870 Pump Deer Gun

[lumbergreg]

I have an 870 pump (3 inch shells) that I"d like to dedicate to hunting only deer. I plan to mount an inexpensive 4 power scope and shoot slugs. Does anyone know....is it that simple? Do I need to do anything to the gun before I do this? Also, suggestions for deer load slugs? Thanks all.

 

[emrah1028]

I have a plain 'ol 870. 28" barrel with stock brass bead. No peep, no rear sight, no scope, no red dot. It can shoot Winchester Super X 2 3/4" 1 oz. slugs into a fist size hole at 100 yards. Scopes and sights help, but honestly, with some practice you can get pretty damn accurate with just a front bead.

Emrah

 

[JohnCushman]

I grew up hunting back east with a New England Arms single shot 12 guage with a bead up from and did pretty good with it

 

[Summitthunting]

2 gauge eh Cushman? You the man!

 

[DBear]

Does it have REM chokes? If so, there is a rifled one for slugs. If not, make sure it isn't a full choke.

 

[JohnCushman]

ooops...in my mind I typed 12...lol

 

[174in]

It should shoot foster slugs pretty good.I use my 11-87 in Minn with just a imp cyl choke and line up the brass and front bead and am able to touch slugs at 50yds without a whole lot of problems.100 yds is a little more of a struggle for me but still shouldnt be to much struggle on deer sized game. I didnt even practice much and it shot that well with a cheapo 15 pack of winchester walmart bargin slugs.With a scope you should do real well without spending a bunch of money.

 

[Phantom]

A fully rifled barrel with sabot slugs will be accurate at longer ranges than using the foster type slugs. I've been using an 11-87 for over 25 years with a slug barrel and rifled choke tube shooting cheapo federals through it. It has worked very well with only rifled sights. Put a fully rifled barrel on it last year and with hornandy sst sabots it is very accurate out to 150. Didn't really need it though as only shot came at 40. I think a red dot scope would be the ticket but just haven't done it yet.

Some hunting buddies use their "bird" barrel and shoot foster type slugs with decent success. If you go this route, try different brands of slugs as some shoot quite a bit different.

 

[emrah1028]

Yep. Mine's just a regular 'ol smooth bore with a Modified choke. I'm not really a hardcore "shotgunner" so I don't think I've switched out chokes more than once or twice in my life. The Modified stays in pretty much for life.

Emrah

 

[wyoming556]

Does it have REM chokes? If so, there is a rifled one for slugs. If not, make sure it isn't a full choke.

+1. I have had good luck shooting a smooth bore 1187 with an extended rifled choke. Several diferent slugs are made to shoot with rifled choke tubes as well.

 

[THWAK1]

Reason: cuz I'm a dumbass (Cushman)

Now you finally agree with all the newbs! LMAO!

 

[rhomas]

Since we use buckshot everywhere down here, except for Federal WMAs where slugs are required for deer, I can only tell you that there are thousands of deer killed with 870s in the South. It and the Mossberg 500 are probably the two most commonly owned pump shotguns around. The only time I ever hunted the WMA, I took Remington slugs for my Mossberg........and I've still got two boxes, since I didn't see anything to shoot.

Just as an aside, I've never understood why buckshot, and centerfire rifles are forbidden on the Fed. WMA, but black powder and slugs are! Doesn't make sense to this old redneck.

 

[cornfed]

Its almost that easy. In my younger days I had a nice buck at about 50 yards and the resulting shot blew off one antler. Enough was enough and I coined up and bought a hastings slug barrel and put a scope on it. No regrets. Just make sure you run one through it before hunting to check zero and you should be ready to go.

 

[1_pointer]

IMO, if you want to mount a scope I would purchase a barrel with a cantilevered scope mount. They are much more repeatable and stay sighted in much better than setups with the scope mounted on the reciever. In shotguns the barrel to reciever fit is a bit looser than that with a rifle, so having the scope attached to the barrel makes more sense. They are not that expensive and if you swap out the slug barrel for the smoothbore it's often very close to sighted in when going back to the slug barrel. I have two setup this way and don't think I would ever go back to a system of mounting the scope on the reciever.

 

[Waldgänger]

A fully rifled barrel with sabot slugs will be accurate at longer ranges than using the foster type slugs. I've been using an 11-87 for over 25 years with a slug barrel and rifled choke tube shooting cheapo federals through it. It has worked very well with only rifled sights. Put a fully rifled barrel on it last year and with hornandy sst sabots it is very accurate out to 150. Didn't really need it though as only shot came at 40. I think a red dot scope would be the ticket but just haven't done it yet.

Some hunting buddies use their "bird" barrel and shoot foster type slugs with decent success. If you go this route, try different brands of slugs as some shoot quite a bit different.

I have a rifled barrel for slugs and that plus saboted slugs is very nice as you say. There are counties in my state where centerfire rifles aren't allowed but shotguns w/ slugs are and this way you can get close to using a rifle. The only problem is that saboted slugs are very expensive, like over $3 a shell here locally. +1 to the guy who suggested a cantilevered scope mount in the rifled barrel. I switch back and forth from a smoothbore barrel to the rifled barrel.