Home defense barrel for 870.

[ragingbulldaily]

Looking for a barrel that will do good with buckshot. I don't know a lot about shotgun barrels. Do I want a improved cylinder bore? I'm going with a 18" parkerized. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Chief Brody]

A fixed Improved Cylinder choke barrel is a good choice for an all around/HD shotgun. I have an 18.5" Imp Cyl barrel with upgraded rifle sights on my 870 Police Mag. Does very well with shot and slugs.

[ragingbulldaily]

I have a 20" rifled barrel on it now, I thought that shooting buckshot through a rifled barrel was bad for the rifling and possibly messes with your pattern. Just a question, and thanks for your information.

[ragingbulldaily]

Sorry, thought you said rifled barrel, you said sights, my bad.

[Synchronizor]

As Chief Brody said, a fixed Improved Cylinder choke is a good choice for home defense. You can also find fixed-choke barrels with a tighter Modified choke, or an open Cylinder bore, but IC is a good middle ground. A bit of constriction to help tighten up buckshot, but open enough to play well with larger pellet sizes and most slugs. You can also find 18" or 18.5" barrels (18.5" seems to be more common than 18" these days) that are threaded for interchangeable choke tubes, but you generally don't need to worry about that level of fine-tuning at HD ranges, and fixed chokes are stronger and require less maintenance.

Also think about what sights you want. A simple front bead is quick and easy to use; it works very well for close-range defense, but you can also get on-target at longer ranges if you practice and the target isn't too small. Rifle sights are usually a bit slower to line up and require more practice to use effectively under stress, but they can be more precise at longer ranges. Both types can be upgraded with larger sights, brighter fiber-optic elements, or even self-illuminating tritium.

I have a 20" rifled barrel on it now, I thought that shooting buckshot through a rifled barrel was bad for the rifling and possibly messes with your pattern.

Buckshot is much softer than the barrel, and is often encased in a plastic shotcup, so it shouldn't hurt the rifling. Shooting shot loads through a rifled barrel does tend to screw with patterns though. Since the shot is spun, it'll spread out rapidly in a ring-shaped pattern once it leaves the barrel. It'll probably get the job done at bad-breath range, but past that, the payload's effectiveness will be pretty poor - especially with the very limited number of pellets in buckshot shells.

[ragingbulldaily]

Thanks for your information, much appreciated.