[rantingredneck]

The background (what got me thinking about this)..........I was in gander mountain this afternoon and picked up some Federal Tru-ball rifled slugs to try out. They were on sale and I've never messed around with them, so I picked up 5 boxes.

They had reduced recoil 1300fps and standard velocity 1600fps varieties. I went reduced recoil. I hunt dense thicket edges with the slug gun 50 yard shots are about max. I figured I really didn't need the extra 300 fps oomph. Besides, unless these just group real nice I'll stick to my Brennekes.

So to my question. Given same projectile weight would it be theoretically possible that the slower projectile would penetrate more due to less expansion/energy transfer?

It was comparing these two loads that got me thinking about it. It makes the sort of counterintuitive sense that ballistic realities usually do. Anyone have any insights, real world test results to back it up?? Am I off my gourd for thinking this is likely or what??

[The Silver Bullet 1719]

From my understanding the only thing that really suffers is the trajectory with RR slugs, and they require a larger hold-over at longer ranges. Considering you are keeping your shots at 50 yards maximum range I doubt that you would ever see a noticeable difference in terminal ballistics.

[rantingredneck]

Yeah, I doubt there'll be any real world difference within the range I'll use them in. I just got off on one of those "what if" theoretical question tangents.

[JShirley]

The recent gelatin tests I've seen indicate RR slugs penetrate more than full-velocity Fosters.

[rantingredneck]

That's kinda what I thought, counterintuitive as it may seem. More velocity = More expansion/energy dump = less penetration.

I just hadn't seen any data to actually back it up.

[Sergeant Sabre]

www.tacticalshotgun.ca has some good gelatin tests with Brenneke, Winchester, and Remington slugs from a smoothbore.

In summary: the Remington reduced-recoil rifled slug penetrated way more than it's standard counterpart in gelatin. It exhibited extremely poor performance on a cow, however.

[Al Thompson]

Don't hunt cows, stick to deers and hogs. :)

I think JShirley had good success on deer with RR slugs.

[357wheelgunner]

My RR slugs shoot about 6" higher at 50 yards than my standard velocity slugs. I had to do a major sight adjustment when I started using them...

[JShirley]

Yup.

I've killed three deer w/ RR.

J

[Dave Williams]

I was surprised when I saw some test results re penetration of full power vs reduced recoil slugs.

The numbers I saw was 18" in gel for the reduced recoil, vs 12" in gel for the full power.

Very interesting.

Dave Williams

[magiccarpetrides]

if a slug wont kill what your shooting at under 50yds you probably have no business pulling the trigger ;-D

[shotgunkevin]

I too have read that reduced recoil Foster slugs penetrate noticeably more than standard velocity slugs. The explanation I saw was that the standard velocity slugs fragment somewhat, and those smaller fragments penetrate less due to their decreased mass. The reduced recoil loads remain intact and penetrate as a whole.

[clone]

http://www.tacticalshotgun.ca/ballistics_shotgun.html

They also have some live game results with reduced recoil slugs.