11-87 slug gun accuracy

boecra

I am having trouble getting my cantilever slug barrel on my 20 ga 11-87 to shoot well. I have tried at least six different brands of slugs and can not get much better than a five inch group at 50 yds. I know the lock up isn't great on this shotgun, have read that pinning the barrel to the receiver won't help with a cantilever barrel. Anyone have any experience with this set up? Would lapping with JB possibly help? Haven't done that, or even thought about it until this morning. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

charliemeyer007

Is your barrel rifled? Are you using a scope or a big reddot?
Which slugs have you tried exactly?

boecra

I am using an Aimpoint Comp C, 4moa dot on a Remington rifled cantilever. (Is there such a thing as a non-rifled cantilever barrel? I've not heard of one.) I have tried Federal, Winchester, Hastings, and Remington ammo in some cases both 2 3/4 and 3 inch, a variety of bullet or slug weights as well, and always sabots. I do believe that one of those would have shot well if ammo was the problem, and I put the Aimpoint on my Benelli SBE with an ER Shaw rifled cant barrel and shoot better groups at 100 with that than I can with the 1187 at 50. Don't believe the sight is the problem either. I am searching for information on the feasibility or possibility of accurizing the gun.

boecra

Forgot to mention that when trying to get this thing to shoot I stuck a Leupold 2-7 on there to eliminate any point of aim issues and had no better results. It has been a couple of years since I did this, I recently dug the gun and barrel back out of the safe and am revisiting this project as I have a grand daughter interested in going deer hunting next year. I would be interested in opinions on pinning the barrel to the receiver. While I have read that it is of no benefit with a cantilever barrel, I'm not sure I buy that. Would there not be a similar benefit to that as there is to glass bedding a bolt rifle to prevent it from flopping around in the stock?

brier-49

A friend had the same problem, ended using Litefield slugs. It's now dead accurate.

boecra

Thank you for that. Will try some Lightfields too I guess. Getting more money tied up in ammo than I have in the dang barrel!

jaegermister

Your scope is attached directly to the barrel and your bolt locks directly to the barrel so pining would only be in desire to eliminate barrel movement during the slug travel time within the barrel. Slug travel time in the barrel varies with slug velocity consistency. Consistent velocity is controlled by quality of ammo.
Is your group all over or does it have a general direction from point of aim? Does the group show the same deviance with all ammo? You need to understand the problem then go in a direction of fixing it.

tsr1965

If there has been any of the standard rifled slugs/ foster type slugs shot in that barrel, then there in lays your problem. It needs to be surgically cleaned to get all of the lead out.

If I remember correctly, Mossberg makes the rifled slug barrels for Remington, or at least they used to. They will shoot a great foster type slug for 5-10 rounds, then accuracy goes down the tube, as the grroves fill up with lead. Then after that, it will not even shoot a sabbot slug, untill it is all cleaned.

Best

EDIT 1

quote:That 4 mil dot is not helping you either.

It is not a MIL, it is an MOA...big difference, as there are 3.6MOA=1MIL.

Even as such, there at 50 yards, a 4MOA dot is taking up 2 inches.

Best

boecra

There has never been anything but sabots shot from this barrel. The slugs print all over the place, no matter the brand. I have not yet tried the Lightfields mentioned yesterday in a previous post, but if ammo quality is the issue then the majors I mentioned are all poor quality. Which I doubt.

SCOUT5

I have found best consistency from barrel to barrel with remington copper solids. Not the fastest sabot round on the market but the most consistent I have found. All the barrels I have shot them from shot them okay, some very well.

I have not input on if it would help to pin the barrel as I do not have expereince with that.

For the price of a barrel you can about buy a single shot H&R with the heavy barrel and scope rail. I've had very good results with these guns and young hunters. I mount 3x9x40 rifle scopes on them. I know that isn't your question but I was typing anyway so tossed it in.

I do not know where you live. I live in Indiana and since we can now use some limited rifle rounds now if I buy another younster one of these it will be in .357mag. Because like you said, sabot ammo is a wallet killer.

Best wishes on starting your grand daughter on her adventures.

md1634

That 4 mil dot is not helping you either.

jaegermister

If your group is evenly scattered, 1st round to last falling randomly ,and you experience this with all ammo to the same degree, then I would suspect barrel movement at moment of slug exit varies from shot to shot. It is a two part problem. First see if the fps is consistent from shot to shot. If ok then start looking at your barrel. All barrels vibrate. As a projectile passes thru, and your case a rather large projectile, the barrel , and in your case a thin one, will respond by movement. Allowing the barrel to vibrate evenly, repeatably is one half the solution. The second half is making sure the projectile leaves the barrel at the same consistent speed and thus experiences the same consistent barrel exit. Fps is observable with a chronograph, gas port ejection effects pressure and thus fps.
I know all this sounds like general info but I can't give you a sure cure without knowing what the problem is. You can continue with empirical testing and hit upon the cure or you can spend more time figuring out what is causing the problem.

MG1890

Make sure the barrel nut is not too tight. Seems counterintuitive, but snug it down & back it off 1 click.