Rifled Slugs

[AJ008]

Anyone ever make any deer kills with these? I like taking my great uncles side-by-side w/ hammers out with #6 in one tube and a slug in the other.
But I never got the chance to use the slug.

How accurate are they? I know the sabots can rival a center fire round, but what about the 1oz slug? Does it depend on the gun?

What about buck shot?

[intheXring22]

Well I hit a fawn :embara: perfect at 85yds exactly with a brenneke slug out of my full choked browning auto 5 with just a bead for a sight and shooting free hand. They are the best rifled slugs I have used.

[AJ008]

Doesnt Barnes make a slug? Is that rifled or a sabot?

[2-STROKE]

becareful you dont blow the gun up - there are some hot slugs out on the market these days... a standard remington rifled slug from a smooth bore ought to be good to 50 yards with relative efficiency - after that, its pure old fashioned luck!

[Davik]

I hunt with slugs out of necessity...and they are far more accurate than most people give them credit . I can shoot a 3" group at 100 yds with my 870 turkey gun and an Improved cyl choke tube in it...have taken deer out to 75 yds with one shot kills. I just bought a Mossberg 500 with a rifled barrel and cantilevered scope mount in 20 guage...I can't wait to try it out with saboted slugs...it should be a lightweight killer!

[chuck7413]

Here in NJ slugs are a necessity and deadly accurate. We have to have a sighting device if using slugs, so must slug guns have adjustable open sights or a scope. It is a very effective deer killer.
I have killed deer and a black bear using Lightfield slugs.

[AJ008]

So just put the beed on the deers chest and hope for the best?

[Davik]

Or you could get a set of Gobble Dots or the clip on rifle sights that screw on to the rib...either way, you aren't going to shoot over 75 yards anyway, you could use the dot very effectively that way.

[hoggin03]

Slugs are required in Illinois for shotgun season. I shoot Lightfields through my 870 with a rifled deer barrel. I sight in for 2" high at 50 yards and it is dead on at 100. They are 1.25 oz. slugs. I, as well as a bunch of people I know, use these slugs with great results. Personally, I have never had a deer live that I hit (can't say that I haven't missed though :embara: )

Also, I've heard good things about the new Hornaday slugs that came out last year. Supposedly, they are good out to 150 yards. I'm not comfortable shooting my 870 that far, but they may work for someone else.

I shot Remington Sluggers in my old 870 smooth bore, and I was happy with a 6" group at 50 yards. They flew all over the place.

[PABowhunt4life]

Winchester Super X 2 3/4" or 3" sabot slugs are WICKED out of my 870 with a fully rifled barrel. Sighted in 2" high @ 50 yards leaves me dead nuts on @ 100yards and a 5 shot group will touch at that distance. At 125 yards they are all still dead center but about 4-5" low of bullseye. For the record, mine is topped off with a Simmons 40mm Red Dot scope which is the best thing I have ever used for slug hunting, even better than some of the expensive scopes I have had on top of my slug gun.

At any rate, only one deer I have shot with these has not dropped on the spot and that was simply because she wanted to live. First shot took her directly through both lungs and busted her shoulder and she still traveled almost 400 yards before I caught up to her and put a second one in her to finish her off.


As for regular style slugs and smooth bore barrels, in a proficient shooters hands they can be deadly out to 50 yards or so, and that is just basically knowing you will keep them all in the black; it's not really "grouping" per se. Anything after 50 yards and you simply have to hope God guides it the rest of the way. Course you can always take the PA mentality and shoot off 5 of them as fast as you can figuring one of them will hit something.

[HotShot88]

with a Smooth bore gun, youre maximum range is 50-75 yards, with iron sights. I have seen good accuracy through a smmoth bore gun out to 100-125 yards with a good scope. If you were to use a rifled barrel, especially a cantilever, you can get accuracy out to 150-200 yards. For a smoothbore gun, I have never seen any slug as good as a Winchester Super X. Last year I was using a Remington 11-87 with a Hastings Cantilever barrel and a bushnell scope shoot Brenneke Heavy Field Short Mags. These slugs shot excellent out of my gun, even better then Remington Core Lokts that are about 3 times the price. I shot my buck at 94 yards with it last year. The slug went through, hit the opposite shoulder and absolutely destroyed it. Slugs have definate knock down power, and are more accurate then people give them credit for. My advice is to get several different kinds of slugs and shoot them. I have shot slug guns for years and have found that different guns like different slugs. Get your gun matched up with the right slug, and you have a deer killing machine.

