Using slugs in 870 Marine Magnum?

[Epizza]

Can slugs be fired in the Remy 870 marine magnum? I have a big debate with co-workers.

[jmb79]

The 870 Marine Magnum has electroless nickel plating on all metal parts and a cylinder bore. Other than the nickel plating, it is a standard 870. I can think of not reason why one could not shoot slugs through it.

What reason(s) were given for not being able to shoot slugs through the Marine Magnum?

[Epizza]

Originally posted by jmb79
The 870 Marine Magnum has electroless nickel plating on all metal parts and a cylinder bore. Other than the nickel plating, it is a standard 870. I can think of not reason why one could not shoot slugs through it.

What reason(s) were given for not being able to shoot slugs through the Marine Magnum? I'm thinking they thought it would damage the finish in the barrel??

[jmb79]

Slugs which are designed to be fired from the smooth bore of a shotgun have a plastic shell around them. The shell has rifling on it which causes the slug (and plastic shell)to spin, just like a regular bullet in a rifled barred.

Plastic from the plastic shell does become smeared on the inside of the barrel. After a slug shooting session, you will find a nice even plastic coating inside you barrel. This is true whether the barrel is blued, parkerized, stainless or nickel coated like the marine magnum.

The plastic is much softer than the barrel, especially when the barell has an electroless nickel coating. Using normal cleaning procedures, the plastic is removed when the barrel is cleaned. The plastic does not hurt the barrel.

Likewise, the carbon fouling that occurs in all firearms is not any worse when slugs are used than when buck or bird shot is used.

I have not owned a marine magnum but I have owned a Benelli Nova H2O. It too has electroless nickel plating on the barrel other metal parts. My Nova H2O saw many, many slugs and suffered no ill effects.

Bottom line, there is nothing about the Remington 870 Marine Magnum that or its electoless nickel plating that makes its more prone to damage from slug shooting or from any other type of shooting.

[Epizza]

Thanks guys.

[Glockdude1]

You can't hurt a Remington 870, no matter the finish. ;)

:cool:

[Blitzer]

Originally posted by jmb79
Slugs which are designed to be fired from the smooth bore of a shotgun have a plastic shell around them. The shell has rifling on it which causes the slug (and plastic shell)to spin, just like a regular bullet in a rifled barred.

Plastic from the plastic shell does become smeared on the inside of the barrel. After a slug shooting session, you will find a nice even plastic coating inside you barrel. This is true whether the barrel is blued, parkerized, stainless or nickel coated like the marine magnum.

The plastic is much softer than the barrel, especially when the barell has an electroless nickel coating. Using normal cleaning procedures, the plastic is removed when the barrel is cleaned. The plastic does not hurt the barrel.

Likewise, the carbon fouling that occurs in all firearms is not any worse when slugs are used than when buck or bird shot is used.

I have not owned a marine magnum but I have owned a Benelli Nova H2O. It too has electroless nickel plating on the barrel other metal parts. My Nova H2O saw many, many slugs and suffered no ill effects.

Bottom line, there is nothing about the Remington 870 Marine Magnum that or its electoless nickel plating that makes its more prone to damage from slug shooting or from any other type of shooting.

Only the discarding Sabot slug have the "plastic shell". Foster slugs a lead and will touch the bore of a smooth bore slug or shot barrel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shotgun_slug

Types

Many shotgun slugs are designed to be stable when fired from a smoothbore barrel, which lacks the rifling normally used to stabilize the projectile. The simplest shotgun slug is a round ball, which, since it is symmetric on all axes, will not significantly deviate from its path if it tumbles. Rifled slugs have what looks like rifling cast into the surface. This acts like fins to impart a spin on the slug as it exits the smooth barrel, and thus stabilizes the slug. Foster slugs are designed with a deep cup in the back, so that the center of mass is far forward and drag will tend to keep the slug moving point first. Many Foster slugs are also rifled; the forward mass of the slug helping keep it stable until the rifling begins to provide spin. A variation on the Foster design is the Brenneke slug, which uses a solid lead rifled projectile with an attached plastic, felt, or cellulose fiber wad that provides drag stabilization. Brenekke slugs are more suited for dangerous game, as the solid slug is less prone to deformation than the hollow Foster type (see terminal ballistics).

Saboted slugs are generally designed to be fired from a special rifled shotgun barrel. Saboted slugs are smaller than the bore diameter, and offer significant advantages in external ballistics with the reduced drag. Some shotgun slugs also use fins or a lightweight plastic portion in the rear to provide stability from smooth bores, and may be designed to work with or without sabots.

Shotgun slugs intended for use in smoothbore barrels need to be made out of very soft lead alloys or have a compressible sabot, as they must be able to fit through the restrictive choke present in most shotgun barrels. Even so, it is not recommended to fire slugs through very constrictive chokes, as the effort of compressing the slug will eventually flare the end of the barrel, effectively reducing the degree of choke... ;)

[jmb79]

Blitzer,

Right you are. I started my post thinking Foster and ended up writing about sabots. My apologies for the inaccurate descriptions.

Still, I stand by my conclusions regarding the compatibility of slugs and the 870 marine magnum.