Some Questions About My 870

[JusAdSumBellum]

Novice shotgun question, I know little to nothing about long guns in general.

Ive got a Remington 870 magnum I bought about 2 years ago at the 1500. I havent really played with it too much because when I bought it the guy who sold it said it had a rifled barrel. I bought some sabot rounds and shot it once. I wanted to take it deer hunting but never got around to that.

I was cleaning it the other day and just messing around with it and I noticed the choke was rifled but the rest of the barrel was smooth. Is this what a rifled barrel is supposed to look like?

Also, I was told that if I used anything other than rifled slugs that it would eat up the rifling in the barrel. Is that accurate? I want to shoot trap and I was looking at barrels and a new barrel costs what I payed for the gun ($225-$250). I haven't looked too far for barrels so Im not shocked if those are over priced. Could you suggest a good place for a new or used barrel?

 

[Cerberus]

Your barrel is smooth with a rifled choke. Rifled barrels have full length rifling. Rifled slugs in a smooth or rifled barrel will not eat up anything. Lead and plastic sabots are softer than steel. At most the rifled slugs might lead the barrel, which could increase pressure which could damage the gun.

As a general rule use sabots with rifled barrels and rifled slugs with smooth barrels, and ignore about 90% of what most folks selling guns have to say.

 

[illini40]

As Cerberus said above, sounds like you have a smooth bore barrel with just a rifled choke.

If you are interested in shooting trap, I would suggest just picking up a new choke for your barrel and blast away!

 

[JusAdSumBellum]

from the outside i cant distinguish between the choke and the barrel. When I shine a light down the barrel its apparent that the rifleing only goes down about an inch. Is it possible the choke is apart of the barrel?

So if I shoot birdshot or buckshot out of my gun will it damage it? I can post a picture if it would help.

 

[illini40]

from the outside i cant distinguish between the choke and the barrel. When I shine a light down the barrel its apparent that the rifleing only goes down about an inch. Is it possible the choke is apart of the barrel?

So if I shoot birdshot or buckshot out of my gun will it damage it? I can post a picture if it would help.

I believe that the choke should be removable on the 870s. I do not own one, but believe that the choke is not fixed.

When looking at the muzzle end of the barrel, can you see a couple of notches taken out of the top of choke? This would be notches that a choke wrench would sit down into for you to remove the choke.

Here is a link to Remington's website that will allow you to download an owner's manual. This will cover a little info on the choke:

Pump Action Shotgun - Model 870 Express Super Mag - Remington Shotguns

To all other INGO'ers - is there an 870 model in which the choke is not removable?

 

[Cerberus]

To all other INGO'ers - is there an 870 model in which the choke is not removable?

I believe the RemChoke was introduced in the '80-82 time frame. Before that they were set types. I'm not sure if the higher end 870s all come with the removable chokes or not.

 

[sheepdog324]

Brownells.com is a good source.