slug accuracy - where to start?

jay007

jay007

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This fall I want to try for a deer with my shotgun.

I will be running an 870 with a 20" smooth bore barrel with rifled choke and rifle sights.

I want to sight it in and test some slugs for accuracy but I don't really know anything about slugs.

With this configuration should I be running sabot slugs? rifled slugs?

is there going to be much different between 2 3/4" and 3"?
 
smooth bore = rifled slugs... rifled barrel = sabot slugs


The difference between 3" and 2 3/4" is 1/4" :)

in all seriousness I have no idea what a rifled choke is
 
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For you gun Foster ( rifled) slugs will give you the best accuracy and I found in my slug barrel that 2.75" 1oz slugs gave the best accuracy eve then I wouldn't take a shot beyond 125 yds with my rig as accuracy and trajectory become problematic. Brenneke slugs (except for the sabot slugs) can also be used but I have no experience with them. Buy a few boxes of different slugs and see which one your gun likes best and then have at it. Saboted slugs are meant for rifled bores and generally do poorly in smoothbore barrels. .
 
hunter5425 said:
For you gun Foster ( rifled) slugs will give you the best accuracy and I found in my slug barrel that 2.75" 1oz slugs gave the best accuracy eve then I wouldn't take a shot beyond 125 yds with my rig as accuracy and trajectory become problematic. Brenneke slugs (except for the sabot slugs) can also be used but I have no experience with them. Buy a few boxes of different slugs and see which one your gun likes best and then have at it. Saboted slugs are meant for rifled bores and generally do poorly in smoothbore barrels. .
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Would it make any difference with a rifled choke? or should i just scrap the rifled choke and use a smooth bore and rifled slugs?
 
I just ran a test with a rem 870 shooting foster slugs in a Imp Cyl choke and a rifled choke. The rifled choke was a bit better. I suggest you try both Cyl and rifled chokes at 50 yards and make a choice. Maybe only one of them will shoot to Point of Aim, so that will be the big issue.

Sabot slugs tumble out of a smooth bore and a rifled choke.
 
jay007 said:
Would it make any difference with a rifled choke? or should i just scrap the rifled choke and use a smooth bore and rifled slugs?
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I had a BPS smoothbore that would cut one large ragged hole at 50 yards with TruBall (I think Federal makes them) and Challengers. 100 yards was getting iffy, though. I'd try a few different makes before going out and buying a rifle choke, if I were you.
 
The best thing to do here is buy a few boxes of different ammunition and try them. Slugs aren't too expensive so this won't be that hard on the wallet.

I use Federal Tru-ball 1oz 2-3/4" in my smooth bore barrel. I was able to shoot ragged holes at 50 yards when doing my part. I tried Remington Slugger, Federal Tru-ball Deep Penetration and Federal Vital-Shok as well. They performed as they should. The Remington kept within a 2" group at 50 yards and the Federal Vital-Shok a bit more open than that. I found the regular Tru-ball performed better than the copper plated Tru-ball Deep Penetration in terms of accuracy.

This particular shotgun only has a large front bead and a dished receiver that makes up a sort of makeshift sight. The barrel is 26" and has a skeet choke.

You'll spend about 30-40$ on shells, find what works and stick with that. I think you should try improved cylinder and the rifled choke if you already own it. I wouldn't bother with sabot slugs, they are expensive and I don't think you'll get optimal stabilization out of the short length of a rifled choke. I also likely wouldn't bother buying the rifled choke if you have good performance from the smooth bore.

Once you find what works at 50 yards, move out to 100 yards. I know I have about 8" drop at 100 yards with the Tru-ball 1oz loads for example.
 
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jay007 said:
This fall I want to try for a deer with my shotgun.

I will be running an 870 with a 20" smooth bore barrel with rifled choke and rifle sights.

I want to sight it in and test some slugs for accuracy but I don't really know anything about slugs.

