Foster slugs out of a rifled barrel?
- Thread starter Mr. T
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mcb
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No safety issues. You might get some leading issues. Foster slugs from most manufactures are made from really soft lead. In my playing with them I found that rifled barrels and even rifle choke tubes causes foster slugs to shoot worst groups in many cases. You might have to try a few different options to get one that likes your rifled barrel.
If you have a rifled barrel why not buy some slugs designed for a rifled barrel. There is a fairly larger selection designed for the fully rifled barrel and they tend to shoot a lot better than foster slugs.
If you have a rifled barrel why not buy some slugs designed for a rifled barrel. There is a fairly larger selection designed for the fully rifled barrel and they tend to shoot a lot better than foster slugs.
22250Rem
Member
Never tried it and have read that it's not feasible from an accuracy standpoint. Like mcb mentioned; I'd bet the barrel would get loaded up with lead in short order. Foster slugs are quite soft and would lead up my smoothbore slug gun years ago when I hunted with them. I imagine a rifled barrel would really accumulate that soft lead even faster. When I first got a fully rifled barrel for my 870 slug gun I just picked the sabot slug it shot best and never looked back.
I have tried it through my Mossberg 930 rifled barrel. Accuracy was excellent for 3-4 shots until the barrel started to lead foul. Brenneke slugs are full bore size and are designed for rifled or smoothbore according to the manufacturer. I have had good results with them also.
Jack Ryan
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No damage. Just fills the rifling up with lead.
entropy
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Leading and bad accuracy.
BillTell
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I'm mostly a handgun hunter. That being said, 2 guns I have are an H&R Single shot in 20ga with rifle sights I've had forever, and the other is an NEF (H&R) Super Slug Hunter in 20 also. Both are fully rifled barrels, and I've shot well over $300 in various ammunition trying to keep my groups in a paper plate at 100 yards. After all that, the best ammo for these two, hands down, has been Federal Tru-Ball.. I've tried the most expensive, and the dirt cheap. I think the expanding ball behind the slug just widens everything uniformly, and the bottom of the slug just grabs that rifling. Just my theory as to why they're the only ones that shoot so decent. The Tru-Balls don't break the bank, either. Cost about the same as Fosters. But if you've already got the Fosters, I say Shoot 'em! The lead won't HARM the steel, maybe foul it a little more, but that's why you clean your gun.
243winxb
Member
Larger groups. Sabot 4" Foster 8" @ 100 yards. Both cheapest Federal factory ammo avaiable . Fired from Mossberg 500 cantilever 12 ga scope setting on 7 power.
I clean with Hoppes Benchrest solvent. It removes plactic.
I loaded & tested the Lee key drive slug also, years ago.
I clean with Hoppes Benchrest solvent. It removes plactic.
I loaded & tested the Lee key drive slug also, years ago.
243winxb
Member
The current generation of coated handgun bullets don't seem to have any problems.
mcb
Member
I think coated slugs would be a great idea and would help reduce leading especially in chokes. As for obturation, most Foster slugs have a polymer or fiber wad underneath them to facilitate the obturation. The skirt of a foster slug is there for mass distribution not obturation.
Brenneke style slugs with their attached gas seal design and typically harder lead alloys used work fairly well in rifled shotgun barrels and are usually more affordable than sabot slugs.
243winxb
Member
Of course all shotshell designs employ gas seals. I took the question of obturation to refer to the slug itself. The current crop of powder coatings do not change the deformation characteristics of the underlying lead slug. The basic construction of Foster slugs is perhaps best described as a "soft lead" thimble, with the only solid structure located in the reduced diameter closed front end. Such unlubricated soft lead slug loads do tend to shorten under acceleration, increasing lead scraping from bore contact.
Riomouse911
Member
Since Foster slugs rely on the heavy nose and light skirt for orientation and accuracy in flight rather than gyroscopic stabilization (see a badminton shuttlecock) I can see how imparting a spin on one will easily throw the balance out of whack and cause lousy groups.
As the others said; use sabot or rifled-barrel specific slugs for rifled shotgun barrels and Fosters for smooth bores.
Stay safe.
As the others said; use sabot or rifled-barrel specific slugs for rifled shotgun barrels and Fosters for smooth bores.
Stay safe.
Underlined above for reply focus:Since Foster slugs rely on the heavy nose and light skirt for orientation and accuracy in flight rather than gyroscopic stabilization (see a badminton shuttlecock) I can see how imparting a spin on one will easily throw the balance out of whack and cause lousy groups.
As the others said; use sabot or rifled-barrel specific slugs for rifled shotgun barrels and Fosters for smooth bores.
Stay safe.
Well, some full bore "rifled slugs with attached wads" are marketed for rifled barrels only. Such as the Magnum Crush coated slug from Brenneke:
https://www.brennekeusa.com/hunting-ammunition/magnum-crushtm/
However, the accendant popularity of Three Gun competition seems to be the driving force bringing coated rifled slug ammunition to the market. Coated slugs solve several problems for competitors as Jerry Miculek recently demonstrated in Living The Slug Life
T.R.
Member
My rifled slug barrel shoots best with Hornady sabot type of ammo. Typical group at 100 yards is about 3 inches. Recoil is quite stout!
TR
TR
I have a mossy 500 with a cantilever rifled slug barrel. I started off trying to shoot sabot from it. The results were less than stellar. When talking to a buddy about it he said he was using the cheap Remington sluggers and doing great! So next trip to the range I brought some fosters. My gun LOVES the cheap Winchester super X foster slugs! I get no leading excellent groups and meat in the freezer! I took a lot for me to go against convention but I’m happy I did. Good luck.
748
member
I have thought 12ga slugs loaded with .58'' saboted muzzle loader balls would kind of cool, maybe even 2?
Or 12 bore mini balls?
Or 12 bore mini balls?
Federal TruBalls shot well out of my 11-87 Hastings barrel. No better, however, than from an 1100 skeet smoothbore.
Each slug/barrel is a unique law into itself. I've cast, bought, loaded, built moulds, yada, yada, and shot several thousand slugs, sabots, bullets, from rifled barrels, smooth barrels, rifled choke tubes, ad nauseum and have settled on a Savage 220 and 3" Remington Accutips and chucked the rest. R.I.P. five moulds, boxes of slugs, sabots, and the rest. Heck, I'm 75 and dizzy enough.
Each slug/barrel is a unique law into itself. I've cast, bought, loaded, built moulds, yada, yada, and shot several thousand slugs, sabots, bullets, from rifled barrels, smooth barrels, rifled choke tubes, ad nauseum and have settled on a Savage 220 and 3" Remington Accutips and chucked the rest. R.I.P. five moulds, boxes of slugs, sabots, and the rest. Heck, I'm 75 and dizzy enough.
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