remington 20 ga accuracy

[calvin62]

I want to make my 870 the most accurate I can. I already have a hayes cantilevered barrell with a variable scope and shoot remington core-lokt ultras. I have taken a doe at 80 yds. but I hunt at the end of a thicket with 3 fence lines and a creek coming to me and see alot of deer at 100 to 125 yards and could take alot more deer if I can extend my range to 125 yds. I will be changing to a monte carlo stock with this years tax return would like to do anything else I can to improve the guns accuracy.

heres a list of things I've read about in [ shotgunning for deer by dave henderson].

1. lightening the trigger pull to about 3 lbs?
2. pinning the barrel to the reciever
3.porting the barrell-to reduce felt recoil and help the sabot sleeves seperate
4.putting a dead mule in the stock to fight vibration
5. put on a sims recoil pad
6. have the barrell cryogenically treated, anybody ever try it?

the recoil does not bother me but I've read that a shotgun moves up to 5/8" while the slug is still in the barrell and vibration can be the magor cause of a wide pattern at longer ranges.

Any constuctive opinion would be appreciated just dont rip me a new one for using a 20 ga !!

 

[kudu]

First off the 20 ga is plenty for deer, as far as the rest of your list the only thing IMO that is worthwhile is lightening the trigger, which a proffessional should do.

Have you tried different brands of sabots in your gun. Some barrels don't do well with some brands of sabots. With a cantilever slug gun with a scope I would expect groups of about 5-6" at 100 yards. My 11-87 will put them in 3.5" at that range with 2 3/4 Rem copper solids. But it won't shoot other brands inside 10". An auto has more vibration than a pump to overcome as well.

1. lightening the trigger pull to about 3 lbs?

A good idea if the gun has a poor trigger over 5#

2. pinning the barrel to the reciever

Not worthwhile in a shotgun for slugs IMO.

3. porting the barrell-to reduce felt recoil and help the sabot sleeves seperate

This probably not make any difference except to make your ears ring
a bit more when you shoot. Very noisy, porting is.

4. putting a dead mule in the stock to fight vibration

Only if the recoil of the 20ga is making you flinch and pull off the gun

5. put on a sims recoil pad

Not sure of the brand, but a good recoil pad will help hold your
stock in place on your shoulder. Decelerators are my preferance.

6. have the barrell cryogenically treated, anybody ever try it?

I would say this is worthless for a shotgun, on a rife that you are
trying to get 1/4" groups with at 100yards it may help get the
harmonics down.

I have never used the remington core-lokt ultras, but still try some other brands, off a bench and make sure the scope is not the culprit of the inaccuracy.

 

[calvin62]

Thanks

KUDU Thanks for your time and advice!
I just have a few comments , questions about what you said.

1. the pull is definetly over 5# on the remington 870

2. my 870 express has alot of play between the barrel and reciever. so that pinning the barrell sounded like it might help. my wingmaster has alot less play, difference in price or has remingtons standards change?

3. I dont have a flinch , but the mercury tube I have on my bow smoothed out the whole feel of shooting so I thought it wouldnt hurt.

4.I have shot a few deer with the rem copper solids with great luck, full expansion and penetration. but if you look at the ballistics for the core lokt ultras , zerod at 125 yards they are only 2 inches high at 50 yards. remingtons web site shows some realy good expansion and weight retension.
but I will decide on which round after range testing before the next hunt

5.sims produces the new r3 recoil pads for remington. and also produce alot of antivibration items for bow hunting.

I thought I might get more responses to the post! I guesse more people in the shotgun forum are worried about self defense at 5 feet then deer hunting at 125 yards.

maybe I should have put in the gunsmith forum?

 

[kudu]

2. my 870 express has alot of play between the barrel and reciever. so that pinning the barrell sounded like it might help. my wingmaster has alot less play, difference in price or has remingtons standards change?

With a cantilever barrel the scope is mounted on the barrel, so the shell is shot from the barrel, not the receiver. Wobble between the receiver and the barrel should not matter as the bolt is holding the shell in the barrel which doesn't move in relation to the scope. That is why cantilever barrels are more accurate than a slug barrel with a receiver mounted scope. Now I may be a bit off in my thinking along these lines but logically this is true. The diff in express's and Wingmasters is about $300 worth of fine tuning and work. The Expres is an economy gun.

3. I dont have a flinch , but the mercury tube I have on my bow smoothed out the whole feel of shooting so I thought it wouldnt hurt.[/QUOTE]

Go for the reducer, or better yet make up some weights to fit inside the stock of the gun out of lead shot in empty shotshell hulls. This will serve the same purpose of smoothing the guns feel out and reducing recoil.

4.I have shot a few deer with the rem copper solids with great luck, full expansion and penetration. but if you look at the ballistics for the core lokt ultras , zerod at 125 yards they are only 2 inches high at 50 yards. remingtons web site shows some realy good expansion and weight retension.

Shoot whatever is the most accurate out of your gun. If you can get groups inside 4" at 100 yards that is excellent for any shotgun and I doubt highly that most guns can do any better. I was extremely lucky to get groups the size I did with slugs. Sadly I didn't stock up on that particular lot# of slugs, but is still have 3 boxes of that # left. Lot #'s will make a difference in accuracy, maybe not greatly, but it will somewhere.

I browse TFL about once a week, I'm usually at THR every day though so I just saw your last post.