Browning A-5 barrel change??

[jaymag]

Is it really worth going with a rifled barrel. I shoot both slugs and buckshot.In ma. thick hardwoods, and most shots are within 80yrds.So my cheap winchester super-x foster stlye slugs shoot great.Then follow up with 00 buck,when there're on the run.What is the feedback with rifled barrels on these guns.There is a few differant types?I'm just not sure if it it is worth it?I do have a bushnell banner 4x scope.I usually don't miss.But the sabots are so much more accurate????Hands down! What should I do?

[crowbeaner]

If you can afford the price of a replacement barrel for your A5, you can afford a new gun for expressly shooting slugs. A used Hastings barrel will be around $400 and up, and a smoothbore barrel will shoot out to 100 yards once you find the slugs that it likes. Finding the ammo it prefers is easy, but painful. Buy one box of 3 or 4 different kinds of foster or Truball loads, set up a paper target at 50 yards, settle the gun into your shoulder, grit your teeth and squeeze the trigger. My A5 prefers Federals above all else, but Winchesters will group quite well at 100 if I do my part. The newer RP loads will shoot OK out at 75, but after that they wander like a hog in a wheatfield. Those $4 a pop sabots are fine for people with fat wallets, but I can't afford the barrel or the ammo so I stick with the smoothie. I've killed plenty of deer with it, and as long as I can buy Federals, it will continue to do so.

[444]

I personally don't think it is worth it. YMMV

My smoothbore shotguns are more than accurate enough for hunting or any other PRACTICAL shooting inside 100 yards.

[Jeff Mulliken]

You can dind a decent A5 slug barrel for not too much $. It will be smoothbore but is plenty accurate to 100 yards. Use the iron sights on a barrel. Mounting a scope to an A5 is useless as the barrel "floats".

Jeff

[hogdogs]

Factory smoothbore "shot" barrels serve me great for shot and rifled slugs. I shoot slugs fine and dandy out to 60-80 yards just goffin' around...
Brent

[Boone]

I shoot a Browning Gold Riffled Slug gun with a 1x4.5 Nikon scope. I hunt 2 states with it and have made kills at 162 yds, 174 yds, and 198 yds. My friend has made a kill with a Rem 1100 at 210 yds. I hunt mostly hardwoods, and rarely have an open field shot. Yes you can shoot a riffled slug with accuracy under 100 yds, but its not going to do you any good if the big one is out there. I also use the $4 a pop sabot slugs because they simply outperform riffled slugs. I have tried different slugs, barrels, shotguns , and set ups. Riffled barrels work great at close range and long range.
Why limit yourself to close range shots when you don't have to.

I believe Hastings makes barrels for an Browning A5. It's been a while since I investigated it. There was a recall on some of them because they tended not to like Copper solid slugs. I used to shoot Rem Copper solids through a Rem 1100/Hastings riffled slug barrel, before the recall , without a problem.

You may also want to lower the power of your scope. a 4x at close range maks it hard to pick up running deer. I use 2x most of the time.

Get yourself a good Slug gun, You won't be sorry.