? re: rilfed slug barrel

[m75rlg]

I have recently acquired a Mossberg 500 with a 24 inch "fully rifled" slug barrell. I have little experience with slugs.

The manual that comes from Mossberg advises: "Fully rifled barrels deliver best acuracy with sabot style slugs. 'Rifled' slugs and shotshells are not recommended for use in rifled barrels."

I was wondering if any of you guys have experience with this type of barrel.

I have mounted a Weaver 1.5-4x scope on the barrel. I have 4 boxes of Federal 12 guage 2 3/4" 1 1/4 oz slugs (probably around 20 years old) and 4 boxes of Winchester Super X 12 guage 2 3/4" one ounce rifled slugs that came in the shotgun deal.

May I use these slugs to get the Scope close to POI?

If you have experience with this type of barrel, what type of slugs do you find give best accuracy?

Thanks in adavance.

 

[TMM]

according to the box of truth, rifled slugs will work just fine in a rifled barrel...

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot45.htm

TMM

 

[Tim the student]

I am not speaking from my own experience, but they will also supposedly lead the barrel very quickly. (There was another thread in which this came up not long ago - I'm sure if you searched for it you could find it.)

I don't see why you couldn't use them to get on paper, as long as you were anal about cleaning the bore very frequently. Those sabots are expensive. Then again, I don't see why you couldn't bore sight it to get on paper.

 

[T.A.Sharps]

You will want to use only sabot slugs. Fosters, or rifled, slugs are usually heavier projectiles and you might be sighting in for more drop than a sabot round.

The fouling will be a lot different with fosters, and will give you different results.

For instance, the sabots will make the bore look like it has sand all down it, this is the plastic sabot tearing apart in your bore as it moves through the rifling.

I put a bore snake through it 3 times after every 5 shots when sighting it in. Though, after every shot would be best, to sight in for a cold bore shot for hunting.

You need a solvent to clean the plastic out, one specifically meant for plastic.

Foster, or "rifled", slugs will give you a lot of lead fouling in your bore, and you need a lead removing solvent to get it out, may even need to scrub the bore with a copper wire brush to get all the lead out. It can be a pain if the lead is really soft and sticks to the bore more.

I would buy 10 boxes of the Hornady 300grn SST's, they are a decent price, $10-$12 for 5. They usually give people good results, however they don't shoot well in my gun.

After you sight it in, you will need to get a wide assortment of brands and types and test them all.

The one thing about rifled shotguns is they like only a specific ammo. Hornady SST's in mine will do a spread out 10" to 12" grouping at 100Y, but Winchester Partition Gold 385gr will give me a consistent 4" grouping.

I tested that 4" grouping with ammo from 4 different batch numbers, also of different ages, 2 and 3 year old left over ammo, as well brand new ammo.

That is another important thing, Batch number You want to make sure all the ammo you buy of a brand has the same batch number. I've found that this ammo can be pretty inconsistent, so you want to eliminate as many variables as possible.

I also tap the base of cartridge to seat the projectile better on the powder before I load it in the gun. I noticed they wiggle a little bit in the plastic cartridge. Actually, the first time, out of 5 shots, the one I didn't tap on the bench went off as a flier.

I also kept notes on each shot, had to learn as much as possible from each at $3 a pop.

Make sure your gun is all screwed in hand tight also.

With these rifled shotgun consistency is really important. Any variable can skew your results, it seems. After you shoot it more you will learn it better.

 

[janobles14]

granted i dont shoot my rifled barrel that often (remmy cant. 12/20 for my 870) but when i do i usually shoot sabot rounds. i have put quite a few rifled slugs down it too and havent ever really noticed any increase in leading. i simply shoot the remmy copper solids for their accuracy.

 

[hub]

I've run some rifled slugs through my 500 with a 24 inch rifled barrel and it's pretty darn accurate too. It didn't foul up the bore notably bad and definitely not as fast as a sabot's plastic does.

The problem that lies is with using different ammo like some has posted above. A rifled slug will not have the same point of impact as a sabot. As far as using it to get your scope in the ball park? At close range then I don't see why not if you don't have a bore sight.