I haven't bought saboted shotgun slugs for several years, now I'm out and need to buy a new supply. Which 2 3/4" saboted slug is the current choice as far as accuracy and killing power? For years I shot Federal with the Hydra-shok point but apparently they're no longer made. Most available now use a jacketed bullet.

I like federal trophy copper. They fly very good for me.

I believe Federal loads a Fusion sabot slug. I use Remington CopperSolids in my rifled 1187 and LightField Lites in my Hasting's barrel 870. YMMV.

Best for my slug gun are Federal 2 3/4" Barnes expanders which are no longer made...I have 10 or so boxes rat holed to last me

Not intending to high jack this, but I just got a deal on a 870 express cantilever rifled slug barrel and may buy a cheap express to experiment with it (found 2 at $200 in good shape...)

What kind of accuracy should I expect out of this barrel? (yards, group,)
Any known slug preferences for Remington 870's or does each barrel have its own preference?

I used Rem AccuTip in my 12 g this past year. They shot better than the Hornady, Winchester, and Fusions I tried for this particular gun…just a sample of one.

I've yet to shoot a slug more accurate than a Remington Accutip. This is based on living in a shotgun only region for 20 years and trying just about every Sabot slug made.

Though the sabot sluga aint cheap, my suggestion would be buy a single box of however many you can afford, and test them in your gun. Once ya find one you like buy as many of them as you can and you'll be set.
Did that with my boys 20ga Mossberg which actually shoots real well. Still have a couple boxes of Winchester Platinum Tips we bought for that. He's taken 4 or 5 deer with it.
As far as sighting goes...depends on where ya hunt. Our shots are USUALLY 50yds or less so we sight dead on at 50. But shoot a target at 100 so we know how far they drop.

I shoot hornadys in my BPS. Flat fast and extremely accurate. Ymmv

Been many moons since I hunted a slugger but I tried the Accutips last year and was quite impressed with how the gun slung them.

I hunt regularly with slugs as most military bases along the east coast limit you to shotguns and slugs. I have shot Hornady SSTs, Winchester Partition Golds and Remington Accu-tip and Copper Solid.

The winning combination I settled on was my 20ga 870, cantilever barrel and Vortex SPARC red dot with the Rem Copper Solids. They have the best mix of accuracy and penetration. And I could buy them at half the price of the accutips.

I would also recommend the winchester partition golds-- absolutely drop deer.

Lastly--- The Hornady's were regularly the most accurate in any platform (Mossberg 500, HR Slugger, and 870) but I found the jackets way to thick to get good expansion and of the 4 deer I killed with them I got small exit wounds and tough tracking (but dead deer in 75m or less).

For years now I've been running the 12 ga. Wichester/BRI 2 & 3/4" sabots with complete satisfaction in my 1987 vintage 870 using a newer Remington fully rifled barrel. I stocked up on them a few years ago and have enough for at least 10 years based on how many I fire annually. But whatever your gun is accurate with is probably the way to go. Haven't seen any of Winchester/BRI sabots this past season and I'm not sure if they are still on the market but they certainly work good for me. My stash may even last longer because the last couple seasons have found me in both rifle and shotgun zones and I've got several rifles that haven't taken deer yet.

I have always had good results with the LightFields and the Remington Accutips.

Last year we tested a bunch and the most accurate we found were the hornady american whitetail slugs.

Remington core loyk ultras (bonded bullet)have the most kinetic energy of any sabot slug sold today. They have as much energy at a 100 yrds as most do at the muzzle. They have been extremely accurate for me. Acutip and federal Barnes expand ers were just as accurate in my guns. The core Lokt added me longer range for me since we are field hunters. I have taken whitetail out to 275 yrds with 12 ga. And 230 yrds with 20 ga. With clean pass throughs on both. To date I have taken 17 whitetail past 200 yrds. Every deer was ranged and were standing. Although shots were far. I did not risk shooting a maybe shot. My scopes have hold over dots and I spend a ton of time at the range.
I have recovered 1 slug from a 4 1/2 yr old doe shot quartering too me in the front shoulder at 212 yrds. it exited behind the rib cage and entered the front of the thigh, broke the femur, and stopped in the hide in the back of the leg. The 385 gr slug weighed 382.4 grns. We run H &R slug guns.

There is no magic answer, sabots that shoot well in one slug gun may not in another. My Marlin 512 doesn't shoot the Barnes Expanders worth a crap while my A bolt does and my buddies Marlin 512 does.
Only sure thing is to shoot some down range and evaluate
If I had the money I've spent over the years testing saboted slug gun rounds at the range I could go on a nice vacation some place warm

Case in point the Hornady's shoot like crap out of both my slug guns

I shoot an H&R Ultra and it really likes the Win sabot with a 50 cal bullet. It shoots sub MOA in the 3 inch but I've never tried them in 2 3/4. As a matter of fact i don't even know if they make them in 2 3/4 but if they do they would be worth checking out.

With these rounds costing more that $2.00 each, I started at the bottom of the food chain and only went up when needed. I got lucky-my Mossy 500 with a rifled cantilver barrel really likes the Hornandy slugs, which happen to be on the lower end of the price grid. 1 1/2" groups at 100 yards. No walkaways yet.

2 3/4" winchester low velocity (1200 fps) sabots in my Beretta 391 rifled bbl. Very, very accurate in that rig. Had to ditch my Model 37 featherweight and go to low velocity in a semi-auto due to a shoulder issue last fall.

