Shooting Clay Targets

[janus408]

I am looking at buying my first real gun and have decided to pick up a shotgun because of how much I love shooting clay targets. I also do a lot of backpacking (which will be taking me to BLM land once I get a shotgun) and wanted one that could stand up to any environment, so I was drawn to the Remington 870 Marine Magnum. It's resilience against corrosion seemed like an obvious choice for me, but after reading reviews on it (and stock 870s) I came across this review:
Remington 870 MM Review

FTA: "the gun is not suited AT ALL for shooting clay targets"

So am I going down the wrong road? I see a lot of these posts recommend Mossberg 500s and Remington 870s, but if both are not good trap guns, what is?

[fusionstar]

The marine magnum has a short barrel and no choke. Thats the only problem.

It has no problems shooting clays. Its not suited like a 26-30" barrel shotgun would but it can still shoot. There are replacement barrels for remington 870's, you can have a long barrel w/ choke for clay shooting and hunting, and have the short 18" barrel for home defense and shoot close distance clays. Busting clays out to 30 yards with a cylinder bore 18" is no problem at all.


edit, I should mention that I have the 870 express 18" model which is the exact same gun as the marine magnum but is not nickle plated. I have hunted doves with it and have taken birds out to 60 yards with the cylinder bore. So clay targets are no problem.

It is not ideal but it will get the job done.


Skeet chokes are .005" restriction or sometimes just cylinder .000" . So a 870 Marine Magnum would technically pattern very very similar to a gun with a skeet choke. Although your range would be shorter due to the loss in velocity from the shorter barrel, it wont be a dramatic loss.

[Argonaut]

Great review......You need to decide what kind of clay target shooting you want to do......We shot my 20" 870 HD on the SKEET range a couple of weeks ago...I am not a skeet shooter but my son shot 13 with it the first time out. On the TRAP range it would be pretty useless. For casual shooting who knows? Up close is better. I thought the 24" pattern at 20 yards was interesting......What would it be at 15' ? I am not sure that the extra expense of the "Marine" finish is really that necessary. The new (Ugly) black finishes are pretty durable in the weather. I think that a more normal barrel length with interchangeable choke tubes would be more versatile. I just bought a 24" Hasitings Wadlock barrel for my left hand Wingmaster.....It is coming with an IC, MOD, and Full chokes and a wrench.....135.00

[Hayashi Killian]

Another thing you need to consider when doing any kind of clays is your pump action. It's less likely to have a FTE or jam than a semiautomatic but the main problem is that the action of you pumping the gun will screw up your sight alignment and penalize you unnecessarily. A lot of pro clay shooters will recommend a double-barrel, either SXS or O/U for clay shooting. I'm not saying you can't do it, it just requires an extra handicap upon yourself.

Only other thing I can think of is what fusionstar has said, see if you can get a longer barrel for it that you can swap out for clay shooting explicitly. Preferably a barrel already threaded for chokes.

[PEBKAC]

Actually, I think the marked lack of chokes is probably one of the biggest reasons the model of MM you are looking at isn't suited for clays.

Based on my experience with the Benelli M4, which is hardly designed for clays, chokes make a huge difference. 18.5 barrel? No problem. PG stock? No problem. No chokes? A bit of a problem.

Just get a different barrel threaded for chokes. It's probably not too hard to find something for an 870.

[Revoman]

The 870 is a great all round shotgun. It can do most anything that you want it to do.
That being said each config has it's own set of limitations. The short barrels are not a good choice for trap or sporting clays shooting, but may be sufficeint for skeet. A longer barrel would be a better choice for trap and sporting clays.
Since you will be purchasing a shotgun, check out the difference, if any, in the cost of the extra barrel/s that you think may need. The shotgun will come with a barrel length of your choice. If the shorter barrel is less expensive to buy afterward, buy the longer barrel with chokes on the gun initially. Or vice versa.
I will say that you will be better served no matter what the clay target game with a longer barrel (and changable chokes) as it smoothes out the swing for a better, more fluid follow-through. A short barrel becomes fairly whippy when shooting clays.
With an 870 you will feel the full brunt of the recoil as well, where a semi-auto will take a part of that away. Doubles are a bit in between and I have shot some that are soft and some that feel more recoil than ever. A good over-sized recoil pad can be very beneficial.
One other thing, many police departments use the 870, and have for many years. If they hold up to that kind of abuse they should be fine for your shooting needs.
There are also different stocks that are available to suit the need as well. Trap, skeet, monte carlo, fiberglass, plastic, etc.

[FLIGHT762]

I don't believe anyone mentioned that some clay ranges will not allow a barrel length less than 24" to be used on their ranges. If you want the marine magnum, get a spare barrel with interchangeable chokes to shoot sporting clays or trap.

[forgiven]

^^^+1 Happens in So.Cal also.

[squatting_caveboy]

Mossberg 500A combo. 28" barrel and 18.5" barrel @ Big 5 @ $279. Now you have a clay gun and an HD gun in one.

[tube_ee]

In addition to the choke issue,

short shotguns just don't swing well on moving targets.

They balance really weird.

With a strong rearward weight bias, the muzzle (which determines where the shot cloud goes) wanders all over the place.

You're trading balance and pointability (the critical things for shotguns) for a compact weapon that is easy to maneuver in tight places.

I'd strongly recommend going with a standard configuration first. When you're good with it, then you can add a short barrel for defensive use. You'll also be a far, far better shotgunner, regardless of your configuration. Muscle memory and trained reflexes are critical to shooting shotguns well. They're very different from any other class of firearm. So different, in fact, that it's well into the "everything you know is wrong" category.

--Shannon

[rg_1111@yahoo.com]

You could get an 870 Trap grade shotgun.

[jamespres2001]

I don't believe anyone mentioned that some clay ranges will not allow a barrel length less than 24" to be used on their ranges. If you want the marine magnum, get a spare barrel with interchangeable chokes to shoot sporting clays or trap.

I know Sunnyvale has minimum Equipment:

* A shotgun with a minimum barrel length of 26"
* 3 dram powder charge, 7 1/2 shot maximum