12 gauge Sabot or 20 gauge Sabot

[Roamin_Wade]

I’m leaning towards the 20 gauge for shooting Sabot rounds out of a rifled shotgun barrel. Is there a good argument to use a 12 gauge? I would think a 12 gauge may not shoot as accurate. Which do you prefer and why?

 

[PapaG]

I have wasted hundreds of dollars trying to answer that question and I will suggest that the biggest factors are compatibility between the gun and the load. My go-to now, after shooting and hunting with rifled barrels on Mossberg, Remington, Savage, guns as well as trying a Browning bolt action, Hastings barrels, rifled choke tubes and any other gimmick I could find along with about all the common loads, is my 220 Savage and 3" Remington Accutip saboted slugs. Guns in both gauges kick. You need a good scope to get best results. Join American Slug Shooters to see what really good guys can do. I've even bought moulds for both sizes and earned bruises from shooting my own stuff. Good luck.

 

[earlthegoat2]

The trend of the last 20 years is to go with 20 gauge and I agree with it. Not many folks are hunting anything but deer anyway with slugs and 12 ga is adequate but more than needed most of the time. To that end, 20 is more than is needed most of the time too. 20 ga gives up very little with less recoil out of a usually lighter gun to boot. Similar trajectories and ranges. If you look at the numbers closely with the many different loadings, you will sometimes see meaningful differences between 12 and 20 but not often.

The key is to experiment with a bunch of very costly slugs. As was said:

I have wasted hundreds of dollars trying to answer that question and I will suggest that the biggest factors are compatibility between the gun and the load.

My recommendation is 20 ga if deer are your only quarry. If black bear, I still would not feel undergunned with 20 but it could make a case for the 12 ga. Winchester makes a load called the Partition Gold which flings a 385 gr Partition type hollow point bullet at around 1800 ft/s. 3000 ft-lbs. This is more power than standard factory 45-70 loads. I used these for a few years in my rifled Deerslayer and when I shot a deer it went down so fast that I swear I opened a hole in space-time and that deer went back in time a few seconds to die.

The 20 ga version of this is a 260 gr bullet at 1800ft/s for 2000 ft-lbs. Both of these are the 2 3/4 shell length as well. The 3" shell length of either only gives and extra 50 ft/s so why bother with it. My dad used 2 3/4 Lightfields in his H&R Ultra 20 and those, IIRC, are a 350+gr slug going 1500 ft/s. I don't think in 20 years of using that gun a deer ever ran out of his sight while woods hunting.

In general, and on paper at least, I have found the 3" option to be a negligible gain for very much increased perceived recoil. I don't bother with them myself.

 

[Ernie Bass]

20ga for deer. More than enough and easier to carry all day.

 

[PapaG]

I use the three inch for two reasons. Shorter jump from shell to rifling for the bullet and better feeding in my gun. I had a Savage 210 that shot like a rifle but was the size of a Barrett 50 and didn't feed worth a crap with anything. I have one of the "original" slug dedicated guns, a Mossberg 695K, which I hear was popular with the Israeli army years back. It shoots anything pretty well but won't hold on to the magazine under recoil. Gonna work on that. It is my deer camp loaner.

 

[George P]

I’m leaning towards the 20 gauge for shooting Sabot rounds out of a rifled shotgun barrel. Is there a good argument to use a 12 gauge? I would think a 12 gauge may not shoot as accurate. Which do you prefer and why?

Why would you think a 12 would not be as accurate as a 20?

 

[Paul R Zartman]

I had to sell my 20 gauge cause the wife wouldn't use it after using the 12, if my wife can carry it maybe ya ought to get one of those rolling golf cart looking thingies to drag around your gun sabot 12 is cool in my book

 

[cdb1]

I don’t remember where I read it(might be Randy Wakeman) or the reasons why but I read an an article several years ago postulating that 20 gauge slugs are better. It made sense to me at the time.

 

[cdb1]

Not the article I was looking for but I found it informative:
http://randywakeman.com/PreviewHornadysNewTwentyGaugeSlugLoad.htm

Here it is. I have no idea as to the veracity of this article because I’ve never hunted with slugs, and now that I think of it don’t even know if I’ve ever even fired a shotgun loaded with a slug.
http://randywakeman.com/Slug_Guns_Twenty_Gauge_Vs_Twelve_Gauge.htm

 

[Roamin_Wade]

Why would you think a 12 would not be as accurate as a 20?

I’m not sure of the diameter of each gauges’ Sabot slugs but I image that aren’t proportional to each other. I further imagine that the 12 gauge has more clearance between the slug and the OD of the Sabot bushing, which would mean it would have more possible yaw in the slug flight. If they are proportional then I’d be of the opinion that the OD of the 20 gauge Sabot slug is plenty for deer hunting. The kick of one or the other is not a deciding factor.

 

[Roamin_Wade]

I have wasted hundreds of dollars trying to answer that question and I will suggest that the biggest factors are compatibility between the gun and the load. My go-to now, after shooting and hunting with rifled barrels on Mossberg, Remington, Savage, guns as well as trying a Browning bolt action, Hastings barrels, rifled choke tubes and any other gimmick I could find along with about all the common loads, is my 220 Savage and 3" Remington Accutip saboted slugs. Guns in both gauges kick. You need a good scope to get best results. Join American Slug Shooters to see what really good guys can do. I've even bought moulds for both sizes and earned bruises from shooting my own stuff. Good luck.

I like the Savage 220. I also like the Ithaca 37 slug setup. I am going to be getting a rifled 20 gauge barrel for my Mossberg to see if I want to buy one of the others.

 

[George P]

I’m not sure of the diameter of each gauges’ Sabot slugs but I image that aren’t proportional to each other. I further imagine that the 12 gauge has more clearance between the slug and the OD of the Sabot bushing, which would mean it would have more possible yaw in the slug flight. If they are proportional then I’d be of the opinion that the OD of the 20 gauge Sabot slug is plenty for deer hunting. The kick of one or the other is not a deciding factor.

Each slug, whether with a sabot or not, will be sized properly for the bore of the cartridge in question.

 

[earlthegoat2]

The Hornady SST 20 ga is the 250 gr .451 diameter bullet that is used in their 450 Bushmaster load.

 

[nortwoods1]

20 gauge slugs seem more accurate only because it kicks less so the shooter doesn’t flinch or react as bad. 12 gauge slugs will be just as accurate once you can control your reaction. Personally I choose 12 gauge because I hunt anything from coyote to deer to bear. 20 gauge will also have a flatter trajectory