Smooth bore slugs?

[AM The Concrete Feat]

Looking for some advice hopefully, I just purchased a breech-barrel twelve gauge, single shot, and I'm not sure if it's recommended to shoot slugs out of it, having a smooth bore. What should I stock up on?

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

Any "rifled" slug will work...provided the choke on the end of the barrel isn't too restrictive. If it's too tight - bad juju happens.

I'm not familiar enough with shotgun chokes to know which are OK and which are no-go. (Yes, even if no removable choke, some shotguns will have a narrowing at the muzzle.)

 

[pinshooter45]

Brenneke slugs are about the best I've ever shot! Saw some test someone did on YouTube and they have some great penetration compared to the others they were testing.

 

[U.S. Patriot]

Any "rifled" slug will work...provided the choke on the end of the barrel isn't too restrictive. If it's too tight - bad juju happens.

I'm not familiar enough with shotgun chokes to know which are OK and which are no-go. (Yes, even if no removable choke, some shotguns will have a narrowing at the muzzle.)

Modified choke will allow slugs to be fired through the choke. I believe that is is as small as you can go.

 

[U.S. Patriot]

Brenneke slugs are about the best I've ever shot! Saw some test someone did on YouTube and they have some great penetration compared to the others they were testing.

They are the only slugs I buy. I have some TKO and HD slugs.

 

[bdybdall]

I used to have a High Standard riot gun with the fixed barrel. I drilled and tapped it for a Weaver base and put a K2.5 scope on it. It would shoot 2-3 inch groups at 50 yds. any time. That's definitely minute-of-deer.

 

[bdybdall]

I used to have a High Standard riot gun with the fixed barrel. I drilled and tapped it for a Weaver base and put a K2.5 scope on it. It would shoot 2-3 inch groups at 50 yds. any time. That's definitely minute-of-deer.

I'm a dimwit. I meant to say with Brenneke slugs.

 

[Slawburger]

I use slugs in an Improved Cylinder.

Shotgun Chokes (widest to tightest pattern, less choke to more choke)
1) Cylinder
2) Light Skeet
3) Skeet
4) Improved Skeet
5) Improved Cylinder
6) Light Modified
7) Modified
8) Improved Modified
9) Light Full
10) Full
11) Extra Full
12) Diffusion

 

[HoughMade]

I've fired pure lead foster slugs through my 60 year old full choke gun with no problem....but I'm not suggesting anyone else should.

 

[ru44mag]

Improved is best. I have read any chock works and have shot slugs out of my full choke .410 I got for Christmas at age 15. (Couple winters ago) ha ha. It was actually very accurate. I have some Federal Tru-ball, I bought to try in an improved cylinder smooth bore slug barrel I bought for my 870. Actually I bought the barrel for the slugs after reading how great their accuracy was, but I have not tried them yet. They are a standard foster type slug, with a little plastic ball that rides in the back of the cup of the slug to help stop the slug from deforming and to help the rifling of the slug to hug the smooth barrel. I would not try them in a full choke though.

 

[Kart29]

I did some testing out of my Rem 870 wingmaster with remchokes. Improved cylinder gave the worst accuracy. Modified was best, full was second best. Before I had the wingmaster with remchoke screw in choke tubes, I had a wingmaster with fixed full choke. I shot a great many different styles of slugs through it and had good results.

The most accurate slug I've found in my shotgun so far is plain old Winchester rifled slugs.

You will have no problem firing rifled slugs through a smooth bore regardless of choke. Don't sweat it. Get a couple boxes of a few different brands/styles of foster slugs, set up a target and see which shoots best from your gun. I found pretty good accuracy, (all shots on a pie plate) out to about 75 yards with just a bead on the shotgun barrel.

If I wanted to stock up, I'd test a few cheap slugs and see if they shoot reasonably accurately and then stock up with however many I wanted.

Don't bother trying to test sabot "slugs" in your smoothbore, they are for rifled barrels and won't do very well from a smoothbore.

 

[ru44mag]

I'm probably wrong, but thought Remington did not recommend shooting slugs out of barrels with removable choke tubes.

 

[PGRChaplain]

I've shot Brenneke Slugs out of a Browning 12 Ga. Full Choke with no problems.

 

[2 151 INF]

Not to get off the thread topic, but your screen handle "AM THE CONCRETE FEAT" is that the same as that wild awesome band from South Bend? Those guys were the best band I've ever seen live. Are you a member of that group?

 

[jsn_mooney]

Brenekee's are the best I've found- been using the "Green-Lightning" short magnums (2 3/4") about the past 5 years. FYI Midway has them in stock for about $8 a box right now.

 

[wildhair]

The guys at GM told me I had to have an improved choke to shoot slugs out of my 870 20 gauge. Isn't it dangerous to use a full, because the slug is too large for the choke?

 

[hammer24]

The guys at GM told me...

Well, there's your problem!

To answer your question...No, it is not necessarily dangerous to fire certain slugs through a full choke. It was done often for decades in this state during deer season. It is however, not recommended.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

Anyone try the Rem choke rifled choke tube?

 

[Hookeye]

Anyone try the Rem choke rifled choke tube?

I have but it was a long time ago, and only with foster slugs. The barrel I had was good in barrel/receiver fit and the choke tube machining area that held the choke tube was very concentric (back in the day Big Green had issues with that).

The rifled choke tube out performed a mod and Imp cyl choke tubes for accuracy, when shooting WW fosters of 2 3/4" version (1 oz, not the 7/8 oz).

HOWEVER.............it the rifling leaded up rather quickly and fliers would be had after 15 shots. Fliers would be 5" or more, left or right of aiming point at 50 yards.


So the solution for me was to clean it, fire a fouler and then it was good for the next 10 shots. Kind of a pain, but repeatable.

Eh, all that work and I saw my buck in the rain at 150+ yards, crawled up and shot him at 20. The gun was a pristine Wingmaster Magnum, and I had another with vent rib and remchokes. I sold both for a decent profit.............too nice and shiny.

 

[AM The Concrete Feat]

Thanks to everyone for their help and advice! Much appreciation to IndyGunGuy and Slawburger especially. Will quote replies to up my post count!