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Catfisher wrote:I have a remington 870 magnum. I might buy a barral. im not sure. What barral?

Son first off with a 20" barrel and trying to shoot the new Hypersonic steel is a combo I don't even have to check on paper. I know from years of experience this combo isn't going to work. Not saying you can't get consistant patterns from a 20' barrel but it sure is harder. The short barrel does make the gun easier to swing and point, but try shootin it in low light and it looks like a Roiman candle going off. Why? Because half your powder charge is going out the end of the barrel still burning! The barrel simply is not long enough to achieve full burn rate of the slower burning powders. (Which are required for heavier(magnum) loads) Look around and try to find a longer barrel first if possible. If one cannot be found reasonably then you can go to a factory Remington choke called a Ventilator. It's tight, very tight and it's stamped for lead only. It will still work though. Thing is, it's nearly 5 inches long and while the last inch and a half is ported it will give you some added barrel length. This is also the only way to "lengthen" your forcing cone as someone mentioned. I.E the choke is your forcing cone! Lots of rumors and myths about chokes and steel shot! Reason most people think a Mod for lead is like a full for steel is because the steel needs a longer forcing cone. (like buckshot) or any other large shot. You squeez the steel to quickly it will scatter much faster (often called blown patterns) It's all pretty complicated. My suggestion with what you have is to find you a good extended choke. (i.e. patternmaster, briley's long choke, primo's extended duck choke, or the ventilator and pattern it with a quality number 2 or 3 sized shot. It will shoot one or the other better. Chokes will either pattern the even or odd sized shot, but seldom both. My suggestions would be the Winchester Dryloc 1 3/8 oz load. This is prolly the best load on the market bar none! You can listen to all this crap about this cheap load or that's not needed if you want but believe me it (quality) does make a difference. I've been shootin ducks since 1961 and to be honest we kill ducks now with steel just as far if not further than we did with lead. Why? Quality! Components, guns, technology, everything has gotten much better since back in the days of lead. You can effectivly kill ducks out to 50 maybe even 60 yards with a 3" gun but it takes a lot of practice, some skill, and usually a little gun tweeking to kmake this happen regularly. There is no one (simple fix) to just make you gun shoot further. I hope I haven't completely confused you. Good luck. Feel free to p.m if necessary.

Catfisher wrote:ok, thanks yall, thanks chevy01234.

My gun barral is about 20" long.

GulfCoast, I have a 12ga. Remington 870 magnum, it came with a mod choke. The shells I have are Remington hypersonic steel, 1700fps, 3", 1 1/8oz., #2.(only thing they had at walmart when I went to get shells).

should I try different shells?

greenheadgrimreaper, i get what your sain. dont get stuff thats useless.

grant_c, good idea.

thanks.

I've never bird hunted with that short of a barrell. Always went 26" and Up. i shoot a 30". I'm not a gun expert, but i would think the 20" barrell would be some of your problem. Try a 26" with a choke and go from there. You should be putting no less than 80 pellets at 35 yards in about a 24" circle.

Catfisher, just to clarify, the barrel length is the distance from the actual muzzle to the face of the bolt, or where the back end of the shell rests just before you fire. The most accurate way is to have the gun unloaded, but have the chamber closed, as if you were going to fire it. Then run a dowel down the barrel until it stops, and measure the length of the dowel inside the gun. You may already know this, but I just want to make sure you aren't measuring the amount of barrel sticking out past the forearm, as I could see how someone would measure incorrectly by doing so. Typical barrel lengths are 26"-30", but home defense barrels could be around 20", and turkey barrels just over that.

BR549, your sain to try a different choke that adds a few inches, and use a different load cause this load shoots to fast for my gun right?

TrevorH454, thanks, I measured from the outside. which was 19 1/2" before. now that i measured from the inside I got 21 1/2".

I bet your problem is not so much that the gun won't shoot "far enough" but rather you are shooting behind your ducks for one reason or another: not enough leading or stopping your swing. A longer barrel will help correct both of those problems. I like a 26" barrel on an 870, but have shot them all the way up to 30" with great success.

And, like someone pointed out, learning how to set up well and work ducks in close will overcome lots of gun performance issues.