 60 feet. If you are worried about good patterns from an open choke or a cut down barrel look at this stuff. It's called the "Flite control wad" and it's magic. Full choke performance in a plain choke barrel. I don't need more than this in 2 3/4 inch 12ga, so if it was me, I'd get a cheap 18" barrel for HD and shoot a good load in it. They also have birdshot loads with the Flite Control wads, if that is more to your liking. I have no reason to expect they would pattern bad based on the 00 buck performance, but I haven't shot any yet.

Macattack

As always great responses. I won't hack the barrel because i use it for bird hunting, just need a extra barrel. Sounds like rifled is not the way to go(kind of figured) Im not really too worried about chokes due to the fact i live in a small apt(any shooting is gonna be real up close and personel) Also a rem choked barrel on ebay is like 120 or so. Saw a used defender for 160 matte silver barrel and receiver with ok furniture. Having a tough time convincing myself not to buy it.......really tough time......another barrel for one gun......or a new gun.......yeah im gonna buy it tomarrow . Why the heck cant i spell tommarrow. Tomarrow. Tomarow. tomorrow tommorow
anyway thanks guys its late
-mac

__________________
Fuer Grissa Ost Drauka (Let's Dance)

"Every man has a right to risk his own life for the preservation of it."
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau

"Despite the high cost of living, it remains very popular."