Use of classic rifled slugs in "traditional" shotguns...questions for the experienced

[saturno_v]

In an "old fashion" smoothbore shotgun with no scope, no special sights, just your rudimental typical metal beade at the end of the barrel, what were the typical rifled Foster or Brenneke slugs used for other than wildlife defence at extremely short distances??
Deer hunting??
And what is their max useful range also considering the fact that you have basically no sighting system in place?? What is the expected accuracy??
By how much the modern rifled shotgun barrels and sabot slugs have improved the range and accuracy of shotgun slugs??
I blasted few Fosters and Brennekes here and there for fun but I never made any formal testing of their range or accuracy capabilities.

 

[Tim the student]

Sure, you can hunt deer with that. Lots of people do too. Some are surprisingly good with them, some not.

My brother in law hunts with a smoothbore and a bead sight (His does have a mid-bead, so I'm sure that helps considerably). He can put 5 slugs into a paper plate shooting offhand at a bit more than 50 yards, so thats what he limits his shots to (but that is an longish shot anyway.)

I have seen people shoot better, and I have seen people shoot worse. Not sure about the expected accuracy.

 

[Sam1911]

You do not have "no sighting system in place."

With any traditional shotgunning, your "rear sight" is simply the position of your cheek against the stock which holds your eye in correct alignment with the rear of the barrel -- the same way for every shot. If you don't get your eye aligned the same way every time, you won't hit anythign with shot OR a slug.

If you develop the skill to align your eye correctly for each shot, placing the front bead on the target will put a slug right where you want every time, out to a lot farther than I think you expect.

Foster style slugs are shaped a bit like a badminton shuttlecock (nose heavy with a lighter skirt) and are surprisingly accurate out of a smoothbore gun to 100 yds or so. Most experienced shotgun hunters using that kind of equipment are probably going to limit their shots to the 50-75 yd. range, but just that set-up accounts for a WHOLE lot of deer killed every year.

The key is practice and familiarity with the system and the skills required to use it.

"Modern" saboted slugs fired through rifled barrels, usually with a scope, or at least rifle sights, have extended this range by twice, at least. Sub 2" groups at 100 yards are not hard to come by. Which makes a 200 yd. shot on a deer not out of the question at all.

-Sam

 

[saturno_v]

You do not have "no sighting system in place."

With any traditional shotgunning, your "rear sight" is simply the position of your cheek against the stock which holds your eye in correct alignment with the rear of the barrel -- the same way for every shot. If you don't get your eye aligned the same way every time, you won't hit anythign with shot OR a slug.

This is what I meant....I should have said, you do not have a rifle-type sighting system in place...trust me I had to practice a lot with my shotgun before hitting a clay pidgeon!!

 

[ReloaderFred]

In my world, slugs were used in smoothbore Model 870's for police work, long before Hastings rifled the first shotgun barrels in the 1970's. We used mostly 12 pellet Winchester or Remington Magnum 2 3/4" shotgun shells, but also had rifled slugs from both manufacturers. Our 870's had either 18" or 20" barrels, depending on when they were purchased. All had plain barrels with a bead sight, only.

Our pistol range went to 50 yards, so that was the distance we practiced shooting them at B-27 targets. Chest hits were the rule and easy to make at that range. The slugs had a tendency to shoot a little high from point of aim at that distance, so you held a couple inches low, which was also the case with 00 buckshot loads.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[wnycollector]

I was at the range yesterday and was shooting my Maverick 88 w/ 20" barrel and bead sight at 50 yards. I was shooting low recoil fiocchi slugs and federal truball slugs plus a few brenneke 3" black magic slugs. All shots were seated with the shotgun on a sand bag. I was using a Shoot-n-c 5 1/2" Bull's eye Target.

The slugs had a tendency to shoot a little high from point of aim at that distance, so you held a couple inches low

ReloaderFred nailed it...if use a 6 o'clock hold on the 5 1/2" target I get a nice little clover leaf-ish pattern in the center of the target the fiocchi and federal slugs. The Brenneke slugs were slightly more accurate...the edges of three shots were touching

 

[scythefwd]

I can keep my shots on an 8.5x11 sheet of paper at 75y. This is with my smooth bore barrel. It does have a mid bead, but I could remove it and stay on paper out to 50y easy. I have only put 10 rounds through it though, so I expect to get better with it.

 

[RobMoore]

Out of a 14" smooth barrel with a ghost-ring rear and tritium front (like a "big dot", not a small blade), the shotguns I have at work keep 5 rifled slugs in a 3-4" circle (kneeling position) at 50 yards. Its part of the qualifying course of fire.

 

[squinty]

My Remington had a shallow brushed area on the receiver which helped line up the bead. Check out the relevant page on Box O' Truth:

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot46.htm

 

[paintballdude902]

i use my 12ga sxs with rifled slugs for deer and bear

they work fine out to 50 yards and pack a good whallup

 

[Ed Harris]

Slug groups of one inch per ten yards spread are typical for smoothbore guns with iron or bead sights. Hits on Army "E" silhouette to 100 yards are relatively easy. A good shot can manage 50% hits on the "D" silhouette to 200 yards, which is fine for suppressive fire until somebody shows up with a rifle. Out there simply blot the silhouette out with the bead and cut loose.

A plain bead-sighted shotgun is suitably accurate for deer to 50 yards if you do your part. While open chokes are generally preferred, any choke will work OK. A shotgun with open iron sights gives 5-shot groups in the range of 4-5 inches at 50 yards with Foster-type slugs, but some guns do better with particular ammo they like. In my experience the Winchester slugs gave best results in US guns, Brennekes in tighter-bored European ones.