[Wolfman88]

Dont forget that side by side shotguns have the barrels set to impact the same spot at 30-40yds.. beyond that depending on which barrel has the slug your point of impact will be left or right of wher you are pointing it.In that gun you are better off whith buckshot. before using a barns slug ( Its a very hot load) in that type uf gun I would have to consider how mutch i value my face, arms, and fingers.

[indiana redneck]

I use Lightfield's in my Browning Gold Deer Hunter 12ga. & have shot deer out to 110yds & every deer i have hit with them drop in there track's.

[AJ008]

Dont forget that side by side shotguns have the barrels set to impact the same spot at 30-40yds.. beyond that depending on which barrel has the slug your point of impact will be left or right of wher you are pointing it.In that gun you are better off whith buckshot. before using a barns slug ( Its a very hot load) in that type uf gun I would have to consider how mutch i value my face, arms, and fingers.

Is buckshot pretty effective? Whats the range?

[AllenRead]

I was shooting a slug gun a few years ago. At the time, I had to try various slug to find the one that shot the best from my gun. It seems to involve barrel vibration and slug velocity. Some guns shoot best with the hot loads and others prefer the "reduced recoil" rounds. My shoulder liked the reduced recoil loads.

They can definitely be accurate out to 100 yds and more if you put in the time to set up your gun. Most shooters will do better holding their shots to 50 yards or less.

[RecurveArcher]

I've shot all my firearm season deer with a Benelli Nova 12 ga., smoothbore, improved cylinder shooting Winchester super-X rifled slugs. I've got a rib mounted adjustable turkey sight for aiming. I can get 3 inch groups at 50 yds, and 6 inch groups at 100. All my kills have been one shot deals, except for one. Rifled slugs are a lot more accurate than people give them credit for, but about using a double barreled gun I would be a little more skeptical. Keep it under 40 yds or so and you will probably do just fine, but if you're looking for more range, get a single barrel with a sight system on it.

[Wolfman88]

Is buckshot pretty effective? Whats the range?
The only gun my grandfather ever owned was a side by side 12ga. He always loaded the same as you want to do. every time he wet out he would leave with his trusty shotgun wearing his Elmer Fudd suite. he always came home with a dozen or so rabbits and dragging a deer. he used 00buckshot and #6 smallgame. I dont eat antlers so I always head shoot with my 20ga. useing #4 buckshot out to 40 yards. The sport is called hunting the idea is to get as CLOSE as possible. Long range Shooting is not HUNTING it is being a sniper. If you want to be a sniper then uncle Sam wants you.

[4 - blade fixed]

my slug gun set up is a remington 11-87 sps 12 ga with a fully rifled cantilever barrel with a 1.75 x 4 bushnell scope and weaver rings. the ammo that I use is the Federal Barns Expanders. They shoot awesome out of this gun. I also had a custom trigger job done to it.

[ryersonhill]

i took a 209lb 9 point with a 20 ga shooting 3" brennekes or however you spell it it was devastating rolled him completely i will always use them up here in maine we don't have a lot of long shots they are perfect

[alwayslookin]

Out of that ol gun......don't expect much accuracy.....no real way to aim it.


I grew up in NY and til last yr we had to use shotguns.........if you set them up like a rifle.....they are great. Smoothbores can be accurate, but you have to choose your load and if you really want them to shoot, you have to tinker......exceptin for dumb luck.

My present slug gun is a TC Encore fully rifled 20 with a 1.5-5 scope shooting Winchester Platinum tips.......zeroed at 100 it shoots almost identical to my 30-30 zeroed at 100......that is....about a 10" drop.......my 30-30 is still more accurate.......but a 200 yard shot with a slug gun was unthinkable 15 years ago.

And don't shoot real hot slugs in that double..........it may not be safe.

