What is the best 100 yard slug group that can be had with a smoothbore shotgun

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I deer hunt with a shotgun smoothbore just wondering whats the best accuracy someone has gotten from a smoothbore at 100 yards any data would be helpful .
 
I have never gotten anything good at 100 yards from a smoothie shotgun and conventional slugs. I did shoot a three shot five inch group from an Ithaca Deerslayer, around 1975, using Winchester slugs. Normally I now use Federal Truball slugs and can hold around four to five inches at 75 yards.
I have cast, loaded and shot thousands of slugs over the past fifty years plus have tried many purchased slugs for loading. If there are two things I have learned they are that each shotgun is a law unto itself and if you shoot too many at one sitting you won't learn anything as you will start doing twitchy things.
I have moulds for the original Foster slug, not great, even when we bought the Lyman die to swage rifling on it (no improvement). They don't spin out of a smoothbore. Lyman sabot slug moulds in 12 and 20 are showing promise, Lee key drives are pretty good out to fifty.
Bottom line for me is I can take my 220 Savage and with just about any sabot slug cut my best smoothbore groups by half or much more.
Buy a few different slugs and be sure to get some Truballs and see what your gun likes best.
It will be a rare gun that groups regular Fosters well at 100 yards but yours might be the one.
 
Is that a realistic range for a smooth bore rifled slug? I thought 75 yards was pushing it some. 50-60 yards was what I was led to believe.
No expert here by any means.
The farthest i have killed deer was 90 yards with my smoothbore and 3inch mag sluggers impoved choke 28 inch barrel .
Iron sites . I am thinking others can do better with a scope and off the bench every shotgun and ammo is going to be differnt usally i cant see more then 60 70 yards where i hunt anyway . But slugs out of smoothbore can be probably a little more accurate than people think . I get 4 inch groups at 75 yards from a bench with that set up .
At 100 yards i have not really tried except off hand i was abale to hit a 10 inch target every time with it the few times i tried with it . Not exactly a scientific test.
 
With a scoped break action smooth bore with a rifled tube installed, firing from a bench, I was able get a 3 shot group I could cover with the palm of my hand.

With my benelli nova with a ghost ring sight I believe I was able to find a few brands of slug that would stay minute of boiler room at 100 yards.
 
"Back in the day"; when almost everybody's slug gun was a smoothbore, the last smoothbore I used was a 1987 vintage 12 ga. 870 Remington "Special Purpose Deer" model, which had a smoothbore slug barrel with rifle sights. First thing I did was scope it and I used to shoot it at 100 yd. targets to understand how much drop there was at that range. Once I got used to how high I should aim at 100 yds. ( I used to zero it at 50), I could put several 2 & 3/4" Winchester Foster style slugs on a paper plate (about as good as it gets for smoothbores) . After 6 or 7 rounds the leading would start to degrade the accuracy. Tried 3" magnum slugs for a while but the 2 & 3/4" stuff was more accurate and I eventually noticed that deer couldn't tell the difference, so I stuck with the 2 & 3/4" slugs. So find which slugs your gun prefers, practice with them, and don't let the barrel get too leaded up, ( some guns are more sensitive of that than others) . My longest hit on a deer with a smoothbore was in the 75-90 yard range in 1989 and he took a couple more from closer range to finish things. I'm still using the 870 when I'm not in a rifle zone but it now has a fully rifled barrel using sabot slugs for about 15 years now and I zero it at 100 yards. Now at 100 yards I check zero with 3 rounds on a paper plate and all 3 holes are touching or very close. Sabot slugs are not recommended for smoothbores so if you don't have a decision on which older style slug yet, you'll have to see what it likes and then take it from there. Prior to 1987 back to the early 1970's my deer gun was a 12 ga. High Standard which used to love those old Remington Sluggers, which I think are still around. Smoothbores can be a challenge but with the right slug and some marksmanship the challenge can be met. Best of luck.
 
"Back in the day"; when almost everybody's slug gun was a smoothbore, the last smoothbore I used was a 1987 vintage 12 ga. 870 Remington "Special Purpose Deer" model, which had a smoothbore slug barrel with rifle sights. First thing I did was scope it and I used to shoot it at 100 yd. targets to understand how much drop there was at that range. Once I got used to how high I should aim at 100 yds. ( I used to zero it at 50), I could put several 2 & 3/4" Winchester Foster style slugs on a paper plate (about as good as it gets for smoothbores) . After 6 or 7 rounds the leading would start to degrade the accuracy. Tried 3" magnum slugs for a while but the 2 & 3/4" stuff was more accurate and I eventually noticed that deer couldn't tell the difference, so I stuck with the 2 & 3/4" slugs. So find which slugs your gun prefers, practice with them, and don't let the barrel get too leaded up, ( some guns are more sensitive of that than others) . My longest hit on a deer with a smoothbore was in the 75-90 yard range in 1989 and he took a couple more from closer range to finish things. I'm still using the 870 when I'm not in a rifle zone but it now has a fully rifled barrel using sabot slugs for about 15 years now and I zero it at 100 yards. Now at 100 yards I check zero with 3 rounds on a paper plate and all 3 holes are touching or very close. Sabot slugs are not recommended for smoothbores so if you don't have a decision on which older style slug yet, you'll have to see what it likes and then take it from there. Prior to 1987 back to the early 1970's my deer gun was a 12 ga. High Standard which used to love those old Remington Sluggers, which I think are still around. Smoothbores can be a challenge but with the right slug and some marksmanship the challenge can be met. Best of luck.
Thats one thing a am not doing getting another shotgun with a rifled barrel when i have killed plenty of deer with the smoothbore and iron sites but i am open to the idea of trying different ammo . So far i have foud nothing cheeper and with accuracy and Power then 3 inch rem sluggers .
The idea of spending double the amount for slugs i dont like much either plus availability you can always find sluggers around
 
