Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting rifled slug barrel shooters poll

I got a remington 870 cantilever 12 gauge rifled slug barrel to try the local slug hunting and started sighting it in.

I'm using the "start with the cheapest slug" and try them until I find one that works. Cheap sabot slugs start at $6.70 for 5 and get real expensive fast!
So far I've tried cheap 2.75 federal and hornady sst and getting 5-6 inch-ish groups at 100 yard.


I know every gun has what its preference, but I'll poll the crowd to see if they have a preferred load for this common shotgun.

Plus save expense and my shoulder too. ;-)

Throw me out suggestions

I have had good luck with Lightfield 2 3/4 " both accuracy wise and terminally.

I'm more a M-L guy when it comes to a 'restricted area', but shotgun slugs don't seem to shoot as well as a tuned centerfire rifle. By tuned I mean the whole setup, sights, scope, trigger, ammo, etc are usually a few steps behind CF performance.

If you cut your groups below an honest 4" at 100 yards, I would hunt with it. I sight in my Gold 12 ga with a Hastings barrel as backup for my IL hunt, but I hardly stray from my Knight Elite. My buddy has used it more than me, but I did take one deer with it.

I don't spend an excessive amount of time with my slug gun, since I hardly use it. I've mostly used Hornady SST slugs at 75 yards. I did a 'shoot off' just last year with the Gold against the Knight, the Knight handily won.

Remington copper sabot 2.75" 1 oz

My suggestion is to borrow a muzzle loader! lol.

Shooting 12ga slugs sucks. At 5-6" at 100 will kill every deer that walks.

I burned up probably $300 worth of slugs over 10 years ago. Link to my post a about it here:
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/360390/Re:_Slug_guns_and_accuracy#Post360390

Gist of it was, my gun LOVES the now dicontinued Remington Buckhammers. Fortunately, I secured a lifetime supply. 2nd best were Remington Copper Solids at 3.5" 100 yards.

And, as an added bonus, you will have clear sinuses (albeit you will have snot everywhere), and you will be able to applaud behind your back with your shoulder blades - worst kicking things that I have come across.

My son has an 870 Express with an after-market rifled barrel made by Mossberg. It is the least finicky slug gun that I have ever seen.

OP here:

I should add my barrel is the 870 express 12 ga version mated with a 870 express.

Should also point out: once you have found a slug that gives acceptable performance - QUIT! You can dislodge your retinas and go deeply into debt searching for something that is marginally "better".

My Remington 11-87 likes the discontinued Federal Sabots that look like an hour glass, P154 SS, my gun has a rifled choke tube and shoots pretty good, 3" at 100 yards, luckily I bought 20 packs here on the Fire. My father has the same gun and he put a fully rifled barrel on it and with the same slugs shoots about a 1/2" tighter. Most guys I know shoot Lightfields or Remington Copper Solids. I've heard good things about the Hornady and Federal Fusion slugs. Good luck, it took me 60 rounds (12 5 packs)to find the right one!

Oh, I shot some 3" magnums with heavier than 1 oz slugs that kicked far harder than Buckhammers in all that testing!

As an aside, I always wanted to try a 10 gauge slug on a deer too. I came across a used H&R 10 gauge in pristine condition with the 36" barrel for $100 and ran a box of 5 slugs through it. 3 1/2" magnums with a 1 3/4 ounce slug. Now that kicked something fierce! Unfortunately, it did about a 2' pattern at 50 yards and hurt like the dickens even wearing a PAST pad shooting it, so I immediately gave up on that idea.

I got lucky. My little Mossberg 500 with a ported, rifled cantilever barrel likes the Hornandy SST's. I'll try a different brand each year, but this little 20 gauge is shootin 1 1/4 inch groups off the bags at 100 yards. 'Don't know how much more than that I can expect from it.

I feel sorry for the guys that have to shoot the premium stuff. Some of those slugs are over $5.00 a shot. Heck, that's like buying elephant ammo!

I have shot, and hated, slugs for the past 15 years. But SSTs have been the most accurate of the bunches I have tried in many guns.

