Shotgun Barrel
 

My brother in law sent me an e-mail with a couple questions about shotgun barrels. He's got an .870 and is looking into buying a short barrel for home defense. Here are his direct questions and comments:

1. Why would I want rifled sights instead of a bead sight? (much harder to find rifled sights on an 18.5" barrel)
2. Would there be any reason for me to get 'Breacher Barrel'?? (see pics) I know they are designed for 'entry breaching', but curious about home use for this barrel.

I've never used rifle sights on a shotgun. I always thought that was the beauty of a shotgun in close quarters...just point and shoot. But the answer to question 1 is pretty straight forward I guess...if you have the time to aim you have a better chance of hitting your target where you want. I really don't see the necessity or the point of having a "breacher barrel" for close quarters home security either. Maybe some of you have some other thoughts.

Any insight or opinions from you gun gurus?

If he regularly needs to use a shotgun to open the doors of his house, then he MIGHT have a need for it. Otherwise, it makes him look like an armchair commando (except to other armchair warriors).

The rifle sights are handy for shooting slugs. If he is not using slugs , he is better off with a bead or one of the various light gathering sights.

If he wants to dump money on a custom barrel, have him contact Hans Vang and get a Vang barrel for his 870. Then he will have a shotgun that will shoot some unbelievably tight patterns.

HTH.

TR

I personally like a raised rib with two(2) beads on a short barrel. The rib promotes eye alignment and the beads give you a rudimentary sight.. If he has plans to hunt deer or turkey,, rifle sights might be better..

There are a couple reasons to put a breaching gizmo on your brothers shotgun

1)WOW factor,, it will impress the ladies,, and his buds

2)Medical Insurance,, a breacher is not a flash hider not is it a muzzle brake,, it's there to dissipate some of the energy that comes out the business end,, hopefully so it doesn't blow back into the shooters face & body,, when the device is placed against a hard surface..

3)Night Illumination Device,, Any time you put a device on the end of a shortened barrel, other than a flash hider, that device will tend to spread the un-burnt power into a 100,000 watt lighting device,, effectively blinding both the shooter & shoootee,, ego: promotes poor SA.. (c the 3rd pic in my album,, AMD-65 w/ 12.5" barrel, 7.62x39, at dusk,, 3 ft ball of fire) and if your using NV,, a supper wow,, eh??

4)Just cause he wants one,, nuff said..

My album of miscellaneous toys, feel free to copy, pls don't link..

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/...794157/1782973

Good Luck

There is also a reason that Beads are used. They are easier to acquire when quick response to a moving object is the mission.

Take care.
Martin

Your BiL also needs to research OAL requirements. Most breacher barrels I've seen/used were short enough to be destructive devices, i.e. required licensing. Personally, I don't feel a need for one on my home defense gun. I'm sticking with the 18" rifle sight barrel on my 870. Bought it at Bass Pro Shop (factory barrel - relatively cheap, no legal issues) and kept the original bead sight barrel for skeet practice. Tell him to spend the extra money on a SureFire forend so he can see what's going bump in the night and leave the rest to the airsofters.

Very nice. I agree with each of you and appreciate your responses. You hit it on the head Reaper...he is one of these guys who just recently got into guns, has plenty of money to spend on them, and wants to have anything that looks cool...ie. Armchair commando.

Thanks again guys.

My Version
 

My 870 has a 20" barrel with bead. I chose that to accommodate an eight round tubular magazine extension.

You could poke his eye out if you decided not to shoot a perp with the sharp point knubs of that "breacher barrel". That is what a breacher barrel is suppose to look like? All this time I never knew we were using the wrong type of shotgun barrel to breach doors. :rolleyes:

I may very well be wrong, but I believe I heard it was designed that way (with the teeth, expansion chamber and slots) so you could make direct contact with the surface of what you were blasting and still have the necessary stand-off.

Shotgun nut here with stupid question... why can't a breacher just be an extended/ported choke tube (ala turkey hunting) with the teeth on the end? The one in the pic actually looks like a tube.

+1 on the Van comp barrels. I've shot an unchoked 18" VC along side of a very tightly choked turkey gun with 24" barrel. It'll defy what you think you know about patterning. Softball sized pattern out to 30 yards. Very pricey though.

Just a quick thought, and then I'll step back in lane. I picked up a Mossberg 500 20ga youth turkey gun for my son last spring. It has a very short barrel, and the stock is cut back to 12" Length of Pull. With it comes spacers, and recoil pads that allow you to add LOP to the gun as the kid get's older. A full sized barrel, and stock coupon for $50 off come with it. My point is... this gun is very "handy" feeling.... short, light, camo'd with fiber sites. When I took it down to the shortest LOP the first thing I thought of was that it would make a great home defense weapon, particularly if my wife ever had to grab it. 20ga is nothing to snicker at... there's plenty of 3" mag loads that will absolutely knock the dust off someone, and a 20ga sabot slug is serious. Given that the weapon is light, it tends to be a little "kicky", particularly with 3" mags. They're right at $300 out the door.

Just a thought.

O.K. sounds plausable, but Hatton rounds always worked fine for me without this device (in training and in combat), but I was only trained at Range 37, so maybe I have been needing this special widget all these years and never realized it till now.

I've always made direct contact with the door and frame and I never knew a Hatton round needed "standoff". I'm just jealous; another widget I should have created for guys to spend their money on because of a perceived need.

Is that choke on the breacher barrel made for inflicting pain on bg's like the Surefire flashlights with the points on the bezel?

It is to prevent barrel slippage on the breach site. They are suppose to "bite" into the door and frame.

CDI solution looking for a problem, brother. ;)

The "choke" on a shotgun is inside the barrel.

TR