Help!

[NYH1]

I put my fathers 11-87 20 ga. together and shot it today for the first time.  It has a 21 inch fully rifled barrel with the cantilever scope mount.  A Nikon 2-7x32mm Prostaff Shotgun Scope mounted in Leupold PRW low rings.  As I do with my 11-87 12 ga., I tighten the barrel nut as tight as I can get it with my hand and then I put a piece of nylon around it and I tighten it one more click with pair of channel locks.  The gun was clean and the barrel was dry.  I was shooting with both the front fore-end and rear stock resting on sand bags.

I shot at 25 yards first to make sure I was on paper.  The first round hit about 4 inches low and two inches to the left.  I adjusted the elevation and my next shot was about two inches high and still 2 inches to the left, right where expected it would be. 

Then I move to 100 yards.  My first shot was about five inches high and about four inches to the left.  I then made both elevation and windage adjustments to bring my group to the center of the target where I was aiming.  I fired two more shots and I couldn't believe it.  All over the place.  The first shot was about 8 inches high, the next shot was about three inches low.  Both shots stayed to the left.  All my shots at this point were with Hornady SST slugs.  I then tried a few Winchester Partition Golds and a few Remington Core Lokt Ultra slugs.  I got the same results.

I was extremely p*ssed off.  As I always do I took out my Remington 700 Classic in 280 Rem. and fired a four shot group at 100 yards that was about an inch and a half.  I then fired one shot at a 8 inch steel plate at 200 yards.....ping and it rocked back and forth. 

I'm getting similar groups with my 11-87 12 ga.  That problem is more of a scope problem.  I took my Leupold off of it and I can hear and feel something moving around inside when I shake it back and forth by my ear.  It's even more apparent when the scope is turned all the way down to 2 power.  Leupold told me I shouldn't hear anything and I sent it back.

This 20 ga. is killing me though.  Right before I left the range and the 20 ga. had cooled down for about 20 minutes, it was about 40° out, the gun was stone cold, as cold as the steel chair I was sitting on.  I fired my last three shots at 50 yards.  I moved on the first shot, the next two shot were touching.  The whole group was about three inches.  Again I moved on the first shot.  I'd like to think that my problem might be the barrel getting to warm.  I'm really not sure about this either though.  My first couple of shots at 100 yards were after the gun had cooled down for a while. 

I was really hoping that both our shotguns would shoot the higher velocity slugs 1900 to 2000 fps slugs.  I'll take all advise I can get.  I'm leaving for hunting camp Friday the 17th.  I'll probably only get to go to the range one more time before Friday. 

[dougk]

What ammo were you using for your last three shots?

[NYH1]

The last three shots were with Remington Core Lokt Ultra slugs.  I think I'm going to try Lightfield slugs. I talked to a good friend of mine last night. He knows a few guys that just couldn't get the 1900 plus fps slugs to shoot out of their guns. They went with slower velocity slugs and now they shoot great. I had a 870 12 ga. that would group Lightfields under 3 inches at 100 yards. Suddenly I regret selling that gun!

[WNY_Whitetailer]

My advise would be to shoot some of the slower stuff...1500 fps or in that area.  Some barrels do not like the ultra fast sabot slugs...I don't know what the twist rate is on your slug barrel but it is better to have a tight twist for those fast flying sabots like the Hornady SSTs and Win Partition Golds...

I shoot Lightfield Hybreds out of my H&R Ultra Slugger with excellent results...

[SHOOTALL]

To save you and me alot of typing , check out the TAR HUNT site , after you look at all the guns check out the section on shooting slugs , it helped me alot .
if you didn't hold the fore end tight that may have been your problem , the explanation on the site will explain the mechanics .  They make their money selling slug guns and if they can't get folks shooting them good then there will be few sales !
one of the things  that hurt a slug guns accy. is the length of time it takes to exit the bbl. the faster you get it out the less time you or recoil can affect it ! so a slower slug most likely won't be the cure .

[NYH1]

WNY_Whitetailer,  Remington's 20 ga. barrels have a 1:24 twist.

SHOOTALL,  I've been doing pretty much the same things shooting wise as TAR HUNT mentions on their site.  I guess I'll have to make more of an effort to make sure I'm doing it all the time.  They use Lightfield slugs too.     

[SHOOTALL]

I use the lightfield 3 inch slug  (in the red box ) and they work good in my savage slug gun , from their site and experience it seems the slug is slow out the bbl. and it gives the gun time to move . I wanted to shoot like it was a rifle and it just won't work that way .
To be fair my son uses Winchester slugs and his savage shoots them just as well .

[NYH1]

I went to the range today.  I used Lightfield Slugs.  I only tightened the barrel/mag. nut hand tight.  I didn't shoot more then three shots per group.  I wanted to shoot from a cold/cool barrel so I let it cool down after every three shot group.   

I zeroed two inches high at 50 yards like Lightfield recommends.  Once I got it zeroed it grouped great at 50 yards, a little over an inch.  I fired a few round at 100 yards.  The first few shots grouped about 4 inches.  To be fair it was pretty windy.  I really didn't think it would shoot that well in the wind.

As dumb as this sounds, I don't think my barrel likes to be dirty.  I completely cleaned the gun last night.  The first fifteen shots all shot pretty well.  The last five didn't shoot that good.  I really think this was because the barrel was getting dirty. 

I'm a lot happier now then I was Sunday.           

[SHOOTALL]

that's great !