Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Shotgun bores

How smooth is a bore on a Remington express or say a mossberg compared to a Benelli, Beretta or maybe an older wingmaster ? The reason I’m asking is I’m thinking about finding a fieldmaster youth model.

Beretta and Benelli generally have chrome lined bores. Not gonna get smoother than that.

Easy to polish.

Underlying metal prep determines surface smoothness. Superimposed plating doesn't fill imperfections. Same as with bluing. But curious as to why bore smoothness is a criterion at all?

I have polished several bores to mirror finish. It takes about an hour or so depending on what you are starting with and is easy to do.
The couple of Remington Fieldmasters I have looked at, looked very nice. I would not be afraid of buying one.

I have polished all my "turkey" barrels... it makes a difference in patterns . Very easy... this is how I did it...


https://oldgobbler.com/Forum/index.php?topic=182.0

Following

Amazing that some win World shotgun Championships at targets from 15 yards out to 60 yards. Shoot thousands of rounds a year and never polish a barrel. Of course they spend time learning how to shoot vs worrying about polishing.

How often does a barrel need polished again before patterns go to hell? Or do they go to hell? How many shots does it take? Can you blame misses on a dirty barrel?

Hilarious!!!!

A pattern never missed a Turkey....Or how big a hole in a pattern would be necessary to not put enough well aimed shot on something the size of a Turkey.

at the end of the trap season i run a Outers full length bore cleaner rod thru my Berretta and Perazzi trap guns probably shoot 5,000 rounds thru these 2 shotguns with no cleaning of the inside of the barrel. never heard of anyone who polished a shotgun barrel ? Remington use to make better shotgun barrels 30 years ago i know my Remington trap TC shotguns have very good barrels on them . remember you get what you pay for. Pete53

"Something the size of a turkey" is not what you should be aiming for; the question should be how big a hole in the pattern would be necessary to not put enough well-aimed shot on something the size of a turkey's head? A patterning session will answer this question for you, as well as any difference between a polished barrel vs. un-polished, different chokes, different shells, etc. At some point downrange, a pattern does miss a turkey; patterning can tell you where that point is.

T-Y-Go, is spot on.

Apples and oranges, probably. Turkey through tight chokes, using latest-greatest non-tox, and I might not be surprised.

After all, when you polish the bore you are increasing relative constriction. See this with refinished guns that have bores lapped to get rid of pits, when the shop fails to address the choke section. A "mod" stamped gun can become a factual full-choke gun. Anyone besides me old enough to have heard of Stan Baker?

Patterns, gaussian (Rayleigh) by definition, can be tighter or more open. The word "better" is subjective and applies only if tighter or more open is what you happen to desire.

So you two are telling me, at some point down range every pattern is the same, and at that range every Turkey’s head would be centered. And the not so great pattern would all have the same lack of head hits. Or that the neck and breast hits don’t count for anything. Believe what you want, but don’t expect the rest of us too.

Or that perfect distance is where all Turkeys will be shot.
Or the Turkey will never move his head at the wrong time!
Or a pattern plate is only a two dimensional image of a three dimensional event? The pattern plate looks like they all arrived at the same time....they didn't.

Addition: And if you want to aim at a Turkeys head, then I won't tell you different. Jelly heads look great for the choke adds. However, the best odds are to aim where his neck joins the body and let a shotgun shell do what it does best. Cover the biggest area of the vitals.

Baker went beyond a polish and into overboring. You have to do more than polish to overbore.

For those looking for perfection in your Turkey gun. Send it to Eyster with your shell of choice. He will send you back a barrel with three chokes. Close-medium-far.

When you are ready to shoot the Turkey, put the right choke in and pull the trigger with complete confidence.

Which is also hilarious..

Your often-noted infatuation with shot strings is amusing. If there was ever a time when it is irrelevant, it is when shooting at a turkey.

You have a point...However, I will tell you this for certain. People who shoot a lot and most of them don't waste time posting of forums, don't worry all that much about what a pattern looks like on paper. They set up the shotgun to fit them and then work on their skills to hit what they are shooting at. I was talking with one of them two days ago. He has won a couple World Championships. And we were talking about clay shooters vs hunters and the often quoted line...He can hit clays, but he sucks at game. He said it just doesn't work that way. Shooters can shoot no matter what the game.

We were shooting targets from close to out to 60 yards....Not once did he ask what choke I had in. Or what it looked like on paper. He did say your initial move was wrong, your insertion was wrong, you didn't look correctly. When those errors were correct the target broke. I suspect it would be even easier with a Turkey standing there. How hard can it be to send a load of shot where enough shot will hit vitals.

Addition: Unless one wants to be cute and brag on Jelly Heads. Which may have its own issues.

Having said all that, I'm not one to obsess over minutiae like polishing barrels, either. But I'm not putting down anyone who does.

Why would any want to shoot a Turkey at 40 yards is getting to the real point. Most of mine have been killed flying after being put up by a Dog. So they were inside 40. And they died to 8's and 7.5 one ounce or less loads. Who would have thunk. The few I've called in were closer to 20-25 which means I don't have to be cute with going for head shots. A few crashed to IC and Mod which was more than adequate. Seems as if the new rage is how far one can brag they killed a Turkey. "Hey I polished the bore, found the best pattern, have a scope on my shotgun and whatever else. Now any Turkey smart enough to stay 40 yards distant is about to find out how dumb they really are. I paced it off....47 yards" Hell why even carry a call? Most times I could sneak up to 40 plus. And I wonder how many spring Birds are called in with that mentality.

And if they happen to be real close, I'll vote for a pattern that hits the Bird from top to bottom. Vitals, broken wings and legs. A jelly head is not any more impressive or dead.

Also a Turkey can take a hit and keep going. How many 40 yard Turkeys took a hit, still had their legs and ran away faster than the best could keep up? I'm not impressed.

However, back to polishing the bore. It is a waste of time in the realm of being a decent shotgun shooter. Or successful Turkey hunter. It's their time, waste it as they please. However, don't expect others who know better not to point it out. Pretty patterns never killed a single Bird.