No choke marking on my 870 barrel - can I shoot slugs?

[Joe13]

This makes no sense. A Modified choke is tighter than an Improved cylinder choke. There are also a few other chokes but I won't go into that. To the OP. You can shoot slugs through a full choke but will lose accuracy and may get some leading but you won't hurt your shotgun.

She is a lazer with slugs - I've been very happy with the performance of standard ammo thru this gun.

 

[warnerwh]

That is an excellent shotgun and will last long enough to pass down to your kids if taken care of. I am glad someone enjoys shooting slugs cause I sure don't. However the reduced recoil ones aren't bad. I should offer to trade my standard load slugs for reduced recoil because after the other day I decided the standard loaded slugs are a bit much and really don't care to shoot them anymore. Glad your gun worked out well for you.

 

[Joe13]

That is an excellent shotgun and will last long enough to pass down to your kids if taken care of. I am glad someone enjoys shooting slugs cause I sure don't. However the reduced recoil ones aren't bad. I should offer to trade my standard load slugs for reduced recoil because after the other day I decided the standard loaded slugs are a bit much and really don't care to shoot them anymore. Glad your gun worked out well for you.

My wife shot one with a lot of goading from me, at a bench. (No, I wasn't trying to make her gun shy. It will be the gun I hand her should the need arise and I wanted her prepared for what it was like - she's been shooting with me many times)

She had a softball size dark purple bruise the next morning.

I'm a larger then average guy with an extra 60lbs I probably could live without so slugs and buckshot are not really any issue for me.



I was very lucky to have been able to buy this when it came available and it will stay in my family.

My kid is almost 21 and she and her BF are... not gun enthusiasts, so it'll probably go to grandkids with the rest of the inheritance nest.

I love the older guns, much better craftsmsnship and materials.

 

[warnerwh]

You may want to try some of the reduced recoil ammo. It's significantly less obnoxious and anybody hit with either slug or buckshot going slightly slower will not notice the difference. I live in a ranch style house and use No. 4 buck reduced load for HD. If I lived in the country I'd use 00 buck. If someone were hit in the arm with the reduced recoild load their arm would fall off below the hit and a torso hit will likely make the perp drop like a sack of potatoes. You can also get off a second shot faster with the reduced recoil loads and if there's more than one attacker it could make the difference between winning and losing. Your wife may appreciate the difference and you are really losing nothing when it comes to stopping attackers.

 

[po18guy]

The secret is the slugs themselves. "Rifled" slugs are specifically designed to be compressible, thus they will shoot through any choke.

EDIT: And, they are hollow-base, thus they obturate and fill a variety of dimensions within a given guage.

 

[Joe13]

You may want to try some of the reduced recoil ammo. It's significantly less obnoxious and anybody hit with either slug or buckshot going slightly slower will not notice the difference. I live in a ranch style house and use No. 4 buck reduced load for HD. If I lived in the country I'd use 00 buck. If someone were hit in the arm with the reduced recoild load their arm would fall off below the hit and a torso hit will likely make the perp drop like a sack of potatoes. You can also get off a second shot faster with the reduced recoil loads and if there's more than one attacker it could make the difference between winning and losing. Your wife may appreciate the difference and you are really losing nothing when it comes to stopping attackers.

I have a box of 00 buck that I've had forever, I'll try that out with her.

I also use 0000 buck since we are in the burbs.

 

[thorborg]

This makes no sense. A Modified choke is tighter than an Improved cylinder choke. There are also a few other chokes but I won't go into that. To the OP. You can shoot slugs through a full choke but will lose accuracy and may get some leading but you won't hurt your shotgun.

You are correct, my apologies, reversed are the improved and modified. I'm claiming age related dyslexia
Nonetheless a dime will closely facilitate a go no go test between cylinder and restrictions. As for the others, the affiliations for the removable's are
1 notch= full
2 notch= improved modified
3 notch= modified
4 notch= improves cylinder
5 notch= cylinder
Albeit even those have been tweaked primarily between .730 (cylinder) and .675 (full). A few among them are Skeet, European, super full, extra full and even "negative" @ .735

 

[coop44]

and skeet is between cylinder and improved cylinder

it's nuts

 

[Hemlock]

There is also Skeet 1 & Skeet 2 and on the other end is Turkey. The choke indicates the constriction to the barrel bore. Industry standard bore used to be .729" on the fixed choke barrels. Most gun makers have opened that up some because a bigger bore reduces pressure and recoil. You need to measure the bore in relation to the choke constriction to know the true choke. Changeable choke dimensions are different again and as are different gun manufactures.
If the barrel came with the rifle type sights from the factory, it's probably Improved Cylinder.
I grew up hunting white tail with a full choke Remington model 58 shotgun in Wisconsin. A lot of slugs went down that barrel with no problems.