Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting slug hunter ? - do rifled choke tubes work?

Slug hunters,

Remington is clearance pricing some of its extended tube rifled chokes and I was wondering how well they work?

Are they long enough to impart spin on a sabot slug?
(I assume they are for sabot slugs...)

I have one of the original Remington 11-87's that came with a rifled choke tube, I've must have shot 50 deer with it (Federal Sabot P154SS 2 3/4") and it groups about 3" at 100 yards. My father bought the same gun and a couple of years later bought a fully rifled barrel, it shoots about 3/4"-1" tighter!

Thats better than I thought.

I may have to try the choke as a back up slug gun.

I had a buddy that hunted with an 870/ rifled choke tube for years. He killed quite a few deer using the old 2 3/4 Federal Barnes offering at up to 75 yards. Best I recall, it grouped under 3" at 50 yards (his zero). That was good enough to get the job done.

IME not as good as rifled barrels but good enough for 50+/- yard shots

I have shot cloverleafs at 50 yards with a Browning extended rifled tube and plain old Forster type slugs.

After extensive testing with slugs in a 21" 870 I found that for my setup, the lightfield or Hastings type slugs that the sabot stayed with it to the target worked best with rifled chokes. It shot under 2" groups with the "lite" versions of each at 75 yards. I believe the the slower slugs seemed to handle slamming into the short rifled section at speed better, and still punched through deer past 75 yards.

Of course I saw nearly as good accuracy with the brenekke type slugs and a smooth bore.

I shot fosters in my 870 deer gun w Remchoke.
Did notice substantial fliers after a few shots (a couple inches at 50 yds). Choketube leaded badly.
Unscrew, clean and install.........was back on target.

To be honest my slug experience is limited. But just for reference I've been able to shoot 3-4" groups at 100 with a rifle sighted cylinder choked smooth bore on an 870. I always figured that would be good enough at close range.

I have shot most of my deer in New Jersey at 50 yards or less, I will have to say that I have shot more deer over 100 yards (late season deer in cut cornfields) with a slug gun than I have rifle hunting deer in Pa and NY!

They're better than a smoothbore slug barrel but not as good as a fully rifled barrel. I had a Remington smoothbore slug barrel (unthreaded) on my 870 Special Purpose Deer from 1987 when I got it up until about 2001. Could get about a 4" group at 100 with the smoothbore with Fosters like someone already mentioned. Had some friends with rifled choke tubes but I wasn't as impressed by them compared to what I saw with rifled barrels. Finally broke down and got a fully rifled Remington barrel. Had to get a whole new barrel anyway because my slug barrel couldn't take ANY choke tubes. So far I've yet to see a rifled choke tube that will outshoot a rifled barrel on a slug gun. Come to think of it; I can't recall the last time I saw a slug gun with a rifled choke tube. Looks like the fully rifled barrel is king of the slug gun world. Which is why Remington is clearance pricing rifled choke tubes. If it were really a question of money you could get a rifled tube and do better than a smoothbore but a better investment (in the long run) could be had with a fully rifled barrel.

OP here...

I just ordered a 870 tactical express that has a threaded breaching tube and XS ghost ring sights.

Besides bedroom closet duty, I may use it for turkey and could use it for deer if needed.

Remington has a clearance deal for an extended turkey choke tube and rifled deer choke set for $22 so that's my temptation.