Shotgun slug, which choke?

[R Flowers]

I have a friend who wants to take his shotgun deer hunting in an area near here where shotguns with slugs are required.

He has a Model 870 Remington in 12 guage. Due to these stupid California laws he will have to shoot copper slugs in the darned thing.

Our question is, what the heck choke should he have in the barrel? He has screw in chokes of IMP Cylinder, Modified, and Full. He does not want to harm the barrel or the chokes with the copper slugs, not sure what restriction to use.

Any help would be appreciated, I did not know what to tell him.

 

[JD338]

RF,

He is going to need a rifled barrel to shoot those slugs. Remington does offer a slug choke that has rifling in it. That is what I would suggest he gets.

JD338

 

[Richracer1]

RF,

He is going to need a rifled barrel to shoot those slugs. Remington does offer a slug choke that has rifling in it. That is what I would suggest he gets.

JD338

+1. He will need a rifled barrel due to those slugs are in a sabot.

 

[1Shot]

Get the Slug "rifled" extended choke. Those copper slugs are sabot slugs and will not shoot worth a hoot in a smooth bore but do OK in a rifled extended choke tube.

 

[YoteSmoker]

I killed my largest/ heaviest whitetail (11 point, full rut) with an 870 and a rifle choke tube approximately 4" long, with a 3.5" copper sabot called Lightfield Commander. The shot was 80 yards head on as I grunted him from his bedding area. The sabotted slug hit mid neck and took out the vitals, however, the copper did break up inside the chest cavity. Not a big deal as the buck dropped on the spot. I was a bit nervous as he lay on his side and his lungs expanded and collapsed for a minute. After he expired, I got on my radio and told my dad "Big Buck Down! and It's a wallhanger!" That was Nov 2001 and I can remember it just like it was yesterday. It started out raining very hard that morning and I thought my dad was nuts for taking me in the woods. I saw a flock of turkeys and the squirrels were out earlier in the morning. The rain let up and by 10:30, the buck ventured into my crosshairs. Oh yeah, that barrel had a cantilever base which is nice cuz you can switch over to your long smooth bore without changing your zero. I have since sold that barrel and bought a remington fully rifled barrel with cantilever, but that baby cost me about 300 bucks.

 

[SJB358]

I shoot one of the early Remington 1187's with the cantilever scope mount, it came with a smooth bore barrel and a rifled choke tube. Early on I used regular Remington Foster type sluggers and it grouped into about 4" at 100 yards. This was a great load and killed alot of deer in NY for me. I then switched over to Remington Buckhammers and man, it cut my groups in half and they are an 1 1/4 Ounce slug. They wallop deer. I tried the Remington Copper Solid and the older Winchester BRI sabots and my guns shot them like crap. I think for any saboted projectile, you are going to have to take Rich's advise and pay for the fully rifled barrel. It stinks you need to use copper, I still use the Buckhammers from time to time when I hunt on base or a restricted area and they are deadly up to about 150 yards. they punch a really big hole through deer and bleed them out fast. Good luck. Scotty