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It really depends on a lot of factors. Ideally one should keep them inside the 100 yards but hunting overseas I found
a popular design that is very accurate that groups pretty tight (2MOAish) and can carry further than conventional designs.
The sabots are made by sauvestre and they can be shot both from smooth bore as well as rifled shotgun barrels.
They are not cheap about $2-3 each but they are worth every penny in terms of ballistics and terminal performance.
Very effective on deer and wild boar even when shot though the bones there is little or no deflection.


 
I have a short barreled 97 Winchester 12 ga. I never hunt big game with a shotgun. It is used for Bear protection. I cast the LEE Key slugs. It seems to be consistent on a 5 gallon pail at 100 yds. That amounts to a Cowboy ballistic test.:)
 
Best I could ever do with most slugs was about 8" at 75 yards out of a smooth bore. My rifled slug barrel on the other hand would keep 3" groups at 100 yard with Rem Copper Solids, but just that brand, others would be 5"-10".
 
I gave up on rifled slugs and went back to a smoothbore. The cost isn't justified for the type of deer hunting I do. I zero at 50 yards with a Mossberg 500 12 gauge shooting Winchester Super X 2 3/4" slugs using a 1 1/2 X scope. They're within two inches at 50 and spread to about a six inch group approximately seven inches low at 100 yards. Unless i forget to switch choke tubes. Then it shoots somewhere in the same county. Maybe.

ETA: I have several Mossberg shotguns, all of them model 500 in 12 gauge. All of them shoot Winchester 2 3/4" slugs well. Switch brands or switch to 3" and groups open up dramatically.
 
I've got a Remington Model 1100, that has a cylinder choked 21" barrel. (smooth bore) When I went to Trinidad, Colorado to get qualified as a Range Master, I took that shotgun to qualify with. I did have sights placed on it, as well as an extended magazine. Shooting at a standard size silhouette, I was able to place all 8 rounds in the 10" thoracic cavity at 100 yards, using just Remington brand slugs, within I believe 15-20 seconds. At home on my personal range I was quite capable of placing 3 rounds within 3.5" at a measured 100 yards which I considered to be excellent accuracy using standard rifle slugs, from a bench.
 
In general, I've found the Federal Trueball and Breneke slugs work well out of my smooth bore.
 
I had decent success with an 1100 12ga with 26 in skeet barrel.
You will need a scope for 100yds shooting. The bead on a Smoothbore will just about hide a deer at that range.....let alone any type of paper plate sized target.
BTW. ... my gun hated the Brenneke slugs. It shot best with Remington or winchester fosters.
 
I had decent success with an 1100 12ga with 26 in skeet barrel.
You will need a scope for 100yds shooting. The bead on a Smoothbore will just about hide a deer at that range.....let alone any type of paper plate sized target.
BTW. ... my gun hated the Brenneke slugs. It shot best with Remington or winchester fosters.
Yea the beed sucks for anything past 50 yards. So
I have clamp on rifle sites on mine works pretty good . Yea my rem shotgun likes rem ammo also makes sense i guess .
I have not yet tried the brennekes i hear good things about them .
 
My 870 20g Express mag with the Cantilevered/Scoped/Rifled barrel shoots under MOA at 100 with Hornady Sabot. With the Smooth bore/Rifle sighted slug barrel I can get 2" groups at 100yrds with about any cheap slug.

I'm getting ready to try reloading my own with some of the BP ThugSlugs.
 
My Benelli M1 Super90 Tactical with the modified tube shoots Winchester and Fiocci RR slugs in a 4" group @100 yards. I used to use this shotgun in 3 Gun, and always had great accuracy with it. My favorite weapon at <150 yards.
 
I can shoot a 4" group at a 100 yards using Federal Standard Foster Slugs out of this gun...using Iron Sights.
upload_2017-7-6_6-48-13.png
It's a Ted Williams M400 in 12 gauge and has a poly choke on it, that has to be set to Imp. Cyl. to fire accurately.
 
I gave up on rifled slugs and went back to a smoothbore. The cost isn't justified for the type of deer hunting I do. I zero at 50 yards with a Mossberg 500 12 gauge shooting Winchester Super X 2 3/4" slugs using a 1 1/2 X scope. They're within two inches at 50 and spread to about a six inch group approximately seven inches low at 100 yards. Unless i forget to switch choke tubes. Then it shoots somewhere in the same county. Maybe.

ETA: I have several Mossberg shotguns, all of them model 500 in 12 gauge. All of them shoot Winchester 2 3/4" slugs well. Switch brands or switch to 3" and groups open up dramatically.
I couldn't agree with you more on the 2-3/4" ammo. They really do get sloppy with the 3" ammo in my experience as well.
 
I did purchase a rifled barrel for my Mossberg 835 and even that barrel likes the 2-3/4" sabot rounds the best.
 

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