Shooting slugs from a smooth bore

Anyone have any experience with shooting rifled slugs from a smooth bore shotgun with or without a rifled choke? I'VE GOT A 20 GA. that I was thinking about testing out, semi-auto with a 26" barrel 3" chamber. Just curious about performance and reliability. Thanks for your input.

It's a crapshoot. Sometimes everything is fine, other times not so much. Only time at the range will tell.

I saw some different "slug" type ammo this year that the WMA Mgr Katthy Whaley at Hagerman WMA on Lake Texoma was rcc'd to Hog Hunters participating in the Lottery Permit hunts this spring, made by HeviShot, and were $5-$6 a 5 pack at Academy. Look at the HeviShot website for more info. FWIW better sabot type rifled slugs can get spendy at $2/3 to $5/$6 for a single around and most are for rifled barrels only, in 5 packs. Look at Graff's or Midway for pricing.

The HevIShot round used a sabot plastic sleeve with fins, that contained Great BIG round pellets...2 in a 3" shell & 3 in a 3 1/2" shell. The hunters I talked to at Hagerman liked them and said they performed well out of smoothbore barrels out to about 75-90 yrds on hogs. Dunno if they came in 20 guage though...Academy had sold out of them PDQ couple times before I actually laid hands on a box. Google "Hevi Shot ammo" and look for hog loads.

If you use a screw in choke system, rifled extended chokes are fairly inexpensive as aI recall & and waaay cheaper than a rifled barrel. I'll be ordering one for my Benelli Nova this fall & should have already done it.

Run a search in Amazon or Google for your brand of shotgun and available screw in chokes. If I can find my notes & I need to, so I can order my own ext'd rifled choke I'll give you a heads up on the brand.

Otherwise Winchester has announced late this Spring some new ammo for 2015 Fall Season that is s'posed to not require a rifled slug barrel...look at their HomePage for info....had some impressive targets shown.
Ron

Carlson was the brand of rifled screw in choke tubes I found....look at www.choketube.com, and find your shotgun brand in the tool bar on the left. My Benelli/Beretta Mobil System listing had the rifled tube way down at the bottom of the list, and at $45 in both 12's & 20's. Lots of choices in othr applications too.
Ron

I already have a Remington 870 with a rifled barrel and scope mounted, shoots very well but as most of us do, we just want to experiment with other guns and ammo to see what happens. I will check out Winchester's site to see what they have up their sleeve for this year. I have been on Carlson's web site and they have all of the chokes that I want to shoot, thanks for the help.

I've got an old Springfield model 67B 12 gauge made in 1940. It's a smooth bore full choke gun. Is it possible to shoot slugs out of it without damaging the gun?

the Remington SLUGGER rifled slugs state "...may be fired thru any choke ...." , so that brand should be ok (if your shotgun bbl is proof steel & not damascas).
They are the correct ones to use with smooth bore.
Personally, I would not shoot a whole bunch thru it, but should be ok for occasional use.

I hunted in Indiana for 6 years. The first year I used the Federal Tru-ball slugs and had decent accuracy out to about 50-75 yards. The next year I got a rifled barrel.

Think of it like you would with a new rifle where you're limited to only using factory ammo. Buy a few boxes of different types of ammo and see what your shotgun likes. Don't expect MOA groups from a smooth bore barrel. Adding a rifled choke tube will definitely help though.

If you can find a brand that gives you a 3" or better 3 shot group at 50 yards, you're in business. Try the best of the lot out at 100 yards to get an idea of drop and group. Anything in that 3" group at 50 will knock a deer off of it's feet like it was hit by your truck.

Interesting topic as almost everything is related to rifles in Texas. I'm interested in slug guns as a participant in the LRGV NWR hunts. I have a Rossi Single Shot Slug Gun and a Mossberg 695. I'm also a bullet caster and reloader so I've been shooting the Lee home cast slugs and they are very accurate.

I do have another Rossi Single Shot with a 12 gauge barrel, modified choke, and all this shooting I've done has gotten me thinking about having the barrel cut down to 18 1/2" and then drilling and tapping it for the sights. I want to shoot .690 round balls from it, I have a Lee mold for that ball. I've shot a bunch of round balls in different rifles but not a smooth bore. I do know of a fellow that has an older H&R 1871 Single Shot that was configured just like I described the work and use I intend. Apparently it is quite accurate out to about 70 yards. I figure that I'm not ever going to use that 12 gauge barrel otherwise, it was part of a combo rifle/shotgun package, so I might as well kill some hogs with it.

Here is my Rossi Rifled Slug Gun...



A close up of the Lee 7/8 ounce slugs...



I do prefer the 1 ounce slugs and 3" hulls over the 2 3/4" in that the gun has a 3" chamber. What I've found is the 2 3/4" creates 1/4" of free bore in the chamber and the transition from chamber to barrel has a 90°. The jump across that 1/4" of freebore and contact with the step does create some upset with either the slug, wad, or sabot.

