Has anyone drilled and tapped a receiver for scope bases?

[Robert]

I just Do Not Like the cantilevers, and I have an old ugly Mossberg that I am not worried about taking away the value of by drilling it.  The other option is the pretty Remington 1100 that I wouldnt dream of messing with, or putting a scoped barrel on my N.E.F with standard mounts.  Anyway...yes, the scope would be on the receiver, not the barrel, but It seems that it wouldnt be any worse for accuracy than a canilever that flexes up and down with the recoil.  I could use a little help figuring this out.  I want to get a rifled barrel, but dont know which gun.    
   Also...how good will a rifled choke work, rather than a fully rifled barel?
Sorry about all the questions, but slug shooting is something I just seem to be getting more and more interested in, and this might not be the right place, but it is the only place to ask, since it seems people want to vote down a slug gun forum.  If you guys want to keep it here, then here it is.  I want to know.

[Graybeard]

I've done it to a couple of Remington 870s and it works great with them. Dunno about the Mossy, isn't it made of aluminum? If so might not be enough holding power there.

GB

[Frog123]

Hey Robert


    You may try posting your question about drilling the shotgun receiver over on the gunsmithing forum. The moderator gunnut69 is very knowledgeable about such. My only concern would be drilling the mossberg's receiver, being made out of aluminum I would be afraid of the holes not taking and easily stripping out. I remember reading an article but I can't remember where I placed it but it dealt with drilling and tapping a hole in the top of the receiver and pinning the barrel in place. In theory this reduces play in the barrel to receiver and increases accuracy.
       Don't like the cantilevered barrel? can't understand why.    To each his own. I have a few different examples, a mossberg 835 12ga with a cantilevered barrel, an Ithaca 16ga deer slayer with a smooth bore and rifle sights and a Remington 870 with a smooth bore with the rifled Rem choke. Out of the three I like the 835 best. It's by far the most accurate. The Ithaca is accurate enough out to 50yds using foster style slugs, the Remington with the rifled choke tube is more accurate than the ithaca with the smooth bore. The Remington shoots the same group at 75yds with sabot slugs as the Ithaca does at 50 yds with conventional slugs. I tried shooting conventional foster slugs out of the rifled choke tube and didn't see any improvement in accuracy, out of the fully rifled barrel accuracy was actually worse. Instead of drilling the receiver have you considered using a saddle style scope mount. I placed one on the Remington. It's made by aimpoint and replaces the pins in the trigger group. It's extremely durable and solid. Just another option to consider.



Frog

[Robert]

Very good stuff, yeah, I didnt think about the aluminum. That saddle sounds great though.

[savageT]

Very good stuff, yeah, I didnt think about the aluminum. That saddle sounds great though.

B-Square makes a saddle mount for the Mossburg 500.  But, why not go with the cantelever barrel mounting? The scope stays with the barrel, not the receiver.  That's the whole idea for putting it on the barrel.  It doesn't mean a thing if it moves after the shot, does it?


http://www.reliablehost.com/bsquare/shotguncant.html

[Leftoverdj]

Putting a scope on the receiver of shotgun with a barrel with slop in the barrel to receiver fit just does not make sense. I tried it with a side mount on a Rem 870. Didn't help any.

To my mind the question is whether you want a shotgun with a little more range or a rifle that shoots shotgun shells. Once you put a scope on one, you lose most of the good features of a shotgun. If you want the quick handling snap shooting qualitied of a shotgun, a ghost ring rear and a post front sight is the way to go. Makes a decent deer killer out to 75 yards which is twice the range of the average deer kill in my state.

If you want a rifle that just happens to shoot shugs, buy one. The NEF is fine for a singleshot or the Encore. If you want a scope on the NEF, it's a lot easier to just buy the 10 gauge frame model in 12 gauge than to try to get a scope on the smaller model. 20 gauge is not a problem. There are or have been several bolt actions with rifled slug barrels. One more possibility is to find one of the older pumps with a steel receiver and a barrel threaded into it and have the barrel rifled.

[Graybeard]

My Rem. 870 that I mounted the scope on receiver of and had a rifled slug barrel on would shoot 2" groups at 100 yards using the Remington Copper Sabot Slugs. Dunno about slop but that's pretty dang good fer a shotgun.  

GB

[tms]

I'm with GB. My gunsmith drilled and tapped my 870 receiver and installed a base which I topped with a Bushnell Trophy 1.75-4 Circle X.
I leave the scope on and change the barrels for deer (rifled 20 inch) and turkey (28 inch turkey choke). Iknow the scope settings for the slugs and the shot and have found it very accurate with the slugs for the past 2 years.

[Leftoverdj]

Far be it from me to argue with success.

All I know is that scoping my 870 did not reduce my slug groups one bit from what I was getting with a peep and I much prefer the way the gun handles without it.

Could be that it takes the sabot rounds for the advantage to show up, but I simply cannot spend $2-$3 a shot to find out.

[Robert]

..and it was ME that asked specifically about scopes....but I am betting that LeftoverDJ is right that rifled sights might very well suit my needs.  But then I will have to decide between smooth bore or rifled...I must say that if a smoothbore will do the job, it could still be used effectively for shot and rifle sights wouldnt be half bad for Turkey either.  Decisions, decisions....I have a 3" mag barrel that is being shipped out to me tomorrow.....Can a vent rib be changed over easily to rifle sights?

[Graybeard]

Unless you use the rifled barrel and sabot slugs you aren't likely to get enough accuracy out of it for it to matter what sighting equipment you use. But on my wive's gun we used a screw in rifled replacement for choke tube and used the old foster slugs and she'd get about 2" at 50 yards with it.

GB

[Frog123]

I wouldn't try to remove that ventilated rib. A better solution would probably spend $20.00 and buy a set of rifle sights that clamp on to the rib. I've used a set in the past for turkey and found them well suited for hunting. Just my opinion.


Frog

[Bob_K]

I've had success with the Damar Scope Mount.  It is designed so the screw holes go at the transition from the top of the receiver to the sides, about 45 degrees.  The receiver is thicker there, so you end up with more threads.  The Damar scope mount is carried by Brownells, and I occassionally see them on eBay.