Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Any slug users?

Anyone use slugs to hunt with, I have a weekend hunt planned on a Corp of engineer tract that require slugs only. Taking the 300 gr ftx hornady slugs. Sited the gun in 2 inches high at 50yds, I should be good for 150-175 yd shot if needed. I’ve never killed anything with slugs so I’ll be new to this.

Being in a slug state all but 2 of my gun kills have been with either a 20 gauge or 12 gauge sabot slug. Taken a doe a piece with a muzzleloader and my 450 bushmaster. Honestly 175 yards is stretching it. They drop like rocks. I try to stay off the shoulder, never had a long or bad blood trail with a slug. Good luck!

I used to. The local military base in the 90's was shotgun only. That changed when the Army left and it became a National Guard base. But in the 90's we didn't have these fancy sabots and rifled bores were uncommon. It was Foster slugs and smoothbores. And it worked

I killed a yearling moose once at about 35 yards, running, with a 12 slug. Single bead Win 1200. Wing shooting, so to speak, but a bit higher than planned. I was rushed...

Perfectly centered the large artery just under the backbone. He ran about 100 yards and tipped over in mid-stride, all bled out. Ate the last (lost in freezer) roast 2 years later- still better than the one I'd killed that year. But he had been perfectly aged, too, due to circumstances out in the remote field.

Caught out in the field, working, the 1200 was all I had, and I bought the only two 5-packs of slugs the village store (20 miles down river) had. I used the first 5 pack to check sights/ drop. I think I still have the other 4 slug loads 40 years later....

Check the drop. Those big slow bullets drop like a rock once past 100 yards. They do work well though.

True- IIRC, from 25 to 150 yards on my check shoot- there was a couple feet... but every damned one nailed that 6" root-wad river-bank, washed out spruce tree I was shooting at.

I was confident to 150. Plus, mooses are big!

The quickest way for the average hunter to develop a flinch is to sit down at a bench with a couple boxes of 12ga Fosters and "sight in".

I was forced to use them for years. Finally got smart and went to a 20 out of a semi. Better, but still sucks. Now a days I'd rather go to the wife's family reunion than shoot phugging slugs.

If you have to use slugs and are gonna hunt that area for a while the Savage 220 in 20 gauge with a decent scope is the best thing going b

We used to have to use them in Iowa, hated them, especially from a smooth bore. Tried the 20 gauge Savage bolts with sabot slugs and they were better but still not optimal. Much better now that we can use any cartridge over .35 caliber.

Hornady SSTs with the FTX slug are good loads, IF your gun shoots them well. Using Hornady SSTs, my Savage 212 will hold a 1" group at 100 yards. Out of my Ithaca M37 with a rifled barrel, it will barely hold a 10" group at 100 yards. Ive never shot any other brand of slug that had such a wide range of accuracy from different guns. If you think you are going to get 100 yard shots, I would HIGHLY recommend you shoot that gun at 100 yards and see what you get, and not just rely on being 2" high at 50 yards.

Yeah, no kidding. I think that my slugs drop at least a foot from 100 to 150. I've been using Breneke Magnum Crush 12ga 1 1/2 oz. 1500fps.

With a slug gun, a rifled barrel is a necessity. Scope, red dot or irons depending on your eyes. Irons should be good rifle type irons, not beads. I wouldn’t shoot much past 125-150 with a scope, 75-100 with irons/red dot. Those slugs drop like a rock past 100 yds. The wind can mess with them past 75yds or so, so pay attention to that.

EVERYBODY should do that every time for everything,
but they seldom do. These days they get online
and read that they need to sight in so-and-so right
there at 25 yards, and that'll be perfect for so-and-so
at 300 yards, never having fired past 100 to see
what's what

One of the best lines I've heard

I've shot a couple of whitetail does with the Federal 328 grain lead sabot slugs and the old Winchester BRI sabot slugs.

They all have a pretty arching trajectory, so with a 2" high zero at 100 yards, you probably want to check the POI at 50 yards in case you get a closer shot. The Federals are soft lead, so I'd aim for the lungs. The BRIs were a lot harder, so they might have been successful at breaking bone, but would still put a big hole through the lungs.

Haven’t had to use slugs for years, for which I’m grateful. My last couple of Ithaca slug guns are in my sons’ hands now and I don’t think they really have any use for them.

The Model 37 Ithaca “Deerslayer” smooth bores with rifle sights always seemed to throw a slug pretty well, certainly adequate for most in-the-woods deer hunting. I always thought there might be something in the fundamental design of that model that lends itself toward shooting slugs relatively accurately. Even the ones with modified and full choke “bird” barrels seemed to shoot slugs better than most smooth bore shotgun designs.

When I was stationed in VA I hunted a lot of shotgun only places. Slugs will knock the hell out of a deer but as others have already pointed out they are not long range. Where I hunted with them 75 yards was as far as I could expect to shoot and at that range a slug is deadly

Used to be all we could use in Ohio was Foster slugs. People killed tons of deer with them. Me and my pals (pards 😂) included. Then they allowed certain handgun calibers (.357, 41, 44, .45 Colt). Next they allowed rifles barrels and sabot slugs. This was really a step up. I started with a cantilever barrel for my old Mossberg 500. Lightfield slugs shot great, but Federal Premium Barnes Expanders shot even better. I bought an H&R trophy slugster single shot and put a Simmons 4x shotgun scope on it and used it until Ohio started allowing straight walled cartridge rifles. Now it’s 350 Legend out to 200 yards. Take your rifled shotgun with the XTP slugs and go slay some deer. You won’t be disappointed out to 150 yards.

Ron

when i was 12yo, smoothbore with a bead, i had a 20ga Savage pump gun and Remington slugs (i think Brenneke). i could hit a coffee can lid at 75 yards. i didn't shoot a deer either. next year it was borrowed Winchester m94 in 32 Special.

i always wondered what the 20ga does to deer?

For the same reasons I have been shooting more than a few slugs. Sighted in a smoothbore using Winchester 1oz rifled slugs and a 50 yards they shot pretty tight but at 75 yards 5-6 inches was the norm. Put together two rifled barrel 12 gauge slug guns and both shoot plenty fine out to 125 yards using either the Monoflex all copper or the SST loads from Hornady. They do not hit to the same point of aim sadly.I like to hunt so I use them but I also use my much nicer to shoot muzzleloaders more. Use the shotguns when rain or hunting from boats.