Bought first shotgun, Rem. 870, plan to shoot birds and clays, what mods first?

[Biggfoot44]

Serious sporting clays shooters have more choke tubes than you can shake stick. While indeed , the modified is the one to have if you're only having one, the "standard " assortment is three. The traditional is full , mod , IC . But skeet makes a lot of sense for the open-er one instead.

Unless youbhave serious gun fit issues , you are good to go. At any trap/ skeet / sporting clays range you will be limited to max two rounds in gun , and that only for doubles.

Since you have no experience in this , and feel the need for initial knowledge , get at least one lesson from a good instructor.

 

[STeveZ]

*Install the correct choke (cylinder, improved cylinder or skeet for skeet shooting)

*Determine whether your stock's length is appropriate for you. If not have it lengthened or shortened.

*Get a pouch, vest or belt to hold your shells when you shoot.

 

[hasteranger]

went skeet shooting last weekend at peacemaker with a few other guys, had a great time and was hitting the clays pretty good. I got a skeet choke and it seemed to make a difference.
Good to know about the steel wool and dowel rod, 1000 rounds sounds like a lot but going through 75 rounds a time at the range adds up quick.

 

[sxs]

I'm late to this thread, but want to make a point...

IMHO an extended magazine is not of help in any hunting situation. For deer, it's rare to get more than 1 or 2 followup shots...The deer are usually on the run after the first shot. For birds, your gun MUST BY FEDERAL LAW be plugged so it can accept NO MORE than 3 rounds between the chamber and magazine. In fact an error 2 different friends have made in the past few years is to go deer hunting (using their rifle sight, fully rifled barrels), come home, take the gun out for early dove hunting the next year (changing to the 'field' barrel) and FORGET to put their plug back in! Both guys had the misfortune of have a Natural Resources Police person check their guns and levy a fine for having excess shell capacity. One of them stupidly remembered he forgot his plug when he was already in the field and just made a bad decision to continue hunting. And it doesn't matter you only have 3 loaded...excess capacity is enough for a fine although you may use a plug to reduce the magazine capacity. Otherwise most pumps and autos would always be in violation of the Migratory Bird Statute. Both knew better and were embarassed by what happened, but just didn't think. Home defense is the only legitimate reason in my opnion to have the extended mag, and as someone else stated, it changes the swing characteristics of the gun...and that means the extended tube itself will alter those characteristics....not to mention that an extended tube full of ammo would yield a rather heavy and cumbersome shotgun...exspecially when trying to swing it.