A shotgun and other gun questions. [vanity]

There are different kinds of shotguns that shoot slugs, depending on use.

A smoothbore shotgun is typical. This is what you use to shoot skeet and hunt birds. This gun will shoot a rifled slug, as long as the gun is choked properly for the slug. First, you need to understand shotgun barrels. The choke of a shotgun alters the way the shot spreads after it leaves the barrel. Remember this mnemonic: O I M Full. Open choke has no choke constriction. The shot spreads out immediately after it leaves the barrel. I is improved cylinder. It keeps the shot together a little bit longer and is commonly used for hunting small game at 10-20 yards. M is modified and is used for 20-30 yard shots, like pheasant in a large field. Full is the tightest choke and is used for shots at 30-50 yards. This is typically duck and goose.

Slugs are solid lead moving at high speed. They don’t like to be constricted. They will be deformed and veer from the expected flight path. The use of slugs in a full choke barrel can damage the choke, too.

There are two kinds of slugs. Rifled slugs are solid lead with grooves molded in their sides. The grooves are supposed to impart spin as the slug moves through the barrel. It’s pretty much the exact opposite of the way rifling grooves in a barrel work on a smooth bullet. This system works, but it is not as accurate as a rifle. Most people can use it to hit a deer sized target out to fifty yards. I know a few guys who can do better, but they spend a lot of tme practicing and they are experts with their guns.

There are also sabot slugs. These use a plastic sabot around a sub-caliber bullet in a rifled barrel. The sabot gets its spin from the rifling and breaks away from the bullet when it leaves the barrel. These are remarkably accurate guns. Hunters can take deer at 200 yards with these guns. They often use scopes on them. Now imagine that you took the shot pellets out of a shotgun shell and put them on a record player. Turn on the record player and the shot will spin all over the place. This is why you don’t want to fire shot loads through a rifled barrel. It won’t hurt it, but it defeats the purpose.

You haven’t said why you want it, so I’m guessing either versatility or SHTF. You can get a Mossberg 500 or a Remington 870 combination gun relatively cheap. You can find used ones all over the place for not much money. They have a smoothbore barrel for shot loads. This is for hunting small game or skeet shooting. They also have a rifled barrel for slugs. Some rifled barrels have sights. Others have a scope mount attached to the barrel. When you take of the rifled barrel, the scope goes with it. You don’t have to adjust the scope when you put it back. The scope was always attached to the barrel.

You can also add a defensive barrel to the combination gun. This is a short barrel, 18”, that has rifle sights and an open choke. You can shoot rifled slugs or buckhot through it. The short length makes it easy to move around in a house. With those three barrels, you have one gun that is easily adapted for three different uses.

Regarding a .22 rimfire - the Riger 10/22 is probably the least expensive, most versatile, and most reliable of the lot. Don’t worry so much about the magazine capacity. Once they get over ten rounds, they start to get jamming issues. So what? Carry a few extra magazines and reload. The 10/22 is the best seller of all the .22 rifles by far. Repair and upgrade parts are available from numerous sources because of this. If civilization came to an end, 10/22 parts would be available for quite a while.; They would also be useful as a trade commodity.

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