HD shotgun question.

[Fishguy]

I just picked up a cantelever rifled slug barrel from tss1004 , (great guy to do business with btw), and as I was cleaning it and putting on a red dot today, my mind hatched a silly question.

Once the red dot is zeroed, is there any benefit to using that barrel as the HD set up with 00 buckshot? I have a 18.5" cyl barrel w/ a bead sight that I keep on it for HD use, but since I can keep the red dot on the rifled barrel, I'm thinking it might almost make more sense to keep that barrel on and keep it loaded with 00.

Or am I losing any advantage the red dot provides with the extra weight and loss of manuverability with the longer barrel?

Mossy 500 if it matters.

 

[Indiana Jones]

I prefer the 18" on my HD shotgun. However I don't plan on maneuvering unless its a worst case scenario. Call 911, hunker down and cover a choke point/fatal funnel. No reason to go do something fool hardy. HIDE!

 

[rj1974]

Down side is a longer barrel to move around with and if it is rifled I would not shoot anything but slugs out of it . Rifling will get loaded up with plastic .

 

[fivepointstar]

here's my take!!!

most room in the house are 12'x10' or smaller. I think the largest room or distance you'll shoot in your house for HD is 20'-25'.....at which point all you need to do is point the shotgun barrel and line up with your target and shoot

I think a red dot or any sights for target acquisition will interfere with you. I think the 18" bbl is just fine to go around corners or room clearing. Have a field bbl you risk the bad guy possibly grabbing the bbl in a conflict.

just my $0.02

 

[august1410]

here's my take!!!

most room in the house are 12'x10' or smaller. I think the largest room or distance you'll shoot in your house for HD is 20'-25'.....at which point all you need to do is point the shotgun barrel and line up with your target and shoot

I think a red dot or any sights for target acquisition will interfere with you. I think the 18" bbl is just fine to go around corners or room clearing. Have a field bbl you risk the bad guy possibly grabbing the bbl in a conflict.

just my $0.02

Dead on. My first shotgun was a full size Mossberg 500. I lived in a tiny apartment. Swinging that gun around into position in that place was about as easy as parallel parking a 1966 Chrysler in there.

 

[Inigoes]

here's my take!!!

most room in the house are 12'x10' or smaller. I think the largest room or distance you'll shoot in your house for HD is 20'-25'.....at which point all you need to do is point the shotgun barrel and line up with your target and shoot

I think a red dot or any sights for target acquisition will interfere with you. I think the 18" bbl is just fine to go around corners or room clearing. Have a field bbl you risk the bad guy possibly grabbing the bbl in a conflict.

just my $0.02

That's why I like a KEG-12, 18 inches are too long

 

[Fishguy]

here's my take!!!

most room in the house are 12'x10' or smaller. I think the largest room or distance you'll shoot in your house for HD is 20'-25'.....at which point all you need to do is point the shotgun barrel and line up with your target and shoot

I think a red dot or any sights for target acquisition will interfere with you. I think the 18" bbl is just fine to go around corners or room clearing. Have a field bbl you risk the bad guy possibly grabbing the bbl in a conflict.

just my $0.02

Yeah, probably right. If it made a real difference to have optics on a hd shotgun, I suppose Mossberg would make a cantilever 18" hd barrel for the thing.

Of course one could always cut down the slug barrel.....

 

[Elgan]

I'm in the same position as you (I have a Mossberg 500 with multiple barrels, non-HD/tactical version) that I use for HD. My current setup is an 18.5" smoothbore with 5 rounds of 00 with 5 more in the saddle. When purchased, it came with the longer rifled barrel with rail (and a cheap package deal scope, pretty neat actually), and the loooooong bird barrel.

I bought the 18.5" barrel separately. Why'd I buy it? Because I wanted more maneuverability and realized that a red dot on a short-barreled shotgun is about as useful as a scope on a snub-nose revolver. Given the spread of 00 at 3-10 yards, you really wouldn't be gaining anything from it anyway, and may very well make it harder to fetch from your storage place quickly (especially with the longer barrel needed to use the rail).

