21" 870 Youth + Tight Wad + Hevi13 6's

[Tom Foolery]

My little 20 is still unpolished but I am going to remedy that pretty quick.  I went to Wally World and bought a 20 dollar Tight Wad and cleaned it out good before screwing it in.  Shooting the 3" Hevi13 #6's I threw an even 98 at 42yds!  The 20" pattern looks very good also.  Hopefully a little elbow grease polishing this baby will improve my numbers some.  I would have never figured a 20 would do that well.

[dipitydo2003]

I clean and polished my 870 20 gauge 21" barrel and throw 137 Hevi #6's in 10"@ 40. It's a TURKEY BUSTER   

[dipitydo2003]

Forgotten to mention my choke Indian Creek .555

[Tom Foolery]

I have polished for about an hour now and I can't really tell any difference.  I guess I am really gonna have to lay into this one.



dipitydo, that's a great pattern.

[MERCing]

Keep us updated.

I'm curious to see how polishing your barrel affects the patterns. 

[surehuntsalot]

I picked up one of the Tightwad chokes for my 20ga 870 and tried the MagBlends through it,they were unbelievable

[Tom Foolery]

I picked up one of the Tightwad chokes for my 20ga 870 and tried the MagBlends through it,they were unbelievable

I saw that post, 206 - 12" @ 35yds I think? 


I am going to hopefully smooth out the bumps and humps in this barrel and get a few magblends this weekend along with some more 6's and 7's.  I would love to try the Fed HW 7's but no one carries them here.


I will keep this thread up with the polishing.  I have a 1/2" Craftsman drill that's comping to get at the little 20 gauge barrel.

[Tom Foolery]

Well, I broke out the big drill and made 200 passes with scotchbrite+320grit lapping compound.  I cleaned the barrel and if anything was different I could not see it.  I just decided to get mean with it.  I chucked up an old brush wrapped in some 00 steel wool and embedded it with valve grinding compound and soaked everything in Kroil.  After 100 more passes I have about 99% of the marks out and it is very shiney.  I am going 50 more passes then dropping to scotchbrite+320 compound and then to Mothers polish.

[Tom Foolery]

After mucho polishing-o I am finally done.  There is one spot in the barrel I am not happy with but it's going to take some doing to get it out.  The barrel is very smooth other than that and super shiney.  Weather permitting I am going to loose a few rounds tomorrow.

[bowhunter32]

arnt the tightwad and the j.h. the came e.d?.. if so they should shoot the same? maybe different internals?..jus askin cause i have a j.h.....didnt want to buy nother choke fer the remmy...

[Tom Foolery]

I am pretty sure the JH and Tightwad are both .570".  


I shot today, 59 degrees, 90% humidity, zero wind.  From a clean barrel it went 97 @ 42yds.  I was a little confused as it was this good prior to polishing.  I ran a brush up and down the bore and choke then just dry patched it out.  The next shot went 136 and the next went 123.  

I have not a 20" count yet but all three patterns were much better than the one prior to polishing.  Even the one that went 97 the 20" was much fuller and more even than the one from Wednesday.


Either it likes to be dirty, that's my kind of barrel   , or I had some oil left over in the bore on the first round and did not know it.

[thundrchikin]

Those are great #'s. That Titewad is a great little choke!!

[Tom Foolery]

Someone threw away my 20" circle maker so I used the top off our fire pit, it's 22".  I now see why the high two shots were so high, apperantly there must have been a lot of 7's in the loads.  From looking at the chart from here:  http://oldgobbler.com/Forum/index.php/topic,20425.0.html  I should have 239 #6's in the 1.25oz load.  I had 265 in the 22" circle on the 136 target, must be some little'uns in them.