coach gun as a dual purpose.

[colroggal]

Hey y'all. So my wife is buying me a Stoeger coach gun next month for giving up the ol' cancer sticks. I've been toying with the idea of using it as a single shot grouse gun this fall with the second barrel kept in reserve for bear defense or close range encounters with bambi when I've got that tag burning a hole in my pocket. I don't want to mess with chokes so I'll be opening up the fixed imp and mod to cylinder bores. The main question is, what can I expect for accuracy with slugs out to about fifty yards?

Colin.

[catnthehat]

20" barrels?
The only thing to do for certain is to try a few different weights of slugs in it.
Many shoot way different with certain types of shells.
Cat

[colroggal]

Hey Cat, would I be better served finding an old Stevens 5100 or 311 and (cringe!) chopping it down. Dual triggers either case. I just figure the older guns might be better regulated. I do like the 3" chambers on the Stoeger.

My present grouse gun is a Cooey .410 (840 ) but in the past I have had some missed opportunities on getting my venision.

Colin

[catnthehat]

Originally Posted by colroggal

Hey Cat, would I be better served finding an old Stevens 5100 or 311 and (cringe!) chopping it down. Dual triggers either case. I just figure the older guns might be better regulated. I do like the 3" chambers on the Stoeger.

My present grouse gun is a Cooey .410 (840 ) but in the past I have had some missed opportunities on getting my venision.

Colin

Nope, as soon as you cu the barrels any length , the regulation goes out the window!
I would take that little coach gun hunting birds as well, simply because many people have told me they are no good for that!
Cat

[Tactical Lever]

Originally Posted by colroggal

Hey Cat, would I be better served finding an old Stevens 5100 or 311 and (cringe!) chopping it down. Dual triggers either case. I just figure the older guns might be better regulated. I do like the 3" chambers on the Stoeger.

My present grouse gun is a Cooey .410 (840 ) but in the past I have had some missed opportunities on getting my venision.

Colin

Have I got a deal for you! I'm selling a 5100 right now!

Originally Posted by catnthehat

Nope, as soon as you cu the barrels any length , the regulation goes out the window!
I would take that little coach gun hunting birds as well, simply because many people have told me they are no good for that!
Cat

I have heard that this is not the case with the old Savages. Something about them being soldered or brazed right to the ends, perhaps? If you tell me otherwise, I would be inclined to believe it however.

You can reregulate the barrels yourself however, with a little judicious use of a round file, after you epoxy, solder, or braze the ends of the barrels again.

For your particular use though, you would not have to cut the barrels. Regular Foster style slugs and buck will pass through fine.

If I was you, (and I kindof am, in a way) I would buy (and I did) a Baikal with interchangeable chokes. Mine has hammers. There is another version that is hammerless if you prefer.

The Stoeger Coach gun supreme also has interchangeable chokes.

[DakotaMiles]

Originally Posted by catnthehat

20" barrels?
The only thing to do for certain is to try a few different weights of slugs in it.
Many shoot way different with certain types of shells.
Cat

What Catnthehat said is true, I have a Mossberg 500 Persuader short barrel and after I put every slug I could find through it, Remington slugs consistently at 40 yards hit about 2 inch high and 1 inch to the right, good enough for me. No I haven't hunt I just like to know what my slug gun will do.

[catnthehat]

By the time one re- regulated the barrels ( not always possible but it can be done) the amount of time it took would not be worth my time to consider it, and the outcome cannot be guaranteed anyway!

Cat

[colroggal]

I like the coach gun's 20 inch barrels because when I break it down it just fits into my ruger 10/22's takedown bag. As for the chokes - yeah the Supreme makes sense with a recoil pad and nickle finish - most grouse are wacked inside 25 yards. My 410 patterns about 3 or 4 hits on a clay-sized target at that range. If I shoot anything tighter than cyl bore I can't see much meat being left on the bone.

I guess when it comes down to it I don't want to complicate a simple gun with screw in chokes.

6 1/2 lb coach gun, box of shells, game bag. Add water and a ziplock of trailmix and total kit is under 20 lb. Me likey.

Colin

[greylynx]

Those little coach guns in 12 gouge are one neat little gun for camping.

Milliseconds count when Yogi is ripping your tent apart...with you in it.

Legal instant massive firepower is at your finger tips.

And yes there are other cool things you can do with that little coachgun.

The new plastic stocked version is quite impressive.

[colroggal]

The coach gun will also replace my marlin 1895 as what my wife refers to as the 'bear necessities'.

[Ormachek]

No need to change the chokes at all. Pick some appropriate shot sizes for your game (I use #8 target loads for grouse, the pellets rarely make it into the breast) you shouldn't need to worry about the pattern being to tight, myself and others have shot many grouse with full chokes, no problem. I had a 20ga coach gun that I used for grouse, worked just fine. I also had No trouble hitting a dinner plate sized target at 50 with slugs.

[wasteland.soldier]

Originally Posted by catnthehat

Nope, as soon as you cu the barrels any length , the regulation goes out the window!
I would take that little coach gun hunting birds as well, simply because many people have told me they are no good for that!
Cat

If he has access to a metal lathe, it seems like it should be fairly simple to stick the barrel in a four jaw chuck and chamfer the inside diameter of the barrel. Can't imagine you'd have any loss of accuracy after that, but I could be wrong and have never done any gun smithing.