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.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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.

Brenneke makes (made?) a KO sabot slug that looks almost the same as teh foster KO slugs. The box is / was extremely similar as i recall.

There's a chance you might be shooting the KO sabots out of the smoothbore.

Worth a look.

FWIW, i have a rifled hastings barrel that would stack the Brenneke KO sabots on top of one another at 75 yards. Extremely low recoil. I am guessing slow as well, as the delay was hystierical... Boom... thwack. The groups fell apart by 100yards. Weird.


I like Breneke KO stuff a lot. Inexpensive and very effective.

You'll probably have to try several brands, however, I'd try Winchester Super X 2 & 3/4 inch 1 ounce fosters and the odds are you won't need to try anything else. 7 smoothbore slug guns between me & the kids, 2 20 gauge, 5 12gauge and we use Winchester Super X slugs in all of them with great results. I'd go as far to say that if I found a barrel that wouldn't shoot them I'd sell it and look for another barrel. Additionally they are reasonably priced and if Winchester has a rebate and they are on sale like I found them last year, they came to $1.25 for a box of 5 after rebate.

I have 3 1300's but all have drilled and tapped receivers from the factory, so have no experience with a saddle mount on them.

If you go the saddle mount route I'd go with a Weaver Converta Mount, it's the best one I've found because it's not really a saddle mount. We use the Weaver Converta mount successfully on an Ithaca 37, 2 1100's and an 11-87.

Be aware if you use a Weaver Converta Mount on a 1300, there is only one trigger pin, and therefore you need to drill an additional hole on the side of the receiver to firmly mount the side plate. Also, make sure you get the regular model, not the "see under" model cause your cheek is to high off the stock with the "see under' model.

Federal makes a TruBall deep penetrator that looked impressive on You Tube. One oz. copper-plated. Only 1300 fps or so, but went really deep in the jello. About a buck a pop.

Another option to try. Find one that works for you and stock up.

+1 on equipping your shotgun with a scope, I mounted a scope on my slug gun many years ago. A Weaver V4.5 has been my scope of choice, I have had one on an Ithaca M/37 and on my current Winchester M/25. Both have been mounted in a Weaver top mount, never have liked saddle mounts, side mounts or cantilever mounts. Scopes mounted solidly on top like on a rifle have been absolutely dependable in my experience, that is why my choice of shotgun has been one with enough material in the top of the receiver to allow proper drilling and tapping.

My advice is to start cheap and work up. If Remmie Sluggers work stick with them, if not try the Winchesters.

Once you find one that works, buy as much of it as you feel you need.

I'm come from Ohio and got used to shooting slugs in the mid-80s. Looking for the "best" is going to be an expensive quest. The trick is finding ammo that does what you want it to do and then stick with it.

I picked Remmie sluggers for my Rem 1100 as a first choice and got a cloverleaf at 50 yards and stopped right there.

Lot to lot differences seem to be a bigger problem with shotgun slugs than any other ammo type I've encountered. This year's batch may work, but next year's will suck. I've even seen K-Mart's work and Walmart's suck out of the same year. That's why I say you should stock up with whatever seems to work.