Shooting slugs in non-slug barrel

[Futo Inu]

This is not good, bad, or really bad? -- In a

1) Standard smoothbore of any choke (but not screw-ins)

2) Screw-in choke tube barrels (particularly bad to shoot slugs from these?).

What can happen? I had thought this to be OK until my shotgunner friend pointed out otherwise. I had never done it however, thankfully. Does it matter whether it's a full-diameter slug or saboted-slug? Thanks.

 

[hksw]

I regularly shoot rifled slugs (Rem Sluggers) through my Rem 1187 SP without any problems. Thats' what the rifled slugs are generally for, smoothbores. I usually use either cylinder or improved but no tighter. Pretty accurate combination too for a slug gun.

Generally, the sabot rounds work best with rifled slug barrels.

If you shoot a rifled slug through a tight choke, you'll get greater recoil and possibly a burst barrel. Never tried it myself to see if this is true first hand and don't intend too.

 

[Dave McCracken]

I've fired slug through chokes from none to full, with wildly varying results.

No damage though. Best results usually are with Modified or more open, though I've seen REALLY tight groups from some Full chokes with one load.

Open chokes, whether fixed or tubes, area good place to start. The Forster Style slugs are designed to swage down in all chokes, use them and see how things go.

 

[Mannlicher]

Slugs are not always consistant in performance from barrel to barrel, gun to gun. I have one Remington 870 that shoots better with the IC choke tube, and a Mossberg that does best with the modified choke. The one bit of advice you will see here over and over, is buy some, try some, pick the one that works best in your gun.