To Vang, or to choke for defense?

P

Postman

New member
I am having the barrel on an 870 cut down to 18” to build a dedicated defense/fun gun.

I am either going to send the barrel off to Vang Comp to be back bored or I am going to have it cut for Remington flush fit chokes.

I realize that cylinder bore is fine for most defensive conditions, but I am interested in achieving the tightest patterns with 9 pellet reduced recoil OO buckshot possible.

I am hoping that a modified choke will deliver something comparable to the Vang system; 9 pellets in 8” at 25 yards.

My question, for those who have experience is: how does a modified choke pattern with OO buck?
 
Unless you are going to shoot slugs from this gun, you can probably achieve a good pattern with chokes. There is no correct answer to how your gun will pattern with a "mod" choke though. You'll have to pattern it yourself.
The beauty of the Vang (or any backbore) is that you get a similar POC without the final opening being too small to shoot slugs comfortably.
My Vang's barrel (a 20"er) shoots much like a mod choke and I shoot #8 & #7.5 all day to bust clays (not as many as I'd like though ;) )with it and then load it back up with the 00 or 000 and slugs on the SS when I get home so it can serve as the house gun.
All my barrels started as fixed choke IC and the two I had back-bored have a POC closer to mod now. The Vang patterns tighter.
If you are having it cut for chokes, you might want to get it threaded for a decent aftermarket (not REM Chokes) like Briley as I have read that like other Remington stuff the QC has been dropping a bit and some of these are not what they're marked or worse are not even round.
Whatever you choose to do, I'd suggest having the forcing cone lengthened while it's at the smith. This can improve the pattern and reduce felt recoil.
I have used Allems for this work (cones and back-bore) and have been pleased with the results but I am sure that you can find a local smith to do the same thing.
Good luck,
Mike
 
check the baseline data. It has shotgun patterning with a vang comp shotgun. It also had a "pattern master" choke that had a tight pattern at 25 yds.
 
Postman,

I'm a tight pattern subscriber also. I've experimented around a bit, from the 'high priced spreads' on down to the basics. IMHO the most bang for your buck is to get a competent barrel 'smith to extend the forcing cone and put in RemChokes. I've been working on this for some years now and I find that those two things will almost certainly give you the kind of patterns you want out of whatever load that particular shotgun barrel likes, with whichever choke tube works best for it. Start out with regular plain jane RemChokes in ImpCyl and Mod, and work from there. Don't worry about the $100 choke tubes just yet, it is almost certain you will be happy with the performance you get from regular tubes.

Good luck, have fun- experimenting is a pleasure.

lpl/nc
 
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