Question about Firing Shotgun Slug Ammo

[bobcat220]

Heading to the range for my first time with slug ammo. Question: For these relatively short distances, what's the drop off in accuracy if I shoot slug from a smooth bore, rather than rifled?

I'm curious whether I'm hurting my chances during deer season shooting from a smooth bore...will it matter if my target's, say, 100yds or less from me?

[keystoneman 85]

What kind of slugs are you shooting?

Smooth bore = Rifled slggs
Rifled bore = Sabot slugs

[thefirstndsecond]

What distances?

What type of slugs?

What gauge, 12 or 20?

Not only drop at certain yards but also amount of energy down range.

[crazywolf]

with a smooth bore which is all I have.you have a couple of factors.what kind of slug and the choke in your barrel one of my shotguns with slugs it likes can hit a paper plate all day long at 75 yards.another shotgun has trouble at 50 yards.if you want the best out of your shotgun you need to get a couple of different slugs and see which one your gun likes.also what kind of sights do you have on your shotgun?this also is a factor on how well you will do. hope this helps.crazywolf

[ar15jules]

To the OP. Wether or not you are shooting a smoothbore or not, you just need to buy some different loads and head to the range and see what both you and your shotgun/load combo can do. I have seen some smoothbore shotguns that are more than capable of taking deer at 100 yards. I have seen some that are horrible at 50 yards. I have seen deer taken with a rifled shotgun at close to 150 yards. Go play at the range and have fun. Pad your shoulder! LOL
Jules

[bobcat220]

Thanks to all...let me clarify. My original gun is a REmington 870. My most recent purchase is a Remington 870 Rifled Deer, which I haven't fired yet; newby that I am, I assumed I would want a rifled bore for deer, not knowing there's rifled slug out there that will work from a smooth bore.

SO, i've got some 2 3/4 Lightfield Hybred EXP sabot to put through my new gun, unless...

Maybe I'll see if the existing weapon, with rifled slugs, gives me the accuracy and reliability I need to hunt deer, and if so I can get rid of my rifled gun and recover most of my investment.

I know alot of this "depends", but I guess we're all on a budget...any thoughts on this?

[bobcat220]

Many thanks for the feedback...

[jokusfocus]

I never had much luck accuracy wise with my smoothbore shotgun. At least not enough for me to confidently carry it in the woods.

However, I invested in a rifled barrel with cantilever sight rail on it, and love it. I like the optic on it (holds zero pretty well even after I take it off and put it back on).


But, no matter what you do, practice and try different ammo. Shotguns with slugs are worse than 22's, where each individual gun will have a 'favorite' ammunition it will shoot better than others. Sadly, 12GA slugs are not nearly the same price as 22's, so you'll have to decide what is good enough (balance performance vs. price).

And SOLID advice by ar15jules, sight-in days with a slug-gun are an experience in recoil (why I REALLY like only having to make minor changes to my optic whenever I change barrels).

[Chip W]

And SOLID advice by ar15jules, sight-in days with a slug-gun are an experience in recoil

Heck yeah. I headed to the range last Monday and took the slug barrel along seeing as I hadn't run anything through it yet. DAMN. I expected a kick but not quite that much.
An afternoon of #8 sport loads gradually working on you has nothing on just a single box of 5 slugs.

[str8shooter]

I'm not a sharpshooter by any means, but growing up all I had to hunt with was an all purpose 16 gauge J.C. Higgens POS. Open choke, no rifling.

I'd buy Remington or Winchester rifled slugs, which ever was cheapest, and at the beginning of each deer season take 3-5 shots at a paper plate 50, 75 and 100 yards away to measure the drop. IIRC, the drop may have been about 3 inches at 100 yards, so I'd just aim a tiny bit higher than the normal sweet spot for shots in that range.

All of my kills were 50+ yards and I never had a problem with not enough energy on impact for a clean kill. Every deer I hit (notice I didn't say shot at), I only had to hit once and they never ran farther than 25-50 yards after the hit before they fell stone dead. My dad used an Ithaca Deerslayer in 16 gauge, and with a scope he was getting clean kills past 150 yards, but he also shot some that we had to follow blood trails for quite a ways and required "finishing off" when we found them.

That was long ago and technology has advanced a lot, so my only point is that a rifled slug is more than sufficient for a deer at least up to 100 yards, not to say that it's the best way to go.