Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Any slug users?

I've used slugs off and on for about the last 20 years. With a socped rfled barrel Mossberg 835 and Lightfield slugs took a number of deer.All under 75 yards. It shot 3 or 4 inch groups at 100, and big patterns at 200. My current slug gun is a Verona double with Hastings rifled barrels and a reflex sight. It's regulated at 50 yards and shoots both barrels side by side with 1 1/2 groups there. At a hundred still easy 5 inches both barrels with WW Copper Impact. I've currently no access to a longer range. I've fired and hunted several other slug guns, smooth and rifled that did not perform that well. I have a friend with a Savage 220. It groups around 3 inches at a hundred with Hornadys. Again no access to a 200 yard range. I have a Savage 24 20 that will do 4 inches with WW fosters at 50. Have/had a number of drillings and BBF's that would do the same with Brennekes.
It took 14 different loads to find the current load for the double. It took 7 or 8 for the Mossberg. Dumb luck on the 3rd load on the 24. Brennekes and Remington fosters were the only choice for the German guns. Slug guns that I've shot at 200 years dropped a lot and made groups way more than double the 100 yard groups.

My experience is that (1)different ammo shoots much differently in each gun. For example the Hornady load that shoots so well in the 220, groups over 6 inches at 25 yards in my double gun and the load that does well in mine can barely keep on a paper plate in his 220;(2) groups at 50 and 100 yards are not indicative of longer ranges;(3) every slug gun is an individual(4) i never shoot at game at a distance I haven't checked out on paper, no matter what it says on the box or what someone says on TV or the internet.
Good Luck
Bfly

About 50 yrs ago I had a JC Higgins 20 gauge bolt gun , modified choke
With Remington rifled slugs I could hit quart oil cans around eighty yds pretty consistently
That was shooting off handed , so don’t really know his it grouped , but was plenty accurate for me in those days
Now have a 220 savage , shiieet ! No looking back with accutips
Often clover leafs at 100 yds on a bench
Kills em dead too
Kenneth

Can’t swear to its authenticity, but a while back I read a story that stated that an Ithaca employee hunted where only slugs were legal and had enough pull to have a special model created for that. The barrels are slightly undersized to give a better fit, and straight cylinder-bored. The rest as they say, is history.

My fondness for them comes from my late uncle, who loved deer hunting, although he was not a gun guy at all. He bought a 20” 12ga back in the 60s and had a K4 with a dot mounted in a Weaver Pivot mount. Those mounts seem pretty rinkydink these days, but that thing held zero for decades, and he swung that scope over and used the irons more than once. His son likes to say that the K4 has a lot of DNA on it because so many people got “scoped” by that wicked little cannon. It shot like a rifle with ordinary Remington Fosters. Paper-hulled Brennekes however, just fell out the bottom.

I really like the 37s, have had four, but had trouble holding onto them. My son has my first, a plain 12, and I foolishly sold a 26” 20ga DS to finance a mistake. Last year I scored a very pristine 12 with a Simmons rib, and later a 20” Super Deluxe DS with the factory Williams peep. Both are early 60s, 1963 IIRC, and in excellent shape, although I had to repair a crack in the DS. My repair seems to be holding. It like my uncles, is brutal off the bench, and now stands in the corner for house duty. I need to take it out to verify function with the ammo it’s loaded with, as the other one doesn’t extract steel-head cases reliable, a common issue apparently with the older ones. Brass heads work perfectly.

Slug guns tend to be individuals. Each seems to have a preference for a certain brand and type of slug.
My second longest deer kill was with an smooth bore Ithaca 37. 110 yards. But that gun was fitted with a peep sight and loved Federal 1 ounce Sluggers.
20 Gauge guns are still good killers and will be lighter in weight and recoil. I have a Savage 24 in 22 mag/20 gauge fitted with a peep sight, and choke tubes added. I have to change the sights for slugs but still a joy to carry in a local slug-only area.

Same here. I was stationed at Ft, Benning Ga back in the 70's. Back then it was shotgun only. I had no problem filling my tags each year there. I Used a Rem 1100 12ga with Brenneke rifled slugs. The Brenneke's were by far the most accurate slug in that gun. They were absolutely devastating. Never had to track a Deer. Most dropped where they stood. The few that didn't, stumbled and fell a few yards away.

Anybody remember the Remington BuckHammers? Man, I shot alot of deer with them big SOB's. They shot amazing in my old 11-87 with the rifled chokle tube.

Wouldn’t surprise me a bit. I think there was a lot of that “in house special treatment “ culture at Ithaca (and Remington) back in the day. I had a friend years ago whose FIL worked at Ithaca. He had a twenty gauge Model 37 that was very ordinary in every way, except for the wood. You could not take your eyes off the wood. Today, that wood would be considered exhibition grade at the very least and probably command a four-figure upgrade.

I would not assume much past your sight in without trying especially past 100 yards. Slugs are wonky and the way you sight in can have an effect. This link has a lot of hints on proper sight in with a two hand hold, not resting the forearm on a bag like a rifle.

https://www.tarhunt.com/

I've killed dozens of deer with slugs when my area was shotgun only. The area went rifle a few years ago. I always used a 1970's, 12 gauge, Mossburg 500. I put a fully rifled barrel and scope on it. I had excellent success with Remington Solid Copper sabot slugs. I too, always sighted in so it hit 2" high at 25 yards. But always shot at 50 and 100 to verify point of impact. 12 gauge slugs do wallop the shoulder at the range, but I've never felt any recoil when shooting deer 🙂. And deer don't go far after a slug through the boiler works.

Growing up hunting in Michigan and Illinois, I began with slugs early on and have tried well over a dozen platforms for 12 and 20ga set ups. After 20 years of this I can say with vengeful passion that I despise them. No other firearm has been as finicky as slugs. Just when you think you've got it consistent, one goes 6" off POA. Sometimes it has killed the scope [happened a number of times w/ sluggers] sometimes it is just a mystery. I've done all the tricks and tried all the models. Shimmed or pinned barrels/receivers on 870s or 500s, had two different TarHunt set ups. Marginal consistency with 1187s in 12 and 20ga... finally finding a decent brand of ammo. The best of the bunch have been the Savage 212 and 220s, but even then by the time you take the time to try $3/shot ammo and get things dialed... slugs for me have been a 0-75yd proposition. Even if I ring steel out to 150+ on occasion, those pumpkins [even 20ga sabots] seem so fickle in hunting situations in any wind that, despite the siren song of trying yet another promising slug set up just for drives/pushes, I am committing to saying "no!"

With the advent of straightwall cartridge legalities in both states [even with the single shot IL restriction] that's my choice every time. Or, at times I've been known to go afield with two muzzleloaders; one light to carry on the walk in/out or on a drive and the other heavy for longer pokes.

Rant over - but boy, do I wish I could get back the dollars and hours I spend chasing slug accuracy and reliability.

That said, my biggest buck was taken with a Mossberg 930 12ga slugger

Smoothbore foster slugs & iron sights work fine for hunting the thick stuff with shots under 50 yards.