Stupid Question from a New Guy

[SJJ]

I am looking at buying my first shotgun, and I have a really basic question: If I want to shoot skeet and hunt deer, can I do that with the same gun? That is, can I shoot regular shells and slugs with the same barrel? Or do I need to have a different barrels?

Beyond that, what other advice would you have for someone buying a shotgun for the first time.

Thanks!

[M.T. Pockets]

Welcome aboard, you'll get a lot of good, friendly advise on this forum from some very experienced folks.

Do you have a preference in action ? Pump, auto...

Do you have a budget in mind ?

Once these are known it would help narrow things down quite a bit.

For many years I only had one shotgun which I used for everything you mentioned. Many, many hunters still do use one shotgun for everything. You can shoot slugs through a smoothbore, but with today's improvements in slugs I would highly recommend a second, fully rifled barrel, along with a low-powered scope designed for shotguns. You can certainly shoot slugs through a smoothbore if you'd like, most people still do, but there are better options out there today.

Get a shotgun with variable chokes and you can get a lot more versatility out of a single shotgun. Have fun looking.

[skeet]

can do it all. Just have to pick the right one. Make sure it has screw chokes and is either a pump or semi auto. If need be you can put a rifled choke in the darn thing to shoot slugs.. Just my suggestion.. A semi auto in 12 ga..or 20 if you are recoil sensitive. Something like a Remington 11-87

[fabsroman]

SJJ,

Welcome to the board. MT and Skeet covered it pretty well. If you are recoil sensitive, you probably should get an auto. If not, you can get a pump. Remington makes an 870 that comes with both a smoothbore barrel and a rifled barrel so that you can hunt birds and big game.

I used to use a single shotgun for hunting almost everything. That was a Browning pump, otherwise known as a BPS. Yes, the screw in rifled choke tube will work with sabot type "slugs" but not as well as a fully rifled barrel. Sabots and a fully rifled barrel will allow you to shoot "slugs" out to 100+ yards.

Today, I use a Benelli Super Black Eagle for most of my shotgun hunting. A couple of years ago, I bought an ER Shaw rifled barrel for it and a couple of recoil reducers because the BPS was loosening my fillings from its recoil. I'm not a big guy, so recoil does beat me up somewhat.

What type of hunting are you planning on doing?

As far as skeet is concerned, that was one of my big reasons for buying the Benelli auto. I took the pump gun skeet shooting one day after duck hunting because I was doing poorly with it on ducks. Generally, I shot an over/under and scored in the 20's consistantly. Shooting the pump was completely awkward. Hence, the purchase of the auto. Now, I use an auto for most of my clay shooting.

[SJJ]

Thanks for the advice.

As far as budget, I don't have a particular figure, but I don't want to spend a ton. I am interested in getting a pump and was thinking that a Remington 870 or a Winchester 1300 would be in my price range, and they seem to have a lot of options within those two lines. Do you know if one or both of these have screw-in choke tubes?

I don't think that recoil is a big issue for me. I am 6"1" and about 190. I have on various occasions shot different guns including 30-06 and black powder during my years in the boy scouts and recoil was not a problem.

Also, any deer hunting that I do will most likely involve shooting at deer within 40-50 yards or less.

The main thing for me is to get a gun that will allow me to do a variety of shooting to get started. If I get serious about a particular kind of shooting, then I would probably get a second gun or a second barrel that was better for that.

I realize that I need to get out to a good gun store and talk to the folks there, but I like to have a good base of information before I start dealing with sales folks.

Thanks again.

[Adam Helmer]

SJJ,

You got lots of solid advice from the other guys. Most shotguns sold today have screw-in choke tubes. For skeet, a semi would do you better service on doubles than a pump, or at least I found a pump on doubles to be a problem.

Don't overlook the used gun racks in the gun shops. Many times you can find a shotgun that fits you for a good price. A deer barrel for your one shotgun will let you switch barrels from clays to deer hunting with a gun that fits you.