Well, we got lucky here in OH a few years ago when they legalized pistol cartridge rifles. I've only shot my slug gun a few times since, and that was to confirm that it was still on in case I needed a backup. Easier on the shoulder and the wallet!

And from what I've learned over the years about slug guns, if I were starting from scratch, I'd go 20 gauge and buy the Savage stainless bolt gun for much better accuracy and way less recoil. From some of the stuff I've read about them, they're measuring groups at 200 yards!

I grew up in the Youngstown area before moving up here to Minnesota. At the time, rifled slug barrels were still illegal in Ohio, so I had set u an 870 with a smoothbore slug barrel, which necessitated shooting Foster style rifled slugs. Man, was that thing painful to shoot! I wanted more accuracy, so I had the barrel permanently mounted to the frame and the receiver drilled and tapped for a Leupold base and rings. It made the gun quite accurate, but still didn't do anything for the walloping recoil.

When I slug hunt now, it's with a little 20 gauge Mossberg with a cantilevered rifled ported barrel and saboted slugs. What a difference. The rifled barrels shure make a huge difference, and the porting helps immensely. The cantilever mounting system still allows the gun to be switched from upland use to deer hunting without sacrificing accuracy.

The Hornady SST shoot great in my 12ga 870. I bought a TC Prohunter in 20ga but haven't fired it yet.

A shoulder injury forced me to use my Beretta 391 with slugs last year instead of my Ithaca. Other than the extra weight, all positive! I am using a rifled barrel, Winchester 2 3/4 BRI Sabots @ 1350fps. Very tight groups out to 100yds, and manageable recoil.

A fellow with lots of slug shooting experience stated to me that shooting too high velocity slugs with rifled barrels are a problem for accuracy. Proved his theory in my shotgun!

That said, I would look at a new muzzleloader if that was an option. Boy are they accurate!

OP again:

How often do you have to clean the barel to reduce plastic build up?

More slugs: I have some winchester slugs (based on co-worker recommendation) and federal premiums to try on the next round. They are starting to approach the $3 a pull cost after that. May drop back to the hornady sst's if no clear winner comes out and its seems like a popular on in the poll.

The 1500 FPS federals were not bad, but I could here the splat on the paper making me wonder how much knock down they still had.

humdinger-

Give the Remington AccuTip a whirl.

When it comes to vetting slugs, unless you get lucky, there is simply going to be a reasonable investment.
And worrying about the cost per boom isn't going to aid in your sanity. We purchase multiple powders and various bullets for rifle reloading and don't think much of it.
Buy a bunch of them, shoot them, find one that works and be done.

Once you find something that perks, buy an ample supply before they come out with a "new and improved" version.

+1

I'm buying 2 varieties at a time and that gives me an excuse to go to the range. Its an interesting experiment so far.

And limiting it to 2 also keeps me from jack hammering the shoulder too much.

I tested a slew of them a number of years ago. IIRC the most violent of them all (by far) was the 3" Winchester Partition Gold. 385grs and 2000fps.

From an 11/87 it still felt like a 3.5 turkey load from a pump.

Stay away from that one.

This.

My 12 gauge kicks like a mule with slugs.

My Savage 220f is a pleasure to shoot with Remington AccuTips in comparison.

OP again...

I'm starting to feel the light on the 20 gauge slug thing!

I see several of those savage 212 and 220's on the range each fall and they really dial in nice. The funniest thing of the cheap scopes they put on and the poorly assembles scope mounts rattling apart.

This cantilever barrel fell into my lap @ $50, otherwise I would look at a savage bolt.

You wouldn't be sorry with the 220f. They are very accurate.

My group of 5 guys all shoot rifled barrels. 4 of the 5 are mounted on Beretta's. 4 of the 5 have Hastings Barrels. One guy uses a Beretta barrel with a slower twist. Accuracy runs about 2" at 100 yards for all of them. Take note of the twist in your barrel. Faster spin means faster slugs fare better. We shoot Federal Barnes Expanders at 1900 fps (out of production now, but Federal Trophy Copper are very close to the same). The Beretta barrel is a slower twist thus that guys shoots the 1500 fps version.

