Rifled shotgun barrel, what sight to choose ?

[Guest]

I`m going to buy an extra barrel for my Remington 870 Super Magnum. I want a rifled barrel with open sights, for slugs. I will use it on late season deer hunting, ranges not extending let`s say 40 meters. I also have two tracking dogs, and could be called out to track down deer wounded either by hunters or by cars. No long range shooting in those situations either. I don`t need a red dot sight or scope, just a barrel with some sort of sighting device on it.

I can get a new barel with either back and front rifle sights, with only front sight, with Hi-Wiz sight, or with a ghost ring.

Anyone have any preferences / experience? Would a ghost ring be faster and easyer to use than ordinary rifle sights ? Are the rifle sights more accurate ??

I have fired some Federal slugs trough the 26" barrel, with the factory delievered Modified choke in. Using only the small shotgun beed.
Accurate enough at 30 meters, but still I would prefer to get a rifled barrel and a better sighting device.

 

[YoteSmoker]

Hasting barrel

 

[JD338]

The Ghost Ring is fast and accurate for quick shooting, that is what I would go with.

JD338

 

[DrMike]

I have a ghost ring on my Model 1300 Camp Defender. It works great to 70 yards, even with my aged eyes.

 

[cloverleaf]

If short range 50 yards or less, is gonna be the limit you might want to try a cylinder bore smooth barrel. Your choke could be a little tight, but thats a maybe. Slugs for a smoooth bore are SO much cheaper. Other than that, fiber optic sights might be another option. Just a ouple thoughts. CL

 

[SJB358]

Yup, if you aren't going to scope it, the ghost ring would be the next best thing. I would look at the scoped version of the barrel. A 1x4 Leupold with give you the ability to shoot fast in close quarters and allow a little distance shooting also. Ii would bet it is going to be pretty accurate once you get the rifled barrel on there. Mine is the rifled choke tube and it shoots very well out to 150 yards. Scotty

 

[Ol` Joe]

As noted earlier a rifled barrel will mean you should shoot Sabot or some full bore slugs that are designed for it, a smooth bore will not shoot these as accuratly and will likely do as well or better with the cheaper old style Forster or Brennecki (sp?). The old style slugs won`t show any improvement from a rifled BBL and will lead foul it up very quickly. Cleaning will get to be a real chore.
The rifled barrel and a good matching slug will be quite a bit more accurate overall and after 30+ yd you`ll notice a difference.
I put a Hastings rifled BBL on my 870 and added a Nikon Pro Staff 2x7 shotgun scope. The combo with a clean bore will do ~ 3'-4' max for 3 shots @ 100yds all day with Hornady ammo useing the sabot/SST bullet, or LightFields full bore slug loads. Much past that and groups open up real fast in my experiance with any shotgun/load I`ve seen. Prior to the rifled BBL the old smooth bore with irons went about the same group size at 50yd and was lucky to stay on a piece of notebook paper @ 100. The new Sabot loads from a smoothbore shoot worst IMO and aren`t worth the extra $$ if you don`t have a rifled bore or chock. Shot guns with any load are still fairly short range gear.
The ghost ring would be my choice for closer range fast shooting like you discribe in your post. I believe it would much quicker then a scope and it will be sturdier too if it sees a litlle abuse. Peeps have proven to be over all a easier to use sight then regular irons and aide in more accurate shooting