New Rifled Slug Barrel

As I mentioned in another post I am setting up a slug gun for my son. I have aquired a rifled barrel for his Mossberg 500.

Now, when it comes time to shoot, is there a process for shooting a new rifled slug barrel like you would for a rifle? Or do we just start punching holes?

What do you guys do when sightining in a new rifled slug barrel?

Clean the barrel as you would a rifle barrel first to remove the packaging oil and/or grease then just start shooting. If you shoot lead slugs, the barrel will get dirty and eventually effect accuracy. Lots and lots of choices as far as slug loads. How old is your Son? Is he of large enough stature to shoot full powered loads? If not Remington has a few offerings in reduced recoil that still kill well. Be best to avoid conditioning him into a chronic flinch if possible. Good luck! Glad you are introducing your Son into hunting.

Francis K wrote:

Now, when it comes time to shoot, is there a process for shooting a new rifled slug barrel like you would for a rifle? Or do we just start punching holes?

Congrats on your new slug gun. Should be a good one.

There is no process that “breaks in” a barrel. Rifle or shotgun. This is urban legend created by people who have no idea what they are talking about and some of the “procedures” I’ve seen repeated out there can actually damage a barrel rather than “break it in”.

From the first shot, a barrel is wearing out, NOT “breaking in”. Point of impact may change as you shoot a few rounds due to lead deposits in the rifling, but this is not breaking in, this is simply getting dirty.

Clean the barrel with a quality solvent to make sure any machining residue is removed from the barrel, then swab it until dry, and shoot it.

Grouse

robby wrote:

Clean the barrel as you would a rifle barrel first to remove the packaging oil and/or grease then just start shooting. If you shoot lead slugs, the barrel will get dirty and eventually effect accuracy. Lots and lots of choices as far as slug loads. How old is your Son? Is he of large enough stature to shoot full powered loads? If not Remington has a few offerings in reduced recoil that still kill well. Be best to avoid conditioning him into a chronic flinch if possible. Good luck! Glad you are introducing your Son into hunting.

Thanks for the suggestions.

He is pretty seasoned being 15 and with several pheasant, grouse and ducks under his belt. He also shoots trap/skeet on the school team.

It sounds like he has enough shooting to be beyond the flinch thing so he’ll be fine. One thing, are you scoping the gun? If so, get a scope with extended eye relief for now at least. Nothing will sour a kid shooting a scoped gun quicker than wearing that arch cut over his eye.

Tom Sawvell wrote:

It sounds like he has enough shooting to be beyond the flinch thing so he’ll be fine. One thing, are you scoping the gun? If so, get a scope with extended eye relief for now at least. Nothing will sour a kid shooting a scoped gun quicker than wearing that arch cut over his eye.

We are going with a Nikon ProStaff 2-7 x 32 for a shotgun. It’s advertised for 3.8″ of relief which should be enough to prevent a scope cut.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I have that scope on my .50 and its a dandy. You’ll be good with it.