[Wolfman88]

The guy down the street from me says where he lives up north they can use a .410 he has an 8pt. on the wall that he says he shot at 90yds. with a .410 single shot 2 years ago. ????

[ihuntforchrst]

Well I hit a fawn :embara: perfect at 85yds exactly with a brenneke slug out of my full choked browning auto 5 with just a bead for a sight and shooting free hand. They are the best rifled slugs I have used.

your not the only one who's shot fawns with the brenneke's. hate me for it, but i shot three nice fawns, and big fat doe with 'em. i shot 2 of the fawns in the head at 50 and 60 yards, the other was a shoulder hit, dropping the poor, little, tasty, critter, and i shot the doe in the neck killing her instanly.

i've grouped 5 shot at a 100yd with beed sites out of an 11-87, to where they were all touching, which was exactly where i wanted them to go.

i like 'em and i know everyone, exept one wierd guy, who hunts on our land uses them, and they work. buy some and try them they are real cheap.

[red44]

I had bought an improved cylinder "rifle sight" barrel for my 870 years ago and used a saddle mount scope set-up. The only problem was if you removed the barrel to clean or to use another barrel for birds you had to resight the scope when you put it back on. Now I use the same barrel but put a williams peep site on the reciever and replaced the rem bead with a smaller one. I can do 3" groups all day off the bench at 50 yards, Well OK not all day. It's no fun after a dozen shots or more because of recoil. Rem sluggers, wincheser rifled slugs have grouped the best, but I have some federal tru-balls to try.

[Buksknr53]

My grandfather also had an old side by side with hammers or rabbit ears as he called them. He let me take it out a time or two to bust some bunnys. He always gave me a handful of paper shells and a lecture on never shooting modern ammo in that gun. I have seen first hand what will happen if you do. I saw one guys barrel curl up like Elmer Fudd's when he fired modern ammo in his old shotgun. Another guy got a face full of metal fragments. I still don't know how his eyes were spared.
I am now the owner of my grandfather's old shotgun. It's resting place is on a wall and is a great conversation piece.

[Newhunter1]

Talk about a sweet shooting gun! I just love it and the fact that I picked this gun up at a pawn shop for 150.00. Shoot just the scope alone is worth about 250.00 and the gun itself about 350.00.

Anyway this gun is a tack driver. I shoot lightfield 2 3/4 rifled sabot/slugs. Talk about deadly...this combo took a 135# doe and spun her in mid-air. Droped her deader than a doornail at 50 yards. Love this gun...

[mntngrown]

Hornady is making big claims about their new sst 12 ga sabot out to 100yds. I bought some but have not shot them. Anybody got experience with them?
I am using the rifled barrel on the Mossberg.

[crazy wolf]

I put my slug gun away, Rather use my encore muzzleloader w/ a 250gr. hornady sabot W/ 150gr. pellets. Hits like a 7mm mag. also its good out to 200yds.

[kulprit]

I've been using the Federal Maximum Hi-Shock's for years, hits em like a ton of bricks :)

[Supershark]

Here in Ohio that is all we are aloud to use. Bow hunt, Muzzle load hunt and your gun season is reduced to a small caliber selection of .357 and larger and your rifle had better shoot a slug!

I prefer the simple winchester 1oz slugs. Shoot great out of my remington. I used breneke for a while and they were OK. But they got really scarce so I went back to the old faithfuls.

[nywell]

I shoot a Remington 870 with a Remington Rifled barrel and have a Leuopold 1X4 scope mounted. Ammo is the Remington 12 G.copper sabot slugs. This combo shoots great. I have killed lots of deer and am very confident in shooting out to 100 yards. Wouldn't trade for any other combo.

[Chad220]

old thread i know, Loose the side by side gun, its hard enough to get a smoothbore slug gun to shoot accuratly, spend a couple hundred and pick up a nice rifled barrel model and try a few diffrent brands of sabots, i preffer the federal barnes expander. And personally, i would not evan for a second think to shoot at a deer with buck shot, we are trying to give these animals quick clean kills with minimal suffering, not just pulling the trigger and hopeing the bb's connect someware.

