Sabot slugs need resizing for a rifled barrel?
- Thread starter ianwlkr72
- Start date
Yes, with the correct wad. My friend loads Lyman 12 ga. sabot slugs in Remington target hulls and shoots them out of a Remmy 870 with an extended rifled choke tube. Gets 3-4 inch groups @ 100 yards.
A "rifled slug" is a slug with rifling cast/swaged into it. They normally contact the bore and don't work well in rifled barrels (some exceptions). The "rifling" on the slug is both to allow it to more easily swage down through a choke (even a full choke) and some say it adds a very slight spin from air resistance to help gyroscopically stabilize it (others argue against this saying it's just a marketing gimmick).
A "foster slug" is any hollow-base slug designed to drag-stabilize in the air like a badminton shuttlecock. These can be smooth-sided or "rifled" slugs. Nearly all "rifled" slugs are also a foster design.
A "Brenneke" slug is a solid slug, usually rifled, but solid. There is usually a card or felt wad screwed into the base which causes the drag-stabilization effect without the slug being hollow (so you can get much heavier). These are usually "rifled" with the same pros, cons, and arguments as foster type "rifled" slugs. Even though these slugs are "rifled" they are reported to still work very well in rifled shotgun barrels.
A "sabot" slug is a projectile (often .50 pistol bullets) inside a sabot. A sabot is just a carrier that contacts the bore and separates from the slug after they leave the barrel. Sabot slugs are undersized (.500" to .635" are common for 12ga) with the (usually) plastic sabot taking up the extra space to bring them out to .720" to .730". A Lee slug (.690" diameter) inside a shotcup/wad is sort-of-technically-in-a-way a sabot slug but most consider it a foster slug in a shot cup (an odd arrangement not available in factory-produced ammo). A sabot can be smooth sided, rifled, tapered, angular, or any other shape. What makes it a sabot is the carrier it travels down the bore in which separates upon exiting. A sabot slug will usually tumble terribly out of a smooth-bore as they are designed to be spin-stabilized like a rifle bullet; they can't naturally drag-stabilize like a foster or Brenneke slug.
A "round ball" or sometimes a "pumpkin ball" is a spherical projectile of bore or near-bore diameter loaded in a shotshell usually individually but sometimes in pairs. Some people call these slugs but others argue that they are not proper slugs. Dominion Arms sells 12ga ammunition like this and calls them "slugs" even though they are not any of the normal or more common types of slugs.
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I've never gotten Lee slugs (either weight) to work worth a damn in a rifle barrel. I can get them to hit 3-4" groups at 50yds from a smooth bore but it always seems to double with a rifled barrel. I've tried a half dozen different powders, loads, wads, and other things and it just doesn't work in my 870. I've never tried it in another rifled bore so I may just have a shotgun that really doesn't like them. One thing that can help is to put a 20ga .125" card wad under the slug inside the shot cup. The wad can be driven into the hollow base of the slug and can go crooked and cause pedals to get pinched off in the bore; this will throw your shot. I got rid of most of my flyers in smooth bore with this trick but it didn't seem to have an effect with a rifled barrel.
I've read many reports that the Lyman 525gr (hour-glass shaped) slug works very well in rifled barrels but I never got around to testing it personally. If you're looking for slugs that are known to work well in a rifled barrel, I'd get the Lyman, not the Lee. If you're looking for cheap slugs for blasting things out of a smooth bore, I'd get the Lee 7/8oz mold as it uses less lead.
Nearly everywhere I've read, people report rifled choke tubes (even extended ones) to be a last-ditch or emergency-only option. A rifled choke tube isn't a rifle barrel and just adds a touch of twist to the slug as it leaves the barrel. Some sabot slugs wont stabilize past a few feet with a rifled choke tube; they need a fully rifled barrel.