As mentioned before, the priority should be to call 911, get everyone to an easily reached place with one way in and out, and hunker down with the barrel leveled at the door until the police arrive (ideally, perpendicular to movement of entry, as the first thing an untrained person focuses on when entering a room is what's across the room in front of them, not off to the sides).

 

[Biggfoot44]

The unasked question is this a Rifled. Bbl ? ( Yes M'berg made a cantalevier smooth bore bbl at one point.)

But in any case a plain bead bbl is fine for HD with buckshot.

 

[Fishguy]

The unasked question is this a Rifled. Bbl ? ( Yes M'berg made a cantalevier smooth bore bbl at one point.)

But in any case a plain bead bbl is fine for HD with buckshot.

Yeah, it is rifled, but I was under the understanding that buckshot won't hurt a rifled barrel, it just won't pattern as pretty as if shot through a smooth bore.

 

[hvymax]

Yeah, it is rifled, but I was under the understanding that buckshot won't hurt a rifled barrel, it just won't pattern as pretty as if shot through a smooth bore.

The rifling will spin the buckshot all over the place taking away most of the impact. Of course you could just keep slugs in it like I do. I would also get a light. Even a momentary target ID as you start your trigger pull could avert a tragedy.

 

[Biggfoot44]

No , It won't hurt the bbl , but it really, really scatters shot , like at 15 feet has gaps you can throw a dog thru. A riled bbl should be considered slug only beyond literal contact distance. Where as almost always a smooth bore will almost always group slugs within 2 minutes of Felon well beyond HD distance. If you had a really large yardoccasionally will need Kentucky windage , but indoors it's all close enough even with a bead.

 

[Fishguy]

No , It won't hurt the bbl , but it really, really scatters shot , like at 15 feet has gaps you can throw a dog thru. A riled bbl should be considered slug only beyond literal contact distance. Where as almost always a smooth bore will almost always group slugs within 2 minutes of Felon well beyond HD distance. If you had a really large yardoccasionally will need Kentucky windage , but indoors it's all close enough even with a bead.

Interesting.

I am going out the family undisclosed location in a couple of weeks to try my hand at deer "hunting" with my father in law (who does a lot of hunting, but very little deer shooting). I'm sure after a couple of hours, we'll end up just shooting, like always. I think I'll do a little buck-shot-through-different-barrels-pattern comparison research for the MDS crew. Maybe even some slug-through-different barrel comparisons as well.

 

[blackthorne]

One of you guys need to shoot buckshot through a rifled bbl at 20 feet and look at the pattern. I bet the pattern looks better than from a smoothbore at 20 feet.

 

[Fishguy]

One of you guys need to shoot buckshot through a rifled bbl at 20 feet and look at the pattern. I bet the pattern looks better than from a smoothbore at 20 feet.

I'll do it and report back. I'm intrigued now.

 

[mrozowjj]

No , It won't hurt the bbl , but it really, really scatters shot , like at 15 feet has gaps you can throw a dog thru. A riled bbl should be considered slug only beyond literal contact distance. Where as almost always a smooth bore will almost always group slugs within 2 minutes of Felon well beyond HD distance. If you had a really large yardoccasionally will need Kentucky windage , but indoors it's all close enough even with a bead.

Pretty much what he said. Box of Truth verified it.

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot43.htm

 

[Fishguy]

Pretty much what he said. Box of Truth verified it.

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot43.htm

Interesting, but he compared it to a 28" field barrel with a choke. I think the question here is rifled barrel vs. 18.5" HD barrel with cyl bore.

 

[Indiana Jones]

One of you guys need to shoot buckshot through a rifled bbl at 20 feet and look at the pattern. I bet the pattern looks better than from a smoothbore at 20 feet.

Show us with your Linberta