Hi all, I have searched for a solution for quite a while and hope tat someone can lend a hand to my issue.
So, I have two 24" 1301 Comp shotguns. A Gen 1 and a Gen 2. Both barrels, regardless of which action they were used on, patterned way to high. I could not increase the drop/lower the comb at all or I wouldn't even be able to see the beads, just the back of my receiver. The guns both patterned 3" high at 16 yards. I have tried a dozen or more brands, velocities, and weights of slugs and only one is less than a foot high at 100 yards. I added taller front sights (hi-viz tri-comp) and the guns both shoot birdshot to POA as long as I completely obstruct the front bead with the mid-bead. This is all wrong in my book as I have been shooting shotguns for skeet, sporting clays, 5-stand, and trap for years with several shotguns and all of them shoot 50/50 patterns when I either stack the beads like a figure-8, or if they do not have a mid-bead I just make sure to see a little rib as I sight down the gun to my target. I can adjust to this improper sight picture if I must (I've been shooting 3-gun with the Gen 1 for 7 years with good results), but I would much rather have a $1300 shotgun that shoots to proper POA like my $200 shotguns do.
The biggest issue is that the best performing slugs hit 8" high at 100 yards, which I find to be ridiculous. All my other shotguns shoot slugs dead on at 25 yards and to POA again at around 80 yards. Is there anything I can do to get better alignment of POA and POI? I'd rather not bend my barrels if at all possible since birdshot now patterns close enough to POA to be able to just shoot instead of remembering to hold 3" low on bay burner stages. I am not wanting to put rifle sights on the guns if possible as they shouldn't be necessary (they aren't needed on any of my other 9 shotguns to hit 1/2-scale IPSC steel at 100 yards), but also because I like to use these shotguns for clays sometimes and I find rifle sights on a shotgun to create an aggravating/distracting sight picture. I have heard of adjusting the magazine tube where it meets the receiver (not the extension, but the actual base of the tube) to help adjust the barrels POI, however, I can not get either gun's tubes to loosen with a strap wrench, and I'm unclear how it would affect the POI enough to matter even if I could remove and adjust them. I look forward to any advice that can be offered. Thanks!