[semobow]

Try to find some of the new Federal load. It's called the true ball slug. It is made just for smooth bore shotguns. My best friends son has had great luck with it in his sm oothbore mossberg.

http://www.federalcartridge.com/ballistics/Ammo_Search.aspx

[Tom D]

I have been experimenting with slugs for the past 7 years or so.

The bottom line for YOU is, take that SxS out and TRY slugs in it. Different guns (even of the same make and model) like different slugs and will shoot them to different points of impact and in different group sizes. By shooting at paper you will find out whether you are able to shoot tight enough groups to be confident in taking a deer with that gun; and if so, at what ranges. Very likely that old gun has a groove in the receiver and a big bead with no rib plus 2 different sized chokes -- and maybe you can shoot slugs ok with it and maybe not.

As far as buck shot goes, do the same thing. Punch some holes in paper at different distances and find out what is the range for you with that load with that gun. My brother used to shoot buckshot as his first round and put slugs in the rest of the magazine. When I asked him what range he figured his shot would be, his response was "maybe as far as 70 yards". I set up a bedsheet at 70 yards and put a dot on it for an aiming point. The buckshot was scattered all over that bedsheet with very little near the point of aim. He stood there in amazement and then said he wouldn't be shooting buckshot anymore.

As far as slug accuracy overall goes, it varies from gun to gun and type of ammo. I have shot slugs out of Mossberg pumps with rifled cantilevered barrels and scopes (I didn't try smoothbore barrels on this model), Remington 870's with iron sights (both fully rifled and RemChoke barrels), Remington 870's with cantilevered barrels and scopes (again, both fully rifled barrels and RemChoke barrels), and Remington 1187's with cantilevered barrels and scopes (again, both fully rifled barrels and RemChoke barrels).

Most of these guns with smooth bore barrels and Improved Cylinder chokes when properly set up will shoot 5-round 3-to-5 inch groups at 50 yards with the old rifled slugs. Change the choke to Rifled Choke shooting sabot slugs and the groups out of those same smoothbore barrels will shrink to one-hole to 3-inches at 50 yards.

Interestingly enough, great groups at 50 yards does not mean great groups at 100 yards. I had a Remington 870 pump with a fully rifled cantilevered barrel that shot 5 or 6 brands of ammo into 1-hole groups at 50 yards. ONLY ONE TYPE OF AMMO would group well at 100 yards and that gave me 3-inch groups. ALL the other types of ammo opened up the groups tremendously at 100 yards. The groups ranged as wide as 24 INCHES (YUP!!!) with the slugs key-holing and leaving a hole the size and shape of a finger in the paper!! Needless to say I bought a bunch of the kind of ammo that worked well for that gun once I found what it was.

Now I shoot an 870 with a smoothbore RemChoke cantilevered barrel. I got decent 50-yard groups with an Improved Cylinder choke and rifled slugs. But when I put the Rifled Choke in, the groups shrunk to 1-hole. That matched anything I ever got out of a fully rifled barrel. Where I hunt with slugs will be in very thick brush so I didn't test this gun at 100 yards. I also got smart and fitted the stock with a Decelerator recoil pad. Those slugs really hurt! Especially when you shoot as many of them as I do in testing out my equipment.

Long post, but I hope this helps! It if saves you a missed or wounded deer then I will be happy that you benefited from my ammo purchases (probably pushing $500 real hard!), my work, and my black-and-blue very sore shoulder!!!

[youthhunter3]

we cant use buck shot in manitoba or alberta so i use slugs and they are acurate enough to kill deer and they tear and huge hole in them i havent had one get away yet man slugs are perfectly fine i use federal slugs they work fine

[AJ008]

So a Win Super X slug or something else might blow up that old gun?

[gmherps]

I love slug gun hunting. I use Federal ammo from Walmart. I'm shooting a NEF Pardner Slugger II. Great gun!

[Tom D]

So a Win Super X slug or something else might blow up that old gun?

I have no idea what chamber pressures the high-speed versions of rifled slugs generate. My GUESS would be that Winchester knows there are old guns around that will be used for their Super X slugs and have kept the pressures below what would cause those old guns to destruct under firing. That is one of the reasons that .30-30 and .45-70 factory ammo is relatively weak. There are a lot of old guns in those calibers that are still being used.

