Can you still shoot bird shot from a rifled barrel on a shotgun?

Question

I have a Mossberg 500 with a rifled barrel. Is it safe to shoot bird shot from it or do I have to get a replacement barrel?

Answer 1

Yes, you can. It won't hurt the barrel in the slightest as long as you use lead and not steel shot. Your patterns will be quite a bit worse, though. The rifling spins the shot cup and the shot goes all over the place when it leaves the barrel.

In response to the other poster....

Rifled barrels were designed to shoot saboted bullets and slugs. "Rifled slugs" are more "grooved" slugs than rifled since the grooves don't spin the slug at all. All the grooves on a "rifled slug" do is to allow the slug to compress so it fits out the end of the barrel without taking the last six inches of barrel with it.

If you want rifle accuracy, you have to rifle the barrel.

Recently, some folks have been adding rifled choke tubes instead of barrels. Changing choke tubes is easier and cheaper than changing barrels and apparently works just enough.

Answer 2

Yes you can. It's not a good idea to feed the rifled barrel a steady diet of the shot. A proper replacement barrel is not that expensive. Check out Midway or Cheaper Than Dirt.

Answer 3

I dont see why not.. no problems that I know of.. But it is primarily a slug barrel... (you can shoot bird shot out of a 22 or 38 even)

(what you really have to watch is shooting slugs outta an adjustable barrel choke barrel LOL) I'm not exactly sure what the purpose of having a rifled shotgun is though.. they make rifled slug shells for that..

Answer 4

Yes you can shoot it, but the pattern will be very wide, due to deformed shot leaving the barrel

Answer 5

Generally, some deformed shot flies off in odd directions and there's a relatively empty spot in the center of the pattern. Keep looking.

Answer 6

yes