Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Anyone hunt with a smooth bore and Foster Slugs?

I killed my first deer with a 12 gauge Foster slug many years ago. That was the only deer I’ve ever taken with a shotgun but it went down fast.

I traded for a Remington 11-87 not too long ago. It came with a 26” vented barrel and a 21” smooth bore with rifle sights.

Just for fun, I mounted the 21” barrel and took it to the range last weekend and shot several Turkish made Sauk 1 1/8 oz. Foster slugs. At about 50 yards it was stacking them in pretty well.

Decided I would use it some this fall for taking deer.

What does everyone else think about smooth bore shotguns with Foster slugs?

I still pull a shotgun out at least once every gun season.

They hammer deer no doubt

Yes sir. Which choke do you prefer? The other day I was using a a Briley Skeet choke, but discovered I also have a Remington factory rifled choke tube.

If you can hit where you aim with a rifled slug, it's deadly.

I use Foster or better yet, Brenneke slugs on big game fairly often. I use them the most when I am hunting both big game and birds or varmints at the same time. I consider the useful to 125 yardsfor deer.

At 100 yards with select ammo and good sights, smooth bores will often group three rounds in under four inches. I use improved cylinder or modifed chokes, again depending on the individual guns preferences.

I do have exceptions where I don't use smooth bores. We frequently hunt on a hay and cattle ranch.Here shots often exceed 100 yards. My partner and I have elected to use 20 gauge Savage 220 bolt slug guns with rifled barrels for this work. Mine has a 3-9x40 Leupold on it and I use Remingtoon Accu-Tip slugs in 3 in magnum. This combination gives me accuracy and power good enough for 200 yard shots when necessary.

For many years Foster slugs, and buckshot, was pretty much all I used. Where I live it's pretty much shotgun-only around here unless I drive a few hours to a county that allows rifles. Foster slugs are deadly.

My county in NY is still shotgun only. Most use rifled barrels, but with the vast majority of deer taken at 50 yards or less the foster slugs are perfect.

With the crowd on this one, up close they are nasty.

I've never recovered one, but a friend of mine caught a Win 12 gauge foster in the far side hide of a 50-60 yard lung shot about 15 years ago, and it's flattened out about the size of a half dollar piece. I'll have to see if I can get a picture of it next time I'm out at his place

Used to quite a bit. 20-30 years ago in Eastern Virginia unless running hounds the standard load was slug in the chamber followed by whatever buckshot did well I'm that gun. Regular bead sight they did pretty well inside of 50-60 yards. Some guns better than that. They also flatten deer pretty good

I haven’t hunted with my shotgun in years. I never could get foster slugs to group. I used Winchester slugs.

I've used those old fashioned slugs in the past with good luck but I've killed more deer with Brennekes than plain Foster slugs. However, the last ones I used were the Federal TruBall slugs and I was impressed by how accurate they were out of my smoothbore barrel. If I were to hunt with a smoothbore shotgun again, I would start with those TruBall slugs.

Been decades since I hunted with them, although I play with them from time to time to keep my hand in and because you never know when you might need to use something out of your ordinary. They’re deadly on deer, but very fragile, so brush and bone tend to break them up, not a bad thing really.

Just acquired a Super Deluxe Deerslayer, circa 1963 IIRC, and dialed in the factory receiver sight with Tru-balls. If my meat gathering with other options go well, it’ll get a chance, just for old times sake. Meanwhile, it sits in the corner waiting for the Insurrection. Kicks like a mule from the bench.

I've had good luck with the Brenneke in my Rem. 870 a20" smooth bore with rifle sights,and a 1950' s Win model 12 that had it's original barrel cut down to 26" ,,ramp front sight with white bead and a Williams 5 D reciever sight installed.
At 75 yards it is dead on,but it is a tooth rattler !

I have thought about picking a few boxes of the TruBalls up just to see how they shoot. Possibly hunt with them some if they shot good enough.

I've found 3. One was huge like that. One was almost normal but one little deformation on the very front and one was only a partial, half at most.

Assuming they're pretty much pure lead like a round ball??

Not sure if they are 100% pure lead or not, but they are extremely soft, so if they aren't, they're pretty close.


I only shot A deer with them (maybe 2... been a long time ago), and it was a through and through from about 10-15 yards. Hindsight, but if I had looked around I probably could have found it in the dirt because it was a pretty sharp downward angle out of a tree stand.

I've plugged a couple coyotes with them and they poked through both sides from 40-50 yards. The rest of my shotgun deer and coyotes have been with sabots. I expect both the coyote fosters flattened some, because the exits were very large.

I have killed several with smooth bores. They tend to have a preference so try different brands. Keep the bore clean with a wire brush of a rod. I use the drill and run it up and down several times. I have found that then treating the bore with 1000+ lube for muzzleloaders helps keep the lead out.
Leading attracts more lead.
I once owned an Ithaca 37 LAPD. Full tube and I had peep sights mounted on it. I killed a small buck at 110 yards with it. I just had to hold 4" over his back.

I picked up a Hastings full rifled barrel with scope cantilever for my 11-87. Still.sitting in the safe. I just haven't put the money I to a scope for it

I live in a shotgun zone in eastern PA and went to Sabots and rifled barrels a long time ago but I remember hammering deer in Hunterdon County NJ in the 70's with slugs. If you could hit a paper plate at 50 yards it was considered good enough.