And to the guys who are afraid of the recoil? My now 12 year old daughter has shot 2 deer with them without complaint the last 2 years. So if a 10 year old can shoot them, they arent just too bad.

I've been shooting these for years. They're designed to run through a rifled barrel only.

Never liked the recoil of a 12 with slugs so when I ran a slug gun for a bit I bought a 20 gauge barrel for the Encore.

5-6" groups with Hornady SST and 2" groups w copper solid Remingtons.

This!

Sorry, but $5.00 a shot is just too much for this ol' boy.

I used to run a slug from an outfit called DanArms that had the wad attached to the slug. In the smoothbore barrels it was very accurate, but man, the recoil was painful.

My heart doctor told me to be careful about recoil since I had the defibrillator/pacemaker installed, so my little 20 gauge Mossberg with the ported barrel works well for me.

I used to start with federal true balls to sight in then dialed in with light fields

I sold my 870 slug gun when Winchester dropped the Hi Impact Supremes (BRI style). They really shot well and hammered the deer. My brother in law shot regular Winchester BRI and they left a weak BT, deer ran a ways.

His solution was to keep shooting the cheaper version, but let them get to 50 yards or closer and shoot them in the head. He ran a M500 Trophy Slugster and did not buy his ammo from one lot #.

Worked OK for him though.

Actually, I had two 870's drilled and tapped, running rifled bbls. The first one my cuz still has.

He missed a deer with it (I never did) so sometimes bring that up on the drive to our hunting spot

Remington copper solids

Remington 3" 385 Grain AccuTip Bonded is what my 11-87 likes...went through quite a few others before settling on the AccuTip. That was a long day at the range and the one one only time I've ever visibly bruised my shoulder. I second SKane's opinion on the 3" Partition Gold. Inaccurate and punishing in my shotgun.

My 1187 Hastings bbl likes Rem Copper Solid 3" and Win PG 2-3/4in. My 870 with Rem CL bbl likes Rem ATs.

Accutips are not bad online. Try Ammoseek.

Remington Copper Solids out of an Ithaca fully rifled barrel slug gun.

I get 2 to 3 inch groups at 100 with Remington Copper Solid slugs out of my Mossberg 500.

If you're looking to start on the low end price wise, I was just in Fleet Farm this weekend and saw some blue box Federal saboted slugs for $7.99 per box. I don't think they had these when I started working on my slug gun, or I'd have tried them. The least expensive option I found at that time was the Hornandy SST load and they were $11.99 per box. I got lucky, in that they shoot about an inch and a half group off the bench at 100 yards.

I tried a dozen different ones, many expensive ones grouped really tight, but then they would produce a flyer ...

In the end I found plain old Super-X slugs from Winchester consistently performed well, and never had any flyers.

So I went cheap, and do well.

GG,

I tried them and got about 5-6 inch groups.

Not sure if the 1500 FPS versus 1900 FPS on other makes of slugs is worth the recoils or not. I guess it would be a question if they grouped better.

humdinger,

I'm most likely telling you something you already know, but make sure the barrel gets a good scrubbing every so often.

My slug gun in a 20 ga T/C pro hunter and I hand load my own 20 gauge slugs using the Hornady .45 250 FTX bullets.

Doc

New user question...

Do these lead or copper build up super fast?

Ive put about 15-20 down the brand new barrel and need to clean it before my next range session.

Plastic fouling is oftentimes as big of an issue as the lead/copper residue.

Once you find a slug that you like and you've become acquainted with how it shoots, it'll be readily apparent when it's time for a good scrub.

20ish rounds always seemed like the magic number for me.

plastic.. yea. Better get the cleaning stuff out.
Round two f slug experiments this weekend... unless I go turkey hunting.

I think my shoulder recovered from patterning the 2 oz loads last weekend ;-)

Slugs and turkey loads? You're a masochist, aren't you?

I think so. The urge to try fall turkey hunting using my citori (its my shortest shotgun) added to the deep joint pain from the slugs.

Need to sight in the 3006 & try the new slug loads on Saturday before going turkey hunting Sunday. Hopefully my shoulder will make it through the weekend.

