Shotgun scope inaccurate?
I got my son a cantilevered rifled slug barrel and scope combination for his Mossberg 835, and the thing shoots all over the place. (No, the shooter is very accurate, ha ha.) We've checked the scope mounts, made sure the barrel is seated tightly, and tried different ammo and its still really inaccurate.
Is it possible that a scope can appear to be fine but be messed up inside and cause its center to to jump all around?
Is it possible that a scope can appear to be fine but be messed up inside and cause its center to to jump all around?
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what ammo are you using? sabots I hope 0 -
What type of scope are you using? I had a Remington 870 with the same type of mount and it never would hold a good zero...and I never figured out why. It could have been several things working in concert to make the groups wander, but I ended up selling the cantilevered barrel and went with a factory iron sighted smooth bore barrel and Foster slugs. The accuracy was great and I took several deer with it. Try looking at matching the slug type to the barrel type...some types of slugs don't work well with rifled barrels etc... 0 -
The scope on it is a Bushnell 3X-9X.
Sabots only. Iv'e tried Remington Copper solids, Winchesters, Hornady SST (those work great in my 1187) and federal premium. I've tried from pretty slow, light recoil loads to the hotter ones, and it doesn't seem to matter.0 -
Hello "SHOOTING ALL OVER THE PLACE" is a term that could be any thing . ARE you using SLUG? WHAT KIND? WHAT RANGE ? MOST shotguns should hold 6 inches at 50 yards some much better then that but remember the reason that we started putting rifling in barrels was because smooth bore does not make for a sniper rifle type accuracy. 0 -
Here's my experience... bought a rifled, cantilever barrell from rem for my 870. Came as a package deal with a scope already mounted. Was nothing but problems. "All over the place" First the scope is a cheap quality that came on mine. Second, it is not rated for shot gun recoil. Remington puts they same scope on all thier pre- scoped package deals. I fixed mine by getting a leupolde 3-9x 40 MUZZLE/SHOTGUN rated (says so right on the box) Have not had a bit of problem since. Holds zero from one season to next. I am zero'd at 100 and getting under 3 inch groups, some with overlapping others at 100 ydds. , and popping deer at 125. I believe the key here is the scope be shotgun rated no matter what brand you get. 0 -
P.S., I use the 2 3/4 remington buckhammer, however, this could lead to a mile long debate. Don't know why, but its true that each barrell likes a certain brand. Try a couple diiferent brands before you stock up on any one. Clean the the barrell btween each different brand. Find the one that works for you and go with it. Good luck 0 -
To answer your question yes it is possible to probable the scope is internally damaged. I've seen people shoot $100 worth of slugs trying to line up a $30 scope. I have several bushnell scopes that work fine but have seen many cheap scopes go bad with 12 gauge recoil. If possible buy a good scope, clean the barrel and start over. 0 -
I'll give two good pieces of advice.
Get a good fixed power shotgun scope from burris or nikon.
The average variable power Bushnell will not hold up to abuse very well, I have broke three of them two 3-9s and one 4-12. One was on a 22lr, the others where on a light .243win bolt, and a remington 742 30-06 carbine.. From what I have seen they just wont hold up to alot of recoil or hard use.
But first,
try to Wiggle the cantiliever, If there is any play what-so-ever no scope will fix your problem completely.
I have noticed on 2 of my 3 newer 870s, the magazine end caps that hold the barrel in place will unscrew themselves after every couple of rounds.
This may have an effect on accuracy because the scope mount is a part of the barrel.0 -
I would suggest not using a variable rifle scope on a 12 gauge. Get a good quality shotgun (like Burris, Leupold, Nikon) scope or a red dot scope. Then you will need to do some testing of shells to see what works best with this particular shotgun. Rejoice! You have reasons to shop and reasons to shoot. 0 -
I hunted deer with scoped shotguns for years and it became pretty obvious that lower priced scopes aren't going to last. I solved that problem by putting a Leupold VX-1 3-9x on my 11-87 with the cantilever barrel. No problems after that. I could get the occasional 1 3/4" group with Winchester Platinum tipped 400 gr sabots or Federal 3/4 oz Barnes sabots.
Whatever scope you use, watch that it has enough eye relief - for me 3" isn't enough but 4" is.
The advice to use a fixed power scope isn't bad, except when you go and buy a good one of those, I think you'll pay as much as one of the lower priced Leupolds cost. For the money, I really prefer to purchase the option of cranking that scope up for the longer shots (aka a variable). And if money is a huge problem, about the lowest cost Leupold is the 2-7 x, which you can probably pick up for around $ 150 with a little luck on the auctions.
And if this seems like too much to pay for a scope, it really is cheaper than going through 2 or 3 cheaper scopes and the possibility of a ruined hunt due to scope failure at just the wrong time.0
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