20 or 12, smooth or rifled for whitetail deer

iowafarmboy · Member Joined: Mar 11, 2009 Posts: 109

A friend has a shorter barreled 20 gauge (smooth) but I don't think it's a slug barrel. Will it hurt anything to shot a few rounds through it to see how I like the smooth barrel?

About more kick in a 3 inch shell. That 20 gauge that had the 4 inch shell shortened the barrel to 18.5 inches (I believe) to improve accuracy. The idea was the bullet was out the barrel before the "kick" moved the barrel, or does that sound like BS?

Ominivision1

Go ahead and shoot it in the smooth barrel, will not hurt anything, accuracy may be way off.

Now as far as shortening the barrel on a shotgun for less recoil I couldn't tell you.

But on a rifle I can, years ago deer hunting one of the party's father had an 375H&H mag for deer hunting in 18" carbine length. Now I myself own Rem M700 bdl in 375 and it's 24" barrel and weighs in at 10.5lbs.

He offered to let me shoot it which I did shooting the 300grs bullets and let me tell you, that dang 7 pounder of a gun with an 18" barrel shot and just about knocked me over and the muzzle blast out of that thing would have done weed control for a season.

chambered221

iowafarmboy wrote:

The idea was the bullet was out the barrel before the "kick" moved the barrel, or does that sound like BS?

I call BS on that one !!!

Here is a shotgun and a rifle recoil calculator. As you can see there is no place to plug in barrel length.

Shooting the slugs won't hurt anything. Just don't expect much in the way of accuracy without having some kind of sighting for consistency.

Elvis

I have to agree with chambered 221 on the BS factor. a longer barrel gives you a longer sighting plane with iron sights. the only short barrel /more accurate senario Ive heard is that a short fat rifle barrel is better than a long super lightweight whippy one. the noise factor defanately comes in to play with a 12ga that has been shortened. I have pruned a few in the past and real short is real hard on the ears.My old single barrel baikal has the choke cut off and I ported it with a drill 5x 3mm holes each side at 10 and 2 oclock about 20mm apart. it kicks stuff all and shoots slugs well.the noise is fine. go down below 20 inches and they get noisy.another thing to consider a smooth bore will shoot regular shot shells for bunnies birds etc but a rifled one makes lovely donut patterns with a big hole in the middle.

Aloysius

Elvis, I guess you don't know the famous (?) very expensive belgian shotguns? For short distance rabbithunting they have instead of a choke, about the last 20 cm of the barrel rifled. I've been told they give an increased spread AND a good coverance, so no donuts at all.

whittling

I personally think a 24'' is the best all-round length .My old Mossberg is shooting 3'' groups at 50 yds. with a 24'' barrel shoothbore with Remington slugs. I would say go with a 24'' since it seems most 18'' barrels are only for home security. Also if you get the screw-in choke tubes you can alternate between smoothbored and the last couple inches being rifled . If you do get a pump-gun go with a Mossberg . My brother owns a 870 but bought a Mossberg since he liked the navy Mossbergs so much.

iowafarmboy · Member Joined: Mar 11, 2009 Posts: 109

I was surprised to see Mossburg barrels listed for Remington shotguns. Mr reason for the short barrel is walking the brush. Tried it with my muzzleloader and that's why I'm looking at a short barreled shotgun. Season is only 4 or 5 days, so I hunt from a ground blind early, then move to another piece of property and push. THAT'S where I want the short barreled shotgun. They are either narrow brushy areas with trees along a creek / small river or small wooded groves, both surrounded by harvested crop land. So the deer are either close going through the trees or going full tilt across the open ground. Got a nice buck last year just as he came out of the heavy woods but before he got to wide open fields. He was really hauling the mail left to right at about 65 yards through sparsely scattered Christmas sized pine trees. The scope on the muzzleloader was almost too much. Any closer and I doubt I could have "found" him in the scope (3X9). Never saw a thing from the blind last year.

Crackshot

I think you would like a short barreled turkey gun with 00 or, 000 buckshot. I have used this combination on deer drives with good affect in the past. Just keep track of the drivers and other shooters and you should have no problems.

chambered221

Buckshot isn't legal in some states........check your laws first !!!

slimjim

iowafarmboy wrote:

Got a nice buck ... He was really hauling the mail left to right at about 65 yards through sparsely scattered Christmas sized pine trees.

This situation screams "red-dot" and both eyes open!

Elvis

buck shot does even more spectacular donut patterns. yes I have tried it.
Aloysius I havent tried a shotty like you mention but did try out a h&r rifled 12ga and the pattern at 30yrs was very deffinately donut like.

Vince

slimjim wrote:

iowafarmboy wrote:

Got a nice buck ... He was really hauling the mail left to right at about 65 yards through sparsely scattered Christmas sized pine trees.

This situation screams "red-dot" and both eyes open!

Can't agree more Slim...the ideal situation for a good quality Red Dot or Hologram sight. I have even tried one on my Mod 94 30.30 lever gun.

Cheers, Vince

Aloysius

Elvis, to be honnest I didn't get the chance to try one myself. But I know 1 guy who has several of them, among them such a special for rabbithunting with a ferret. Shots are mainly within 25 yards. I think you can still order such a gun at Lebeau-Courally and if you don't want it to be too fancy, maybe you get one for 100-150 000 USD.
For slugshooting I don't believe in rifling the last part of the barrel. Leading will chance POI all the time. But this is also what I think, not what I discovered after trying...

Vince

Aloys wrote:

I think you can still order such a gun at Lebeau-Courally and if you don't want it to be too fancy, maybe you get one for 100-150 000 USD.

The first one I looked at was $89,000 !!!! wtf

The cheapest was a mere $20,600 ...and I cringed when I read:

"Sidelock Shotgun Pair of Sidelock SXS Shotguns with rounded action and English bouquet engraving. Contact Us for pricing quotes"

I don't even want to imagine what they want for them.

However, I am sure they are beautiful shotguns...they certainly look good.

Cheers, Vince

Aloysius

Vince, the nice thing is: you still can miss with such a gun Smile