What's the best way to clean the plastic fouling out of the barrel guys? Thanks for the info, by the way.

(I kinda had the same question... brush & solvent? acetone?)

I've never used a dedicated plastic solvent - though I'm guessing there are products that exist.

It might be naivete on my part, but in my experience, a good general gun solvent, a brush and a little elbow grease has never failed to deliver exceptional accuracy.

I used Shooter's Choice bore cleaner and it cleaned it right up . Browning Citori, Beretta Silver Pigeon ,Benelli and Beretta shotguns . I also used a Tikka rod after running the solvent with a little bit of beretta oil.

I've used 'Remington Bore Cleaner' it's specifically designed to get the plastic fouling out of trap and SC shotgun bores. It's brown and cruddy looking stuff but really works. Used it on rifled slug bbls too. It does the job.

I guess I should pay a little better attention when I'm at your place.

Thanks for the reply. I'll give this a try.

When I lived in IL, it was shotgun or m/l only. Tried a slug barrel on my Benelli M90 field. The recoil broke my scope mounts-twice. After my gunsmith put the second mount on, I went out and tried to sight the gun in. Over the next 2 1/2 hours, I fired 60 rounds before giving up. I went back to the gun store and bought a Remington 870 Express 12 ga pump with cantilever mount. Sighted it in the same day, the day before the firearm season opener. That SOB kicked so hard it actually loosened my teeth, and I thought I broke my cheekbone. I got a deer a few days later, but really had to talk myself into pulling the trigger. Tihing is, it shot Winchester Super X slugs like a rifle at 100 yds. Then I came to my senses and bought a Savage 220F in camo, and a Savage 10 ML Ii muzzleloader. Sighted them in and never used them again. Moved to a rifle state. Both guns were a joy to shoot after the 870 Express. The 220F is deadly accurate with Remington Accu Tips. The Savage smokeless M/L was also a joy to shoot. No smoke, cleaning only required every 100 rounds, and because it's heavy (it's a stand gun, not a spot and stalk gun), the recoil was very manageable even by me, and I'm only 5'6", and 130#, and old. Do yourself a favor a keep looking for a gun that does not kick like a mule. It's not necessary.

My circa 1987 12 ga. 870 "Special Purpose Deer" model started life as a smoothbore slug gun with rifle sights, (back before rifled slug guns became common). Got drilled and tapped for a scope in the early 90's and added a fully rifled Remington barrel back around 2001. Always seemed to prefer 2 & 3/4" Winchester BRI sabot slugs, although there were some other good ones, I finally standardized on the Winchester/ BRI's. In 2013 I purchased over 350 of 'em so at age 66 (this year) I figure that's probably a lifetime supply for me, as I also rifle and handgun hunt so it's not as if I need that many slugs annually. One thing I've noticed over the years is that even back in the smoothbore foster style slug days or the fully rifled barrels and sabots of today is that both of those remington made barrels preferred Winchester slugs. Probably not all Remington slug barrels are like this but that's my experience with the two that I have. P.S. Back in the smoothbore days I went through the 3" magnum slug phase and eventually went back to the 2 & 3/4" stuff when I realized that the deer couldn't tell which one I was using but the 2 & 3/4" slugs were more accurate, so I've stuck with them ever since. So whatever is most accurate is what should get chosen.

Op here again....

Got federal 2.75 300 grain 1900 feet per second into 3 inch groups and I said close enough. Shoulder survived because I wore my PAST gel pad.

I may check out a savage 220 if I get into slug hunting hardcore. It seems to come recommended by several here.

Shot slugs at deer for 20 years or better before the DNR changed the zone i hunted in to rifles. Shot a savage 210 for almost all of that time and had no issues. It shot the 2 3/4" sabot winchester or hornady slugs (385 grain) about the same. Was about a 1" gun maybe a little less off the bench with a cheaper scope. I ruined a weaver and leupolds from the recoil and honestly a cheap simmons is what held up the best.

I have shot deer anywhere between 20 yards to 200 yards and had great success. Its painful to shoot and expensive to feed but sight in with the slugs you are going to hunt with and go from there. The Past recoil pad is a lifesaver.