870 Talo choke and deer slug questions

[Snakum]

First, I just laid away an 870 Talo, which is basically the synthetic 870 express with tube extension and digital camo furniture. As I understand it this weapon uses a fixed choke and so a new barrel must be purchased in order to use various Rem chokes. Correct? (dealer was noncommital on that point)

Second, has anyone used the Remington rifled slugs in an Express synthetic for deer? If so, how are they? Accurate? Effective range? Knockdown? Most of my shots will be 75 yards or less when deer hunting. I'm trying to determine if the smooth bore Talo with a rifled slug is sufficient or if I should spring for a fully rifled 23 inch barrel. Thanks!

 

[Snakum]

No love for the shotty this week?

Sounds like I'll need a new barrel in order to mount Remingtons pointy breeching thingy with a built in muzzel brake. Bummer.

 

[Dave McCracken]

Lots of love for shotguns, snakum, even when they're called shotties.

Look at the muzzle of your shotgun.

After ascertaining it's empty, of course.

If you see a ring interrupted by two notches, your barrel is threaded for choke tubes and has one in there now.

Second, there's no ineffective 12 gauge slugs, especially inside 75 yards. As to accuracy, that can only be determined by you shooting them.

The usual procedure is to buy a variety of Forster and Brenekke slugs for a smoothbore. The sabots get best results in fully rifled barrels.

Bench test, find the most accurate, zero with same and buy a mess of those.

IMO, the fully rifled barrel/sabot combo is not needed for shot opps at normal whitetail ranges.

As for the breeching thing, not much use in civilian hands.

 

[Snakum]

Thanks for the info. I won't pick up the gun till Tuesday and I can't get a definititive answer on the choke question for this model. Everyone seemed uncertain. The breeching tool is also a muzzle brake, hence me wanting one. Also very handy to stab people in the face with (if you're inclined to that sort of thing, which I am from time to time ).

Thanks again.

 

[Dave McCracken]

Never had to stab anyone in the face while holding a shotgun, but I guess it can happen.

I'm not a big fan of muzzle breaks, ports,etc.

Let us know how things work out, please.

Thanks....

 

[Snakum]

LOL. I really only wanted a muzzle brake. The sharp pointy thingees were just tacticool. LOL. Alas, as I suspected, no adj. choke.

Picked up the gun last night and took it to the range. I'm using cheap Winchester white box bird shot just to get used to a pump again. Practicing reloads, indexing targets, transitions to and from the Glock. Even the mild 2 3/4 loads pack more shoulder whallop than I remembered, but it's fun to have another 870. I'm going to run a few rifled slugs thru it this weekend to see if the 18.5 HD barrel is good enough for deer this Fall. Should be fine out to 75 yards or so. I'll grab a 23" barrel next Spring for the gobblers and then I should have a do-it-all HD/Deer/Turkey gun. I can always get a 28" barrel later on if mamma wants to cook a goose or two.