I’ve got a Remington 870 12ga SP that I can swap barrels on so tell me what all I need to know. Going on a hunt in Nov in pike co IL and figure I’d rather take a slug than ML. I’ve never done this. All my 20’s are drilled tapped with venoms on them so I’d rather just take this 12. Do I need a rifle barrel with rifled ckoke? Smooth barrel with rifled choke? All my searches leave me pretty up in the air on what to do.

Look man.....Shoot a Muzzleloader.....piss on them shotguns.....thank me later.....

Rifled barrel with a cantelever scope mount if the gun is not tapped and good sabot slug. Lots if great slugs out there, just have to find the best one for your gun.

Man, I bought a CVA rifled slug for less 200 if I recall.

Had a good trigger and it was accurate.

If I was going to use that rem I would get the rifled barrel.

My Dad has a 12ga 870 with a smooth bore and rifle sights that'll stack the cheap Winchester slugs at 100 yds. I can't see the rifle sights once it starts to get dusky, though. I'm thinking about setting up one of mine with a Vortex Venom. I don't know how it's gonna turn out.

I’d vote ml. Less recoil and 200 yards is a chip shot.

My ML shoots good but they’re just a major pain in the ass.

PM to ya, Matt

Dang I'd like to take that trip 😀 I've always wanted a 12 slug gun, but figured my 450 is good enough.

I had an 870 with a rifled cantilever barrel. To get it to group, I had to blue loc-tite the magazine cap on. Most of the guys that are shonuff serious about 870 slug guns have the barrels pinned to the receiver. I couldn’t get mine to group worth a damn until I loc-tited it and shot a few boxes of cheap lead slugs through it. After that it was pretty damn impressive with Hornady SST’s. If you have barrel play to receiver they won’t group for chit.

That’s interesting. I had the exact opposite experience.
I borrowed a 12 ga rifled cantilever slug gun from a friend, stuck it on my gun and it was a tack driver with the Remington Sluggers and the old Remington copper solids. I made the mistake of shooting a big doe head on. It went endzone to endzone and just made a mess. It was as if you picked that deer up and slammed it on the ground.

I have several slug guns with rifled barrels they all like different slugs. Id get 3 or 4 different kinds of slugs and shoot and see which brand it likes. .When you do find its favorite you should be able to shoot out to 200 yards with a 870.

My Savage 220 is a fine shooting' machine! It cost me north of $500 in slugs to find what it liked....... Remington or Federal 3 inch with Barnes bullet. It will NOT group any other brand/length of slugs and I bought at least 5 boxes of everything on the market.

That's crazy you spent equal to or greater than the purchase price just figuring out what works. Talk about finicky.

Had a rifled choke Mossberg that shot riflelike with Federals.

I don't know how to answer the question on shotguns because I have no idea what the cool kids are shooting nowadays, however, I have one you can borrow. It's an old High Standard with the barrel screwed into the receiver and it shoots good. Those were always the best shooting setups back in the day.

All the recommended slugs that other people get great groups with only shot a 6 or 8 inch group at 100 yards in my gun. I won’t take anything like that to the woods

My uncle has an old H&R Ultra Slug Hunter he used to used with his dad on some public land that required slugs. I bet that gun hasn't been shot in 20 plus years. I need to break it out.

If you're gonna tote a slug gun, and this is just an every now and then hunt, don't fool with a switch barrel gun like an 870. Spend the extra couple hundred (over the cost of a barrel), buy a Savage bolt action slug gun (though most prefer a 20, I'm a much bigger fan of a 12 for deer/slugs), and be done with it. Read Shaw's post about the kind of stuff that rears its head when fooling with a switch barrel gun. Will drive you crazy and waste LOTS of money on ammo in the process. Buy a Savage 212, buy some Remington Accutip 3" (2 3/4" won't shoot as good) slugs, and go mash one out to 200 with very little headache/practice/ammo cost required. You're a big boy, have shot tons of big rifles and turkey guns, etc. and the added recoil over a 20 isn't gonna bother you as long as you have good eye relief. I agree with you that muzzeloaders aren't worth the hassle. Especially ones that don't use smokeless powder.

Ya, I agree that 6-8MOA isn't acceptable.