[fxstchewy]

Anybody Deer hunt with a 18.5 smoothbore no choke with slugs? does it work ok?

[Dave McCracken]

I have. Works well when I do my part.

[Javelin]

Slugs will work fine in shotguns with as little as 11" barrels. I would not go much shorter as it will have a hard time stabilizing.

:)

[earlthegoat2]

i had a mossie 500 with that short barrel shoot 5 inch groups at 100 yds with rem sluggers

[foghornl]

Answering while chomping on Venison steak...

"Yes sir, they work good". Laser-Measured 65 Yds..Maverick 88, 18-1/2" barrel, PMC 1-Oz slug. Bambi DRT...actually walked about 7 yds, leaned against tree..then Flop!

[Landlocked Pirate]

On this topic, I have a question about shooting slugs using a bead sight. The other day I was shooting slugs from the bench with my 18.5" Mossberg 500 and I was grouping good but shooting pretty high at 50 yds. I figured out that this might be that because of the barrel's taper, the bead sits actually lower than the receiver, so I was having to slightly raise the barrel to even see the bead.
My question is, does this make sense and is this normal when using a bead sight for slugs?

[Matrix187]

Ive used an 870 12 gauge 18" with the bead sight, and with slugs and I could hit pumpkins every time at 50 yards. I think the bead sight is very acceptable for what I use it for: close in grizzly defense.

[Friendly, Don't Fire!]

If I'm hunting deer or black bear with my Mossberg 500 (short barrel), then I won't even take a shot unless I'm within, say 40 yards of the beast.

[Dave McCracken]

LL Pirate, yes. A bead mounted right on the barrel without a block beneath it oft shoots slugs quite high.

[GregGry]

One thing I noticed, is that my Supernova tactical shoots buckshot at point of aim, but slugs are 4 to 5 inches high at 20 feet+. So far I have not figured out why.

[Friendly, Don't Fire!]

Wouldn't 4" - 5" high at 20 feet make them about right on at 100 yards?

If so, you can basically aim dead center (sic) out to 100 yards.

[Landlocked Pirate]

Wouldn't 4" - 5" high at 20 feet make them about right on at 100 yards?

At that point the slug is probably still rising, so it would be even higher at 100 yds I think.

[Dave McCracken]

Slugs oft impact much higher than shot. My HD 870 sticks KOs about 5" high at 25 yards when zeroed with 00. It's worse with Rottweils.

The backup 870 serves for deer and is zeroed for KOs. The Modified choke in it puts center of 00 patterns a tad low at 25 yards. Not enough to worry about though.

Once again, we HAVE to test our loads and shotguns to KNOW what they can do.