With this configuration should I be running sabot slugs? rifled slugs?

is there going to be much different between 2 3/4" and 3"?
Click to expand...

Didn't realize you can get a factory 20" smooth bore wit rifle sights and screw in chokes?
 
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Ganderite said:
I just ran a test with a rem 870 shooting foster slugs in a Imp Cyl choke and a rifled choke. The rifled choke was a bit better. I suggest you try both Cyl and rifled chokes at 50 yards and make a choice. Maybe only one of them will shoot to Point of Aim, so that will be the big issue.

Sabot slugs tumble out of a smooth bore and a rifled choke.
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Sabots are expensive. Ganderite saved you a ton of $$$$ if you were going to include them in your test batch.

A bit of a tangent, but even though I'm an iron sight fanboy I have red dots on my slug guns. Worth the upgrade IMHO when you're trying to squeeze accuracy out of an inaccurate system. A luxury maybe.
 
jay007 said:
What would be considered acceptable accuracy (group size) at 50m? 100m?
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Your group size is what limits your distance...

And that would depend on what you are going to shoot... a 9 inch group at what ever distance you are shooting will kill deer and larger animals... grouse not so good...
 
I have switched to making my own slugs. Accuracy at 50 yards off hand

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Start at 25 yards with your shotgun/ammo of choice. Then back off to 50, with success, then 75 and 100 meters/yards. Right down your bullet drop beyond 50 & safe keep this information for future reference. If you are running iron sights your vision and ability to work with good iron sights will most probably become your limiting factor I suspect. Especially so, at and beyond 100.
Ensure when you go actually hunting, you bring a laser rangefinder with fresh batteries to find out your actual distance to target.
The further it is away from you, the more important knowing the distance to a live, unmoving, full broadside target, that is unaware of your presence.
Do not shoot beyond your very own, well practiced personal shooting abilities maximum distance.

my 2 bits only
 
When I used to use a Rem 870 smoothbore barrel with iron sights, I found that plain ol' inexpensive Winchester gray box rifled slugs worked best.
Despite the popularity of Challenger slugs with their attached wad design, they were terrible out of my gun: sometimes key-holing paper (hitting paper targets sideways) or the attached wad separating from the slug.
 
To the OP, I have always found that rifled slug styles with wad attached worked best in a rifled choke tube. They don't make them any longer but Remington Buck hammer slugs worked well enough to get a 4" group at 75yrds. My way of thinking is that the ssytem of having the attached wad adds more length to to the projectile and therefore more surface area for the short length of rifling in the tube to impart the satbilizing spin.
I'd try challenger, lightfield or Berneke slugs and see how they fly???

If you want the best accuracy, I suggest a fully rifled slug barrel with a cantilever and a low powered scope.
I can get a 4" group out to 150yrds with hornady 2 3/4" SST saboted slugs with my Mossberg 500
 
My Slug Story
Back in the 80's I did a lot of experimentation with Foster type slugs in all sorts of different loadings. I played with various types and brands hulls, wads, powders, buffering, and various types of slugs. All this more out of curiosity just to see what results I would get more than anything. We never had fancy rifled slug barrels, choke tubes, at least they were not very common. My shotgun was a Winchester Super X M-1, a very fine well made shot gun. I had opportunity to buy another barrel for the SX in 28" M. I took the original 30" full cut it down to 18" removed the ventilated rib and posts. Soldiered a set of Remington rifle sights on it with 60/40 plumbing soldier and cold blued it. This is the set up I used for my slug testing. In the end I concluded I could not make a more accurate slug shell than what Winchester, Remington etc. etc. could, at least not with the components available to me at the time. I could consistently put 3 shots into a 2" group at 50 yds. and 6" 3 shot groups at 100 yds. These types of groups were fairly consistent with my reloads or factory loadings. So over the years I used up what components I had. And if I need slugs now I use Winchester 1oz. rifled slugs. And I still use the same Win SX M-1 with my home made slug barrel, as it works like a charm.
 
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