20ga Hornady SST Slug vs 44 Rem Mag

0faustus0 said:
Doug, I am assuming you are asking this question with respect to hunting. I mean I have never met anybody who does target practice and plinking with sabots ... they are just too expensive. At around $5.- per shot ... that would be an expensive fun time ....

A couple of thoughts .....

1.) 20ga sabots and 44 mag out of a carbine seem to have similar ballistics.

2.) Finding a sabot round that is accurate with your rifled shotgun barrel is not so easy with most guns/barrels. You will have to try several different brands of ammo and to try to find a sabot that your barrel likes. Expect to spend quite a bit of money to just find the sabot that your gun likes. And once you figured out what brand/sabot your barrel likes .... then you have to deal with the availability of that unique round .... I would buy a huge supply and to last me for years. But that is not cheap at $5.- per round!

Sadly, rifled shotgun barrels are finicky ... !!!

3.) If you are restricted to a shotgun only zone the question is at what distances are you thinking of shooting. Smoothbore (fullbore) slugs like the Challenger, Brenneke, or Foster are accurate enough for big game hunting to 50 and maybe 100 meters. But not further! So, if you think your shots will be within that range .... or you think you can limit yourself to that range ... I would go with a smooth bore shotgun with rifle sights or ghost rings. Full bore slugs are cheaper and smoothbore barrels with a fixed choke are not as finicky as rifled barrels. A rifled barrel and sabot slugs will extend range to maybe 150 to max 200 meters depending if you find a good sabot match to your barrel.

4.) Now, if you are not restricted by a shotgun only zone, then I am with Brybenn and Butcherbill .... I would go the 44 mag route. A larger variety of factory ammo will shoot accurately out of a 44 mag carbine and you have a much larger variety of ammo and bullet weights available to you .... and which all should shoot halfway decent out of your 44mag barrel/gun. Range is roughly the same as a 20ga sabot ... 75 to 150 meters lets say.

5.) There are some reports out there that the 12ga and 20ga Hornady SST do not expand well and that they leave a minimal to nearly no blood trail. I have no first hand experience of this .... But I came across a couple of reports about this on different forums. And to be honest I believe those reports .... I once tested a Winchester 12ga hollowpoint sabot for accuracy out of my rifled 12ga .... and after I finished testing ... I recovered some of those bullets from the sand backstop. Those hollow points had not expanded one bit. They basically looked as if they had not been shot. Those hollowpoints were designed for much higher velocities .... but Winchester used them in that 12ga sabot round.

Voila, hope this helps ....
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Huh. Learned a lot here thanks

Interesting thread overall.
 
the sst looks like the ftx .45 cal from catalogue they use it in the muzzle loader sabot also, .452 caliber and 250 gr is .175 SD and about same as a .430 cal 225 grain so for similar construction and impact velocities expect similar penetrations, although if the 20 gauge is moving a couple hundred fps faster it should be a whole nuther level of killy factor above the 44, I ran a savage 220f for a bit with slugs and took an antler less elk at 100 yards pretty easily, with the barnes load at the time which was a bigger 50 cal mono, the sst looks like it would be a good one, the 20 gauge is underrated for slugs and imo better option than 12 gauge, faster, higher sd's
 
https://www.fieldandstream.com/guns/best-20-gauge-slug-guns-for-deer-hunting/

the second one down the Benelli M2 semi-auto slugger in that article I don't think is made anymore but sure would be a versatile bush gun imo, I'm sure bird shot would come out of a rifled barrel like a sprinkler but maybe could still do some good grouse work in closer? but what can chuck 250 grains close to 2000 fps in semi-auto these days? not much, sounds like that Benelli was stinking accurate also, solid 100 yard hunter and or defence rig
 
0faustus0 said:
And with respect to what characteristics is a 20ga Challenger slug superior to a Hornady 20ga SST Sabot?

OP is looking for infos on the Hornady 20ga SST Sabot .... and which needs to be shot out of a rifled barrel!

Challenger slugs or Brennekes were never designed for rifled barrels ....
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Brenneke gold 3" mags are for rifles barrels only. Amazing slug to
 
-Doug- said:
Looking at box numbers would a 20ga slug be similar to a 44 Rem Mag coming out if a rifle (energy, drop…etc).
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I'll take the 44 Rem over the 20 ga slug guns, be they smooth or rifled bore. One can get better accuracy & killing power with the 44 using hardcast booits of proper
design, weight and hardness to plop the biggest critters at ranges inside 100 yds. Hardcast 44 boolits of 320-350+ gr driven at modest speeds from 1400-1700 will
blow through both shoulders of heavy game like cape buffalo and such from handguns let alone rifles.

The hype from the marketers of wizz-bang slug guns and ammo over the years has deluded many folks into a false sense of security when out in the field. Sure there be some weird & wonderful 20 ga, full bore rifles out there but not many folks will delve into that arena. Best part of running the 44 Rem mag fer me is the
compact light rifles like the Ruger 77/44 bolt action units and Marlin 1894, Winchester & Rossi M92's. The single shots offered by CVA, Traditions and Henry be
out there along with H&R/NEF units.
 
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