The gun dealer I buy my slugs from says that in his experience most issues from rifled shotguns not shooting sabots accurately is from using High Velocity slugs. Claims that the bbl rifling won't support the higher velocity in most cases. Don't know about that but these Winchesters were keepers right out of the box and I'm not looking at any others in this rig.

I have shot Lightfields out of a 12 and 20 with great results. Accurate and lethal!

My experience too with the same gun.

First, the gun has to tell you what is the best slug. My 870 likes, the rem. 23/4 copper solid, my H&R ultra likes the Hornady American Whitetail 2 3/4 325gr sabot. These two loads shot the best out of several brands that were tried.The remington copper solid is very good. Longest shot is 153 yds. The Hornady load stoned a doe this past year at a lasered 208 yds. DRT. The H&R is most accurate gun/slug combo I have ever shot.

With saboted slugs costing so much, my intent was to identify those predominantly producing good results while weeding out those that do not. Twenty + years ago when I had my slug gun barreled by E.R. Shaw I did purchase a cross section of what was then available and range tested them all. With saboted slugs costing $13.99-$15.99 and more testing all available becomes a really costly undertaking. Thanks to all who contributed their experiences and input.

i used lightfields with great success in a 20 ga.

i bought a hastings barrel for a 870 and bought all the different sabots i could even premiums the lightfield was second best but better price so that is what i used.I forget what gave best 3 shot group

have to find what your gun likes

My cousin got a good deal on one of those some years back, then spent literally $200 trying to find slugs that would shoot straight in it, to no avail. He gave up and sold it and went back to the smoothbore 870 he's used for 35 years or so.

I know others have had great results with them and suspect he had forend issues. He's not much of a guns tinkerer, so if something has issues, down the road it goes.

Sounds like yours is a winner.

My H&R ultra 12ga love the Hornady AW 325 gr interloc. I will 1 MOA at 100 and at 200 2.5 MOA. I shoots like a rifle. Best 300 bucks I have ever spent. All it need was a trigger job.

I've gotten more than acceptable accuracy from Lightfields, Federal Barnes Expanders, and Remington Copper Solids. Both my guns shoot the Lightfields well enough that I use them exclusively now. I keep meaning to try some other with sleeker bullets, but I've been too lazy and cheap.

I switched to the Lightfields after Federal discontinued the Barnes loading. Still have 2 boxes of them, just haven't used them.

One thing about the Lightfields, don't be surprised if you don't get an exit. They expand WIDE. I've yet to have a deer go more than 10' after shooting them with one though.

I rather liked the old WW High Impact Supremes in 2 3/4" 12 gauge. Two different 870's with rifled bores simply loved them.
Deer went down fast.
Noticeable difference in effect (compared to reg rifled slugs). Accuracy was very good.
Easy 150 yard rigs back in the day.

Ones you make..

^ Now we're are talkin. Good results?

All I use anymore is an H&R 20g and 11-87 12g with open sights. The H&R shoots excellent with 2 3/4 accuptips. However, when Hornady came out with the SST's awhile back, they were the most accurate slug I ever shot. They changed them not too long ago from the SST to the FTX and that killed them for me.

Have a thread anywhere on them? Casting your own? Would like to start rolling my own slugs this summer.

You got that right, Dan! It's been a while since I've lived in a slug-only zone, but that's exactly what I had to do.

I ran a smoothbore Remington 1100 12-gauge for a while, and it shot just about any Foster slug I cared to try into a 6" pie plate at 100 yards. I never worried about what I had on hand, and I killed a bunch of white tails with that gun.

But when I bought my daughter her 11-87 20 ga rifled barrel slug gun, it was a different story! Some saboted slugs wouldn't hit on paper at 50 yards, and some were tack-drivers. IIRC, we finally settled on Hornady saboted slugs with Nosler 250 gr bullets. And since slug ammo is never a sure thing, I bought a freakin' case of that stuff!



No schitt Sherlock!! I went thru EASILY 15 different types of slug ammo to try to find "the one" for my daughter's 11-87, which means a minimum of 2 5-round boxes for each one... and then I bought the case of Hornady/Nosler slugs when I found out how well it shoots.

Crazy expensive. Not to mention the concussions I sustained firing slugs off the bench over and over again! Thank God I don't live in slug country no more...

Picked up a Savage 220 last year to hunt some local slug gun only areas.
I'm using 2 3/4" Accutips.
This slug gun is very accurate, touching holes at 100. Killed a doe with it too. She went about 10 feet before dropping.

BPI carried all the stuff at one time to make them with data using 50 cal. XTP pistol bullets; I loaded and use them sparingly as their data was way too soft but the results were what I was looking for: it shot as well as the Combined Technology PT Gold and my bullet was hard cast softnosed, so terminal results were the same.

Think there's still a few hundred cases and sabots when I get to tinkering again..

About the same time my Dad bought 500 of the Combined Technology slugs before they got hard to find, so I don't really have a "need" to make more.

Shot one doe last year running away, right up the spout with just the straight up heat treat 50 cal. flatnose solid.

Lengthwise all the way out the front; probably not the slug to use if one drives or hunts in large groups, but if casting your own can be made from wheelweights to get about the hardness of a Brenneke (9 BHN) or pure lead (5-7 BHN).

Don't do the Lyman slug mould; they shoot well sporadically because a shot wad isn't up to rifling.

A bit of advice: use the dual pin roll crimper BPI sells; it will save a lot of frustration.

Brennekes work for me in my Beretta 1301 for social work. 3-4in groups @50yd Not really a sabot though.

Dan,
Funny you say that. That is the exact load my A bolt prefers as well...