Love rifled slug barrel, hate cost of sabotted ammo - solutions?

H Wally

H Wally

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Hi guys,

I'm in something of a quandry. I absolutely love my rifled 870 with rifle sights. Accurate, easy to shoot, fun all round.

Problem is that I really hate paying through the nose for saboted slugs for it. I mean - I can throw on a smooth barrel and shoot plain lead slugs for cheap, but the accuracy just isn't there.

Any brands out there that aren't $3 or way more per round?

I suppose I could also just be a cheapskate and shoot lead through my rifled barrel and clean it :p :eek:
 
I suppose sabots could become expensive if much range time is brought into the equation. However, in your case, if shooting distances (for hunting) are around the 50-65 yds mark then a smoothbore/compatible slug isn't a challenge.

Otherwise, in-line Muzzleloader ...... cost efficient and better accuracy performance out to 150 yds easily. Maintenance/handling is not so much a hassle as one would imagine prior to using one.
 
Well, the thing is I like the rifled barrel because I find I can take consistantly longer distance shots with it, and know for sure where the poi is going to be.

I would hunt with it if I could practice with it, but cost of ammo means I don't practice, therefore I don't take it out... but would really like to if I could solve this problem.

I would prefer a repeater as well, as the area I'll be moving to is a childhood haunt that has a very healthy population or large black and brown bears. While a lever 30-30 may be suitable, I don't feel like pushing my luck.
 
You could buy a Lyman sabot slug mold and load your own sabotted rounds. I guess the cost would be in getting set up to load shotshells. Anyway, you may want to look into it. Truthfully I don't know what the accuracy would be with the lyman slugs. If anyone has had any experience, please chime in.
 
I just put 3 Hornady sst's through the pipe to sight in and that's that. 1 or 2 shots off hand practice, and you already spent $15-20 eh. Isn't it fun? But a ethical shot and a dead animal is priceless.
 
Quigly said:
You could buy a Lyman sabot slug mold and load your own sabotted rounds. I guess the cost would be in getting set up to load shotshells. Anyway, you may want to look into it. Truthfully I don't know what the accuracy would be with the lyman slugs. If anyone has had any experience, please chime in.
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I'd be interested in that. Curious what the cost breakdown would be /rd once the setup was bought.

Winchested said:
I just put 3 Hornady sst's through the pipe to sight in and that's that. 1 or 2 shots off hand practice, and you already spent $15-20 eh. Isn't it fun? But a ethical shot and a dead animal is priceless.
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Heh - tell me about it. Once I choose a gun I tend to practice with it for quite a while, hence my beginning to think about this for next season :p. Makes me far more comfortable about taking some of the range of weird shots that come up hunting. Realistically with my current rd count through it, I could probably hunt with it quite ethically, but I'd rather practice more, and that means finding cheaper ammo.
 
I maybe a bit off-track on this.....anyway, I found the Rem Premier Accutip 2 3/4 in 20(and 12ga) to be the lowest at around $11+tax/box ..... still expensive if someone were to practise regularly.
 
I use to have the Remington 870 rifled barrel and I to found it too expensive to practice with at the range. I got rid of it and bought a Multi purpose Remington 12g barrel with a cantlever for a scope. I screwed in an improved cylinder choke and was very impressed with the accuracy. It came with a rifled choke also and I put a few sabots through it but I really didn't notice any difference in the accuracy.
 
All I can say is challanger slugs thay work well in both barrels and wont lead fowel your rifle barrel it even says on the box that you can use them in both smooth and rifled barrels. Try them you will love them 15$ to 20$ a box of 10.
 
I simply lucked out.
I bought a Benelli SBE1 a few years ago and decided to drill and tap for a scope.

A friend bought an off brand rifled choke tube for it from Cabellas, and being the cheap bastard that I am, I tried low end ammo first.

The Winchester 1oz slugs at about a buck a shot were the finest.
She got less than 3 inch groups at 100 yds, bench rest.

I was very happy knowing I could practice more, and pay way less, with some nice groupings to show off.

With deer killing accuracy to maybe 125 yds, but so far they have only been about 50 yds or less, but all hits were heart, lung. Very lethal combination.:D
 
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