Bird shot through rifled barrel

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sam700

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How practical is it to shoot bird shot (say 7 1/2) out of a rifled barrel. I know it would ruin the pattern, but I was thinking it might be fun to bring some small game loads along if I don't have luck with the deer.

What would you say the max range would be before the pattern becomes too sporadic out of a rifled barrel to make reliable kills on pheasant/rabbit sized game.

Would repeated firing of non steel shot have any detrimental effect on the rifeling after time?
 
I've tried this a couple of times. Rifled barrel still looks and shoots fine. One day I'll get around to post the pics and details. Basically you'd be limited to about twenty five feet. Past that you start getting holes in the pattern, you'd be hard pressed to take any small game. I'd only use this set up for HD/SD in an extreme case.
 
I've heard that /\ before, but I don't get it since the sabots you typically use in rifled barrels are plastic too. Unless it's a different type of plastic. I don't personally have much experience with rifled barrels so I don't know?
 
How about, say, 12GA 2 3/4" buck? What kind of shot dispersion would you get inside of 25 yards?
 
What kind of shot dispersion would you get inside of 25 yards?

What make and model of rifled barrel?

barrels are very different from one to the next. Why don't you get a piece of posterboard ande report back to us with the results?
 
barrels are very different from one to the next. Why don't you get a piece of posterboard ande report back to us with the results?
Before I plunk down hundreds of dollars on a barrel, it would be nice to hear from others regarding what their performance has been when shooting buck thru a rifled barrel.....
 
Every shotgun barrel/choke/ammo combination is a law unto itself...
but Generally Speaking shot through rifled barrel performance is well.....poor at the very best.

If you have shot rounds with a 'shot cup', the rifling spins the shot cup, and the shot, resulting in the classic 'doughnut' pattern...gaping hole in the center.

Non-shot-cup rounds tend to deform the shot on the rifling, and leave A LOT of lead behind..again with poor patterns.
 
Because the shot spins in the rifled barrel, you will end up getting a donut type pattern which opens up farther out you get.
Most of the shot ends up missing the target.
Paradox guns which were rifled only at the muzzle and rifled choke tubes can improve the patterning to an extent but effective range will still be limited.
As stated in an earlier post, maximum effective range of the shot pattern will be no more than about 30 meters.
 
donuts

That Box of Truth article is worth looking at. It reinforces my own experience with shot and rifled barrels. Very limited effective range - nearly point blank so to speak.
YMMV.
The thing not covered is that, in addition to the donut and because of it, you aren't going to hit where you are actually aiming (assuming that, with buckshot, you are aiming). It's not just that the pattern is bigger; if the pattern were big and even, it might be useful but that's not what happens. In the B o' T article, the aim point was the middle of the torus - empty of shot in every case.
Pete
 
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