If you are concerned, you should call the Winchester folks and ask them if your gun will withstand the chamber pressures those rounds generate. They will probably tell you that it depends on the condition of the firearm itself.

The points I made about your gun possibly not liking slugs well dealt with 4 other things.

1.) Can you establish a decent repeatable, accurate sight picture with the grooved receiver and bead. There is no rib. You won't be able to mount typical rifle sights on the gun. I had an over/under that I couldn't get a repeatable sight picture on for slug shooting to save my life!

2.) Rifled slugs work best out of Improved Cylinder chokes. That choke guides the slug and wad without ripping the round up or squeezing it out of shape. Any choke tighter than that tends to shave/squeeze the outer side of the slug and wad and won't necessarily do it in a consistent manner. If that is happening, your accuracy will suffer. Manufacturers make their smoothbore fixed-choke barrels with rifled sights with an Improved Cylinder choke for that reason.

3.) You have 2 different chokes in that gun. Most likely it is Full (left barrel) and Modified (right barrel). It MAY however be Modified (left barrel) and Improved Cylinder (right barrel). Regardless, the left barrel will shave or squash/squeeze more than the right and the effects of that will likely make the slugs fly differently from the 2 barrels. That means that the point of impact and accuracy will be affected differently in the 2 barrels.

4.) The barrels were manufactured to hit the same spot at 40 yards even though they started left and right of each other. The rounds are moving in a straight line which is close to but different than your straight line of sight to that spot. The line through each barrel will start outside your sight line and converge towards your sight line at a point 40 yards out. Those barrel flight lines will then diverge away from your line of sight beyond 40 yards.


The only way to tell whether you think that gun is suitable for hunting with slugs is to shoot some slugs out of it under controlled repeatable conditions and see if you like what happens.

[AJ008]

I have no idea what chamber pressures the high-speed versions of rifled slugs generate. My GUESS would be that Winchester knows there are old guns around that will be used for their Super X slugs and have kept the pressures below what would cause those old guns to destruct under firing. That is one of the reasons that .30-30 and .45-70 factory ammo is relatively weak. There are a lot of old guns in those calibers that are still being used.

If you are concerned, you should call the Winchester folks and ask them if your gun will withstand the chamber pressures those rounds generate. They will probably tell you that it depends on the condition of the firearm itself.

The points I made about your gun possibly not liking slugs well dealt with 4 other things.

1.) Can you establish a decent repeatable, accurate sight picture with the grooved receiver and bead. There is no rib. You won't be able to mount typical rifle sights on the gun. I had an over/under that I couldn't get a repeatable sight picture on for slug shooting to save my life!

2.) Rifled slugs work best out of Improved Cylinder chokes. That choke guides the slug and wad without ripping the round up or squeezing it out of shape. Any choke tighter than that tends to shave/squeeze the outer side of the slug and wad and won't necessarily do it in a consistent manner. If that is happening, your accuracy will suffer. Manufacturers make their smoothbore fixed-choke barrels with rifled sights with an Improved Cylinder choke for that reason.

3.) You have 2 different chokes in that gun. Most likely it is Full (left barrel) and Modified (right barrel). It MAY however be Modified (left barrel) and Improved Cylinder (right barrel). Regardless, the left barrel will shave or squash/squeeze more than the right and the effects of that will likely make the slugs fly differently from the 2 barrels. That means that the point of impact and accuracy will be affected differently in the 2 barrels.

4.) The barrels were manufactured to hit the same spot at 40 yards even though they started left and right of each other. The rounds are moving in a straight line which is close to but different than your straight line of sight to that spot. The line through each barrel will start outside your sight line and converge towards your sight line at a point 40 yards out. Those barrel flight lines will then diverge away from your line of sight beyond 40 yards.


The only way to tell whether you think that gun is suitable for hunting with slugs is to shoot some slugs out of it under controlled repeatable conditions and see if you like what happens.

I think this gun is before they started making chokes:wink: Yeah it should hang over the fire place, but that wouldn't be any fun!

[C.K]

6inch groups at 200 yards with a deer slayer3 shooting win.supremes or rem corloc slugs