Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 12ga Smoothbore Slugs

I will be using my Winchester 1300 with smoothbore barrel this year when I hunt on some property that allows slugs only. What is the best anyone has used in a smooth barrel? I am new to slugs and looking for the best bang for the buck. Thanks for any info.

The old Brennekes are tried and true and I hear good stuff about the Federal Truballs.

Tru-Balls are good, I shot Win. Super X for years.

The three that have been mentioned already are the ones that have the best reputation. But the Brenneke KO is what I would start with.

http://www.brennekeusa.com

What's all ready been said. Do you have sights on the barrel? They make add-on open sight sets pretty reasonably priced. There's ones to clamp on a vent rib, and ones that actually adhere to your plain barrel too. If your barrel is tubed use the most open choke tube you have, or go buy one of the rifled tubes. This should help too. Good luck this fall.

Have sights on barrel, but probably will use scope.

+1 on using a scope, I have for more than thirty years now. Federal slugs shot the best in my smoothbore slug gun and were effective on game.

The slugs recommended are all good. Tru-balls do seem more accurate in my Deerslayers than my old favorite Winchester Super-X. I have had the least luck with the blue box Federals.

The biggest issue with slug ammo is that it is somewhat firearm specific.
I strongly recommend you try at least a couple to see what your gun likes. I have one fixed barrel Stevens pump that shoots 4" three shot groups at 100 yards with Remington Sluggers. With anything else I have tried, the best has been around 6" with some far worse.

Trying a couple types is good advice, but my old Ithaca 37 prefers the tru-balls by a large margin. I average 2" at 50 yards with them. Couple years back, Gander sold them for $2.99 per box, with a $2.00 factory rebate. Good slugs at $1.00 per box, I stocked up. Killed my biggest buck to date with them, a 4.5 year old 9 pt, at 85 yds. Bang-flop

Will you be using one of those saddle-style mounts that mount with lengthened pins for the trigger assembly? Some of those mounts don't tend to hold point of impact real well. If that's you plan, ask around here and find out which ones work better. Otherwise, maybe consider staying with the open sights. With foster slugs you're using a gun that's good to about 100 yards any ways.

I've used a number of the Brennekes, and have always been satisfied with them.

I'd still be using them if I hadn't dumbed up and gotten the rifled barrel...now I spend twice as much for Lightfields.

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This, the ones with the paper base wad work great in my Winchester 1200 Smooth bore. My set up is similar to yours.

Couple years ago I tried Federal Truball slugs in a couple of my old 12 ga. smoothbores just out of curiosity and I was impressed. Years ago when all my deer hunting was with a smoothbore my High Standard Flite-King,(my first deer gun), loved Remington Sluggers. After that it was the 870 Special Purpose Deer circa 1987 smoothbore with 2.75" Winchester slugs. So let the gun decide its preferences. For a few years I even went through my magnum slug phase using 3" magnum slugs in the 870. Until I discovered that deer couldn't tell the difference. They died just as quickly with either one but the 2.75" slugs were more accurate so that's what I went with. These days when not in a rifle zone I still use the 2.5x Leupold scoped 870 but it now has a rifled Remington barrel on it and using 2.75" Winchester/BRI sabots. Someday I wanna return to my deer hunting roots just for old times sake with a 12 ga. smoothbore just for kicks. They work good in the thick woods. If it's the old Stevens 820B I'm gonna use the Truball load but if it's my old High Standard I've already got a bunch of Remington Sluggers for that one. P.S. I also second the motion about trying Brennekes also.

As has been mentioned, the Brenekke KO slugs do a very accurate bang up job in my smoothbore 870, 2-3/4 will get it done, they are also very reasonably priced at my local sporting good stores.

In my smoothbore 1300 with rifle sights the best slug I found accuracy wise was the plain Winchester Super-X 1 oz 2 3/4". Worked on deer too.

I seem to have the one smoothbore slug gun that doesn't like Brenneke's. My old 870 flings Remington, Winchester, or Federal foster style slugs to the same point of impact all day long, but just can't group the Brenneke's for some reason. You gotta love shooting a deer with a flying ash tray!

There is no way to predict what slug will shoot best out of any particular gun. Over the years I've owned about a dozen different smooth bore slug guns. All had strong preferences for one brand or style of slug over others.

Do yourself a favor and stay away from the saddle mounts. They pinch the receiver on the 1300 and screw up the ejection. Ask my how I know. Regular Brenekes shot great out of my iron sighted 1200.

Remington Sluggers get the job done too.

I killed many Ohio deer and florida hogs years ago with Brenneke Rotweil slugs. They shot darn good out of my old remmington 1100 smooth slug barrel.