Which slug through smooth bore

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Sgt. Rock

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I will be slug hunting for deer this year for the first time and will be using a Mossberg 500 with a smooth bore ported deer barrrel with iron sights. I will buy a box of all brands of slugs that I can get my hands on to try out but I was wondering what the slug guys are using.
Thanks
Sgt.
 
Shoot whatever works in your gun. Some use Foster style, some Challenger some Brenneke. Brenneke hits the hardest from what I have been told and the accuracy is generally better than the fosters. If you are hunting in close quarters than the fosters may work well for you and keep you from spending 2-3 bucks a round. I have yet to hunt deer exclusively with my shotgun but I get cloverleafs at 50 yards with challengers and my 870 improved choke.
 
Foster is the standard hollow base slug, not very accurate in most guns but is a slug. The base expands to fill the bore of the shotgun and the weight at the front is suppose to make it hit where you are aiming. The Challenger and Brenneke slugs are both attached wad slugs, meaning there is a wad that travels with the slug to the target, this creates drag further back on the slug in other words moving the center of mass more forward on the projectile. This again causes the slug to travel straight to the target. The wad being attached though fills the bore and the slug is more centered having less of a tendency to bang around in the bore and therefore has greater accuracy in theory. From all accounts on this board that I have read, the Brenneke and challenger are the more accurate slugs for smooth bore shotguns but the Brenneke comes in heavier weights and hits harder as well as it has been stated that the challengers do not have the quality and break up on game or the wad comes off the slug in flight, none of this I have experienced first hand.

Feel free to search the forum for slugs and you should be able to find a few threads on the subject.
 
Federal Tru-ball slugs were head and shoulders above everything else I tried in the two smooth bores I owned. I mean, they were so much better, that there was no comparison.
 
I have not tried the Federal tru-ball... challenger slugs are accurate but fail when it comes to performance on game... the brenneke 2 3/4 inch 1 1/8 ounce slugs are excellent slugs for large game.
 
Hey Red,
What are the smooth bore guys useing that hunt with you? I know you guys killed a truckload of deer this past season, no pun intended.
Sgt.
 
Here we go again...........

I would not use a Challenger slug, ever, in a hunting situation again.

My old smoothbore Remington 870 likes the inexpensive Winchester 1 oz rifled slugs, can put three into 3" at a hundred yards, and has killed at least forty deer for me.

I know that the very strong consensus around the country is to go for the Brennecke's as BIGREDD advises. For SURE, if you are trying out a few brands of ammo, that should be one. I personally did not prefer them because of the smoke, but then again have not fired any in about 20 years, so that problem may not exist any more.....

Doug
 
Sgt. Rock said:
Hey Red,
What are the smooth bore guys useing that hunt with you? I know you guys killed a truckload of deer this past season, no pun intended.
Sgt.
Click to expand...
I use an Ithaca XL-900 with a deerslayer barrel and a reddot loaded with Brennekes when dogging the thick stuff, it is deadly out to 150 yards. Most of us use rifled barreled slugguns with Remington core-locked ultra sabots for most situations:)
A couple of the boys use Muzzle loaders, and I will use a T/C Encore with a Luep 4-12 power when I expect to be shooting at 200+ yards.:)
 
At the risk of getting off topic, I am curious about the problems with Challengers that were mentioned in earlier posts. I have some Challengers, but I have yet to shoot a deer with a slug gun. What are the performance problems on game?

Ninepointer
 
The Challengers are accurate but they do not deliver energy well. I don't know what the reason for this is but I suspect the attached wad is problematic on impact. Another theory that I have heard is that they are a harder lead/alloy than the Brennekes and the other foster slugs.
I have seen many deer that should have died (well hit and well within range) simply run away never to be found.
The few deer that we succesfully killed with Challengers always showed strange wound channels... key holes or drastic changes in direction and seperated wads were the rule.
I treat Challengers like buckshot ... if I catch anyone using them they get fired.
Challenger Steel shot is crap also!
 
I suppose I should post my sad tale of what Challenger slugs did to the only deer I ever shot with them, but it still makes me mad to even think about it. But like Redd says, strange wound channels, drastic changes in direction, etc etc. NEVER AGAIN!

Doug
 
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