What I will tell you is back in my day, finding a sabot and barrel that worked together well was an expensive chore. Friends were blowing $600 on ammo to find the right combination.
What Shaman said is right. Back in the day, I shot a bunch of different stuff in a smoothbore. Mediocre results.
Then got a screw-in rifled choke and had to reshoot groups and found some different stuff that worked okay in it. But pretty much, meh.
Finally bought a fully-rifled barrel and after $300+ worth of ammo, found some decent stuff for it. Groups ranging between 3" and 18"+ at 100.
Well, that is until I happened upon a box of Remington Buckhammers and shot a box of them. Cloverleafs at 100 yards! Bought a couple more boxes and confirmed it. Talked to others who had similar results. Then learned that Remington was discontinuing them! Immediately went on a quest and bought all I could find- about 20 boxes- at about $13/ box (of 5).
Thought I was set for life. Turns out I was because a couple years after, Ohio opened up to "Pistol Cartridge Rifles". Got one and never looked back. Still have my 870 and the ammo though. I've had the gun for well over 30 years and have no plans of getting rid of it. Too many memories together.