A slug may need sizing but that will only really apply to full-bore slug designs; the Lee ones definitely don't apply there (since they're .030" to .040" undersized to start with). Rifled shotgun bores don't seem to be as standardized as rifle bores. Where as a .308 Win bore will generally range from .3075" to .3085", a rifled 12ga shotgun ran range from .715" to .730". 15x the tolerance range. As the part engaging the barrel is usually plastic, there is significantly less resistance to deformation as copper or even lead. This means it isn't that big of a concern to have them sized perfectly (and plastic wont size/swage as well as lead anyway).
A "foster slug" is any hollow-base slug designed to drag-stabilize in the air like a badminton shuttlecock. These can be smooth-sided or "rifled" slugs. Nearly all "rifled" slugs are also a foster design.
A "Brenneke" slug is a solid slug, usually rifled, but solid. There is usually a card or felt wad screwed into the base which causes the drag-stabilization effect without the slug being hollow (so you can get much heavier). These are usually "rifled" with the same pros, cons, and arguments as foster type "rifled" slugs. Even though these slugs are "rifled" they are reported to still work very well in rifled shotgun barrels.
A "sabot" slug is a projectile (often .50 pistol bullets) inside a sabot. A sabot is just a carrier that contacts the bore and separates from the slug after they leave the barrel. Sabot slugs are undersized (.500" to .635" are common for 12ga) with the (usually) plastic sabot taking up the extra space to bring them out to .720" to .730". A Lee slug (.690" diameter) inside a shotcup/wad is sort-of-technically-in-a-way a sabot slug but most consider it a foster slug in a shot cup (an odd arrangement not available in factory-produced ammo). A sabot can be smooth sided, rifled, tapered, angular, or any other shape. What makes it a sabot is the carrier it travels down the bore in which separates upon exiting. A sabot slug will usually tumble terribly out of a smooth-bore as they are designed to be spin-stabilized like a rifle bullet; they can't naturally drag-stabilize like a foster or Brenneke slug.
A "round ball" or sometimes a "pumpkin ball" is a spherical projectile of bore or near-bore diameter loaded in a shotshell usually individually but sometimes in pairs. Some people call these slugs but others argue that they are not proper slugs. Dominion Arms sells 12ga ammunition like this and calls them "slugs" even though they are not any of the normal or more common types of slugs.
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I've never gotten Lee slugs (either weight) to work worth a damn in a rifle barrel. I can get them to hit 3-4" groups at 50yds from a smooth bore but it always seems to double with a rifled barrel. I've tried a half dozen different powders, loads, wads, and other things and it just doesn't work in my 870. I've never tried it in another rifled bore so I may just have a shotgun that really doesn't like them. One thing that can help is to put a 20ga .125" card wad under the slug inside the shot cup. The wad can be driven into the hollow base of the slug and can go crooked and cause pedals to get pinched off in the bore; this will throw your shot. I got rid of most of my flyers in smooth bore with this trick but it didn't seem to have an effect with a rifled barrel.
I've read many reports that the Lyman 525gr (hour-glass shaped) slug works very well in rifled barrels but I never got around to testing it personally. If you're looking for slugs that are known to work well in a rifled barrel, I'd get the Lyman, not the Lee. If you're looking for cheap slugs for blasting things out of a smooth bore, I'd get the Lee 7/8oz mold as it uses less lead.
Nearly everywhere I've read, people report rifled choke tubes (even extended ones) to be a last-ditch or emergency-only option. A rifled choke tube isn't a rifle barrel and just adds a touch of twist to the slug as it leaves the barrel. Some sabot slugs wont stabilize past a few feet with a rifled choke tube; they need a fully rifled barrel.
A slug may need sizing but that will only really apply to full-bore slug designs; the Lee ones definitely don't apply there (since they're .030" to .040" undersized to start with). Rifled shotgun bores don't seem to be as standardized as rifle bores. Where as a .308 Win bore will generally range from .3075" to .3085", a rifled 12ga shotgun ran range from .715" to .730". 15x the tolerance range. As the part engaging the barrel is usually plastic, there is significantly less resistance to deformation as copper or even lead. This means it isn't that big of a concern to have them sized perfectly (and plastic wont size/swage as well as lead anyway).
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