In fact, if your gun has a 3" chamber shoot 3" factory ammo. As the crimp upfolds it lays flat against the chamber with the mouth of the hull providing a smooth transition exactly at the step. For my reloading I went to purchasing clear hulls, it really helps with checking the stack of components. I use a Lee 12 Gauge Magnum Loader Kit, found it the easiest for the slug work.

Back to the refuge, I see a lot of fellows using their smooth bores and slugs. Unfortunately, I do not know what ammo they use. Came across one fellow that had dropped a nilgai bull in the road at 127-yards with his smooth bore and Remington ammo. I was pretty impressed as all he had was the bead on the barrel. He did say that he had spent a lot of time send slugs down the barrel and had to really work at making sure that the bead was lined up on the center of the receiver. Double lunged the bull and knocked it off it's feet. It ran in place for a few seconds and was dead.

I hope to hear your shooting report, along with any others that find an interest. Here is what I expect from my Rossi and the 1 ounce slugs in a 3" hull. This is a hundred yard target, with a stiff, steady, 15 mph crosswind. I wanted to see exactly what the drift effect was. The group is minute of deer and that is what I'm use to.



I haven't mentioned the 695 as I hate shooting it. The trigger is like pulling a boat anchor. It was new old stock and one day I will take it apart to see what I can do with it.

Good write up, RD, but I don't see a target.

Sorry about that and thanks for catching it.

From what I've read from th guys in the upper midwest, where slug shotguns are a way of life...the long disc'd Remmy/Mossberg 695's rifled barreled guns with a scope mounted in the D&T'ed, with weaver style STEEL bases or a pic rail on top of it, and 3" sabot slugs it likes, will be MODeer out to close to 200+ yards.

Yes the trigger pull is a PIA, the gun weighs enough to justify adding wheels and a caisson, and it kicks like godzilla kicking a football...but they are old school stout technology on steriods ....and very successful at putting venison on the table. Biggest compliant I ever hear, is the safety is difficult to operate with a scope in place.

Keep us posted on your progress. I've got a dedicated rifled slug gun on my Get One of These list, so I can hunt some of the Federal WMA & TPW shotgun only hunts, that seem to have limited participation .... 'cause I ain't gonna get into black powder stuff for the same kinda hunts access. Fixin to order a screw in rifled choke, along with a saddle mount for a scope to spruce up my Benelli Super Nova, and hope the recoil control system in the butt stock will work well enough that I don't have to go buy a 20 guage something instead. 100+ yards MODeer to GTG fo me.
Ron

That dog will hunt, RD

I've been hunting on a ranch where shotguns only are allowed and I shoot a H&R Handi Rifle in 20 gauge with a rifled barrel with a 4X Nicon scope.
I shoot Remington 260 grain Core Lokt Ultra sabot slugs at 1900 fps.
I've shot numerous deer and hogs with this load out to 100 yards plus.
A shot gun with the right load will give you just as good accuracy as any rifle out to reasonable hunting distances of 100+ yards.
You can shoot farther with practice, and shooting a lot of expensive ammo, but knowing what your gun will do, and being able to judge distances also helps.

Yeap the rotating safety on the bolt is a real deal killer and almost unusable with the eye bell of the scope above it. I walked into a local gun shop the other day and they had a fairly new Savage 212 on consignment that I almost bought on the spot but decided to dance with the two I have. Actually the Rossi has been a heck of a slug gun. With all due respect to the Mossberg 695, here it is. You can see one of my clear hulled slugs near the trigger guard!



I've found the easiest thing to use for handloading your own slugs are the old Lee Loader Kits. The 12 Gauge Kit handles 2 3/4" hulls and the 12 gauge Magnum 3".



I do run a bit hot and cold on the slug shooting depending if I'm drawn for a hunt or not.

Shooting slugs is the norm up here. You will need to try a variety of brands to see what your shotgun likes best. Pay attention to the various points of impact along with group size. I have a Remington 1100 in 20 ga that has a smooth bore barrel and a rifled slug barrel. I have found the 20ga to be all that is needed for game up here as long as the shooter has done his part with firearm practice and proper ammo selection.

I've shot a lot of slugs through my smooth bore/smooth choke combo. As many have stated already, you have to experiment with a lot of different combos to see what works best with your set up.

Should I use a rifled choke tube of a smooth tube? And if smooth, which choke? I/C?

I shoot slugs through a modified choke with decent results.

Rifled slugs are for smooth barrels. Saboted slugs are for rifled barrels. I wouldn't mix and match. I buy a lot of Carlsons extended choke tubes and am very satisfied with them. Tried a rifled choke and noticed no improvement in accuracy. Did some research and most people came to the same conclusion I did. Rifled chokes are a gimmick.

My new scope and mounts should be in for my 20 ga. this next week. Can any of you guys tell me what choke I should be shooting slugs out of? As was originally posted, this is a smooth bore gun. Semi-auto so I don't expect the accuracy of a bolt gun or break over.