Adam

[JimHnSTL]

if you're talking about the 870wingmaster & not the ranegmaster i would go with the wingmaster hands down over the winchester and this from a guy who has a 1300. nice gun but the wingmaster is a better gun I.M.O.
also if you do have the money i would def. go with a two barrel set up you'll be much happier that you did however if you can't swing it now you can always add the other barrel later. one thing about the 870, there are more aftermarket barrels and such than you can shake a stick at so you can find something affordable. when you do get a slug barrel, get a fully rifled barrel with a cantilever scopemount. you say you will only be shooting 40-50 yds but one day you may be hunting another piece of property and wish you had 100 yd capabilities. with the cantilevered scopemount the scope stays with the barrel so when you swap barrels for deer hunting you should still be pretty much zero'd.

[fabsroman]

Like I said above, I agree with Adam about an auto being better for skeet than a pump unless you have shot a pump your entire life.

By the way, slugs have more recoil than a .30-06, so an auto would help in that department too. I could barely shoot 10 slugs in a singe sighting in session, but once I switched to the auto with the recoil reducers, I was able to shoot 50 at one sighting in with the new ER Shaw Barrel (i.e., went from 25, to 50, to 100 and tried several different loads at 100 to see what grouped best out of the barrel).

Like Jim said about the cantilever scope mount, the scope on the ER Shaw barrel comes off with the barrel so the zero remains on and I have a cantilever scope mount on my BPS also.

Okay, I just checked out the Remington site and none of the 870 combos have a cantilever scope mount barrel and the MSRP on them is between $450 and $480. You might want to think about spending the money on the auto, using a screw in rifled choke to shoot sabots at deer, which should be great out to 50 yards, and then worry about the fully rifled, cantilever scope mount barrel at a later date if you really like deer hunting. Something tells me you will be shooting a lot more shells at skeet than deer. Plus, a cantilever scope mount requires a scope, and that adds at least another $100 to the equation, in my case $200.

[M.T. Pockets]

SJJ,

For shooting slugs out to 50 yards or so, you can do that easily with a birdgun. Not as good as a rifled barrel, or with a scope. You won't be shooting 1" groups but you'll kill deer all day long. Most deer in slug zones are taken with this set up. Over the years I've shot a small herd with a BPS with a 28" tube (using the improved cyl. choke). Others have done the same with 870's, model 12's.......

My dad has a 1300 and in my opinion, I'd rather have an 870, BPS, or even an old Ithica 37. In this price range I wouldn't rule out the Nova either.

I shot a pump from ages 11 - 39, then I got an autoloader. I prefer the autoloader a great deal for birds & targets. For skeet I think you'd really like the autoloader. I still use a pump for deer.

Check out the used gun racks too, you don't have to spend a fortune to get a quality gun that will do what you want it to do for you.

[HANDGUNNER]

I grew up in Massachusetts, (ya I know, but I've since moved.) MA. was a shotgun only State and we used shotguns for everything. At first I had one gun for everything, but later on I had a bird and rabbit gun, deer gun...

With the screw in chokes you can have everything in the same gun. I like the 11-87 and 870 Remingtons, but I've heard that Mossbergs will take a beating and keep on going (just get beyond that rattle they make.) Look for the package deals at Walmart (on sale with a second slug barrel.) The only advise I have is don't seatle for something you won't want in six months. With everything I own now, the shotgun is still used more than anything else.

[Dom]

Boy, lots of good advice here, and I got a bunch of shotguns. But if I were going to try and have one to do it all, it would definitely be a two barrel setup pump, possibly a semi-auto. One smoothbore with choke set, and the other a cantilever setup rifled barrel with a scope shooting sabots. I just can't imagine going back to a smoothbore slinging slugs. The old saying 'can't hit the side of a barn' comes to mind. Just pop whichever barrel on for the task at hand. I'd take a Rem 870 over the Win 1300 because on the 1300 the scope mounts to the receiver vs. the cantilever system. Waidmannsheil, Dom.

[gd357]

The 1300 does have an available barrel with the cantilever scope mount. I've recently looked into it because I have an old smoothbore slug barrel for my winchester pump and have been thinking of upgrading. There are a few more options available for the 870 though. You won't go wrong either way. Good luck with you decision.

gd

[wrenchman]

I like the rems i have a 870 and 1187 but i know the mossberg is built well and if you get a combo you wouldnt have any problems.
My cousin beats his up every year and it is holding up he shot a bear with his 2 years ago and a couple deer with it last fall as
well as small game.