[Kentak]

Before you ask why I would want to do such a silly thing, it's mostly just curiosity. I suspect there would be no practical advantage in doing so.

I have a Mossberg 590 which I use to bust clays for fun, but also keep for possible social work. I'm very happy with the way it throws rifled slugs out to 50 yds. I can routinely keep them in a paper plate using a red dot sight.

Does a sabot have more energy out of the muzzle than a slug? I assume it will start to tumble pretty quickly. A tumbling sabot could be a pretty wicked defense round if the accuracy isn't too bad. Will it hit paper at 50 yds?

Of course, I can figure most of this out at the range, but wanted to hear what you thought.

K

[stevelyn]

Does a sabot have more energy out of the muzzle than a slug?

Not unless there is a velocity advantage to the sabot over the rifled slug.

Sabot slugs and rifled slugs are generally of the same or similar weights. Their "advantage" is in retaining their velocity over a longer range.
Sabot slugs due to their long axis and sabot require a rifled barrel or rifled choke tube to reliably shuck the sabot and stabilize.

I think you are much better off using 00 Buck or a regular old "punkin' ball" (Foster slug) for defense than trying to tumble a sabot. We have one recovered from a small brown bear killed earlier this summer. It flattened out to the diameter of a $.50 piece.

If you really have to have more performance use a Brenneke original. They act in a manner similar to a hardcast bullet.

[littledoc]

use sabots if there is any choke to the bore! The foster (regular) slug has fins on the side so that it will swage down to fit the choke, but a sabot could act as if ther is a bore obstruction if the barrel has choke to it. By choke, I mean a narrowing toward the muzzle.

You should use a rifled barrel or a rifled choke tube for sabots. Otherwise the advantage a saboted slug would give you would be lost. If you are using a smooth bore, cylinder bore choke is all you should use.

[Kentak]

Understood. It is cylinder bore. I was just curious what kind of ballistics you would get from a sabot out of a smoothbore.

Does anybody make a sabot for smoothbores?

I don't think Mossberg makes a rifled barrel for the 590.

K

[Taurus 617 CCW]

Remington makes a 12 or 20 ga. copper solid sabot round. They recommend that it be fired out of a rifled barrel but I have an old remington 870 with no choke tube on it that fires them just fine. Accuracy is less of course but they would get the job done if it came to that. I usually keep #4 shot loaded since I am in an apartment complex and don't want the round to go through five walls and a buick. You could always call winchester's customer support line and find out what they suggest.

[Tag]

Can you shoot rifled slugs out of a smoothbore w/ a "MOD" choke? I know nothing of choke tubes...

[ribbonstone]

the original BRI saboted slug (the one that looks like a giant airgun pellet) was developed for smoothbores....weren't any rifled barrels back when that one was developed. Idea was to get better car enetration for law enforcement...hunting wasn't their main goal at that time. Winchester loads them (or loaded them the last time I looked).

They will fly point on at least to 100yards from a smooth bore..accruacy is an individual gun thing. Mine wouldn't keep them inside of two feet...but the holes were nice and round.

[guide1]

I have fired them from my 590 on occasion. They go through sheet metal like a hot knife through butter. I have only fired them at close range, so I cannot offer information as to long range accuracy. The slugs I have were manufactured by Smith&Wesson for law enforcement and state right on the package that they were designed to penetrate tires, wheels, and engine blocks. Generally speaking, law enforcement shotguns are smoothbore/cylinder choke, which would lead me to believe that these sabot slugs would perform respectably, as designed, in most medium range applications, at least from law enforcement standpoint (i.e. roadblocks). I have yet to confirm the claims on the box by actually shooting an engine block, but it is on my "to do" list.

[Kentak]

It would seem technologically possible to design a sabot round to get a stabilizing spin in a smoothbore. I know a big obstacle would be keeping the round centered in the bore, or accuracy would be crappy.

K

[Skpotamus]

Brenneke and Lightfield both make a hybrid slug that is supposed to work well in both rifled and smoothbore barrels. I haven't tried them though.

[Deadheadted37]

I bought a Rem. 12ga. rifled choke tube for my 870 and Remington say it OK to shoot sabot with that tube.

I have not yet tried it and I wonder how the accuracy is?

[Skpotamus]

>I bought a Rem. 12ga. rifled choke tube for my 870 and Remington say it OK to shoot sabot with that tube.

I have not yet tried it and I wonder how the accuracy is?<

My experience with them is limited, but they were great for 2 3/4" slugs, and less than stellar for 3", but still good enough to drop a deer at 100 yards or so. 3.5" were horrible.

Others might have different experiences, but it seems pretty common across the board for the guys that shop in my store.