Rifled slugs in rifled barrel question?

[Titan6]

I am new to rifled shotgun barrels but really wanted one in 12 guage. So I go buy one now I have an 1187 with a 21 inch barrel. The first time I take it out with rifled slugs and launch a few down range they go a' flyin every which way. So I go back and read some where that you have to use sabots and other special rounds.

But I'm stubborn and too cheap to buy expensive ammo so today I buy a 2.5X scope instead. I sight that baby in at fifty yards and now all of my giganenourmous rifled hollow point slugs are inside the 3 inch ring at 50 yards making a huge hole. This makes no sense with what I had read.

Now because I am really stubborn and starting to feel lucky I walk it over to the skeet range and still using the 21 inch rifled barrel and some #6 shot I start breaking birds easily. This really makes no sense as I hear this is supposed to be a big no-no with rifled barrels and not possible and all that.

If anybody with some rifled barrel know-how could explian this I would really appreciate it.

 

[mattw]

From what I understand shooting shot out of a rifled barrel basically creates a donut pattern. It could be easy to break clays but might not be so easy to get enough pellets on target to down a bird.

I am not sure about the slugs. I know that you should get better groups out of sabot rounds though.

 

[GRIZ22]

The rifling causes a shotshell too open up so fast the pattern produced is useless. I tried 00 buck on a B27 target and at 10 yards not one pellet hit the paper.

 

[Titan6]

Thanks for the input

I have heard the donut pattern story also and I can tell you that birdshot at 10-15 yards the target looks like a claymore hit it not a sugary round pastry. Open choke, waaay open. Not good for game birds at all. Also not good for HD inside the house as that shot will go everywhere and hit lots of things I don't want it to hit. But those slugs on the other hand....

Since I don't target shoot 12 guage and probably won't take any game with it past a hundred yards I think I will check where it is at 100 yards next week and if it is where I think it is keep firing away with the cheap rifled slugs. Strange that the rifled slugs are cheaper than most rifle ammo now...

 

[Dave McCracken]

Some fully rifled barrels will do OK with ONE rifled slug. Expect lots of lead in those grooves after.

You've probably better off shelling out for sabot loads....

 

[Titan6]

I'll keep am eye on it. I sent 22 slugs down range today and all were as accuarate as I could make them be. Then I put about 50 rounds of lead birdshot through it. I cleaned it up pretty good and the barrel looks fine with no lead in the rifiling and no apparent ill effects. I have a spare barrel to compare it to and can't tell any change in condition.

I wonder do you know how much KE is left on a 1oz 12G slug with a muzzle velocity of 1600 fps at 100 yards? If it is accuarate enough I want to make sure it gets there with enough power to get the job done.

 

[mustang_gt_350]

If the slug is traveling at 1600fps at 100 yards and it is a 1oz slug, it is about 2487 pounds. 1oz is 437.5 grains.

Didn't know that slugs would travel that fast at 100yrds. Never looked much into shotguns other than for scatter gun use.

 

[Titan6]

1600 fps is muzzle, I don't know what it is traveling at 100 yards but am thinking with that cross section it slows down quite a lot.

2487 at the muzzle though? Sure would hate to be in front of that one when it went off.

 

[mustang_gt_350]

Sorry misread your post on the velocity. So yeah the calculated energy would be at the muzzle. Not sure if you know this, but if you go to google and put in most conversions like the 1oz to grains it will calculate it most of the time. That is how i got the conversion and then i just put that and the velocity in a online calculator.

How is the recoil? and about what is it comparable to?

 

[JShirley]

Dunno what the actual 100 yard energy would be, but I've killed two deer with reduced recoil slugs at 15 and 35 yards. I would think my RR slug leaving the muzzle at 1200 fps would be comparable at 35 yards to your 1600 fps at 100 yards.

And the answer is, they work just fine, with decent placement.

John

 

[Titan6]

Thanks for the tip on computing power. I have been just looking at Remington's online PDF whenever I wondered but they did not have the data I needed.

Recoil is not an issue for me with most weapons. It does have a decel pad and it is a semi. I would compare it to slightly more than my AR in .308 that I was also shooting yesterday. Much louder though with an echoing boom when shooting the slugs. Followup shots are not difficult either.

I am pretty sure that the slugs would have enough knock down out to 100 yards but I don't want to around polluting the enviornment with crippled game either. It is best to know where the limits are. I just have to check the accuarcy out that far. John is right, all the foot pounds in the world won't matter if it isn't accuarate enough to ensure good shot placement.

 

[Bud Tugly]

I'm probably just telling folks something they already know (I'm new here) but the formula for calculating bullet energy in foot-lbs is:

Bullet mass in grains x (velocity in ftsec) squared divided by 450400

Since a 1 oz slug weighs 437.4 grains, the calculation becomes:

437.4 x velocity squared divided by 450400

Now if someone knows the velocity of a slug at 100 yards, the energy could be calculated. Has anyone taken a reading or have an educated guess?

I could have sworn that the Remington website used to have ballistics info on slugs, but it doesn't seem to be there any more.

A .30/.30 firing a 170 grain bullet has a 100-yard energy of just over 1300 ft-lbs, and we know that brings down deer. I'll bet the slug is packing considerably more energy than that.