Shooting Foster Slugs from a rifled shotgun barrel????
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oneounceload
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The only real danger is lousy performance and accuracy
plumberroy
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Give them a try a brass brush, solvent and elbow grease is all your out if they leave some leading. Your gun may shoot decent with them. Personally I prefer them on whitetail deer to sabots .
Roy
Roy
Fred Fuller
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Not dangerous, unless the lead buildup eventually causes problems...
Shoot sabots ... they are likely to be more accurate, if you find one your barrel likes.
Shoot sabots ... they are likely to be more accurate, if you find one your barrel likes.
oneounceload
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Rifled barrels use sabot slugs; smooth barrels use rifles slugs
243winxb
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No danger if pure lead. Expect Foster slug group size to double compared to sabots out of a scoped Mossberg rifled barrel.
Zinc is harder then lead.
I found out by accident that at least in my rifled Mossberg 930 foster slugs can be very accurate (for a foster slug). I decided to try a few to get a new scope dialed in before switching to the more expensive sabots, I was able to get about a 2" group at 50 yards. I didn't have any leading after 10 rounds. I tried it another time at 100 yards, and was able to get between 4-5" groups. I shot 20+ rounds that session with no leading visible. There are big differences between rifled shotgun barrels though, so what works for me may be a total disaster for you.
plumberroy
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Generally yes but not always.
I have a 20 ga rifled H&R that shoots brenneke's as good as any sabot and the old Balistic research ind. sabots were developed for smooth bore and shoot decent out of most smoothbores .
Lightfield claims their hybred sabot will produce decent accuracy out of a smooth bore I have not personally shot them to try. I shoot home rolled hardcast .625 round balls @1300 fps as my prefered slug for my little H&R single shot 20 with a rifled barrel
I used to do it when I was younger (middle school age) and didn't realize that lead buildup was something you had to clean :banghead:. I didn't use the slug barrel for a long time and then a year ago I started getting back into slug shooting, and I couldn't believe how badly fouled the barrel was. It was pretty much a smoothbore and you couldn't even feel the rifling. I found that a Hoppes Tornado Brush works the best and the lead came out in CHUNKS.
Also, I shoot quite a few brennekes these days, and they are great for rifled barrels because they are not foster style slugs. The attached base wad keeps the rifling somewhat clean.
Also, I shoot quite a few brennekes these days, and they are great for rifled barrels because they are not foster style slugs. The attached base wad keeps the rifling somewhat clean.
I was not aware that any of those were still around. As far as I know all of them on the market today are designed for rifled barrels with the claims of acceptable accuracy from smoothbores from some makers. Do you know of any on the market designed around smoothbores?
oneounceload
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Any of those that are housed in a sabot
plumberroy
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Winchester still makes B.R.I sabots the have them at the Meijers a mile from my house federal used to make B.R.I slugs I don't know if they still do. lightfield claims their slugs will shoot in smoothbores I have shot B.R.I. slugs in a smooth bore gun and got 4-5" groups at 50 yards I have not tried the lightfields.
Most of the slug molds you can buy use a shotcup as a sabot
Roy
Most of the slug molds you can buy use a shotcup as a sabot
Roy
oneounceload
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The biggest reason I was asking was because I bought my son a Mossberg shotgun a few years back and it has a rifled barrel and we've always fired Sabot rounds out of it. He being a poor college student was asking me if it was ok to fire the foster slugs out of the rifled barrel. I wasn't aware of any, other than I thought it might wreck his rifled barrel, but I told him I would run it by you all here.
Yes, but they were all designed for rifled barrels or choke tubes. At least the Lee's and Lyman's were except of course the Lyman foster. I use the Lee and Lyman slugs in my smoothbores and get decent accuracy, but rifled barrels improve the results.
plumberroy
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The lyman "pellet style" slug molds were around before rifled guns where common I remember seeing them in at least early 80's maybe in the late 70's
I know B.R.I. slugs where designed for smoothbore and at least In my old H&R will shoot acceptable . The only sabot I have ever launched at a deer was a lightfield and I wasn't thrilled with its preformance. I do not like sabots I have saw one from a muzzle loader fail I saw the wound from a second one fail out of a slug gun. I have had friends have deer shot through both lungs go farther than the should have.
The only rifled gun I have now a 20 ga H&R single is fed handloaded hardcast .625 round balls at 1300 f.p.s. they shoot as good as any sabot I have tried in the gun and cost me about what foster slugs
Roy
I know B.R.I. slugs where designed for smoothbore and at least In my old H&R will shoot acceptable . The only sabot I have ever launched at a deer was a lightfield and I wasn't thrilled with its preformance. I do not like sabots I have saw one from a muzzle loader fail I saw the wound from a second one fail out of a slug gun. I have had friends have deer shot through both lungs go farther than the should have.
The only rifled gun I have now a 20 ga H&R single is fed handloaded hardcast .625 round balls at 1300 f.p.s. they shoot as good as any sabot I have tried in the gun and cost me about what foster slugs
Roy
The Lyman sabot isn't in the 3rd edition and not much on it (other than data) listed in the fourth, but does say it was designed for Winchester wads and to use fully rifled barrels for best results.
An article by Joe Krieger on slugs states that " Early in 1995, Lyman introduced a new slug mold that cast a lead slug designed exclusively for fold crimped loads. Weighing 520 to 525 grains, the new slug looks like an over-size air rifle pellet. He did some limited testing in smoothbores with it and found that at least to fifty yards the groups were good. The early Lyman slug molds were the foster and the rifled slug swaging kit.
An article by Joe Krieger on slugs states that " Early in 1995, Lyman introduced a new slug mold that cast a lead slug designed exclusively for fold crimped loads. Weighing 520 to 525 grains, the new slug looks like an over-size air rifle pellet. He did some limited testing in smoothbores with it and found that at least to fifty yards the groups were good. The early Lyman slug molds were the foster and the rifled slug swaging kit.
plumberroy
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I could have sworn I saw them earlier than that? But I'm getting old and they say the memory is the first to go 
the B.R.I. are pellet shaped too I prefer As I said above to shoot full bore slugs
the B.R.I. are pellet shaped too I prefer As I said above to shoot full bore slugsIt does seem like it's older than that to me too. The only time I have shot them in a rifled barrel was in my yard and I was shooting coffee cans and never did put them on paper. I shoot them and the Lee in my smoothbores since I don't have to hunt with slugs I don't concern myself with their accuracy past 50 yards.
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