Slugs in a Smoothbore?

[ForkyFreak]

Does anybody here have experience shooting slugs out of a smoothbore shotgun? If so, how's the accuracy and distance? Any difference between unrifled/rifled slugs?

 

[Derek44]

I’ve seen decent accuracy at 100 yards with rifled slugs

 

[Addicting]

You must use rifled slugs and I’ve killed deer over a hundred yards with them.

 

[Nick87]

Use rifled slugs not sabots. Sometimes accuracy isn't bad sometimes it is. All depends. Like @Derek44 said deer size game is doable out to 100.

 

[chevyman181]

My uncle used to, I'm not sure if he shot the rifled slugs or not but he would shoot about a hundred yards for deer.

 

[Gellar]

Shoot rifled slugs out of a smooth barrel. With a scope I have no problem out to 100 with my 20 gauge 870.

 

[jt13]

I've shot a lot of rifled slugs through relatively short-barreled smoothbore shotguns with iron sights. Very capable 100 yards and in.

 

[Gellar]

I will add, try different brands. My gun shoots the same size slug very differently depending on manufacturer. My gun likes the Federal power shocks.

 

[Nick87]

I will add, try different brands. My gun shoots the same size slug very differently depending on manufacturer. My gun likes the Federal power shocks.

Yup.

 

[Dave N]

If you decide to try 3" slugs, prepare yourself!

 

[ForkyFreak]

Thanks for the replies!

 

[brymoore]

I grew up shooting rifle slugs out of my shotgun. I had a smooth, sighted deer barrel. It’s still in my gun cabinet. It was before rifled shotgun deer barrels. Family killed a lot of whitetails with them. Longest kills were about 100 yards.

 

[INMT]

Ditto. Shoot rifled slugs out of a smooth barrel. I grew up shooting 20 gauge open sights. I was young so never shot anything over 40. Dad had a scoped 12 gauge and regularly killed deer at 100+.

 

[Jbotto]

I grew up in a MN a slug zone. Probably haven’t touched one of them off in few years. I shot rifled slugs through a smoothbore slug barrel on my 870. The barrel was stamped Improved Cylinder and had iron sights. I never knew if the whole barrel was choked down to IC or if it was just near the muzzle.

Anyways, I greatly disliked having to use slugs. But I shot dozens of different rifled slugs, over the years, to see what shot best out of my shotgun. That’s the key with anything but I think it’s even more important with slugs. Some brands patterned so poorly I wouldn’t even call it a group. Others were much more consistent.

I think my furthest shot on a deer was about 100 yards. That was the furthest I trusted them with my gun and my shooting.

 

[Steiny77]

I grew up shooting rifle slugs out of my shotgun. I had a smooth, sighted deer barrel. It’s still in my gun cabinet. It was before rifled shotgun deer barrels. Family killed a lot of whitetails with them. Longest kills were about 100 yards.

I grew up with a similar situation in Indiana. This was what was legal.
Best smooth bore setup I had (still have) was a Ithaca 37 Deerslayer w/ smooth bore, improved cylinder, receiver mounted scope, shooting 2-3/4" Brenneke rifled slugs.
Shot a lot of deer 50-100 yards.

 

[Nick87]

I grew up with a similar situation in Indiana. This was what was legal.
Best smooth bore setup I had (still have) was a Ithaca 37 Deerslayer w/ smooth bore, improved cylinder, receiver mounted scope, shooting 2-3/4" Brenneke rifled slugs.
Shot a lot of deer 50-100 yards.

Ithaca and brenneke or lightfields were top of the line back in the day. My first two deer seasons I didn't have rifled sights just a smooth bore with a bead. Had to adjust accordingly. The rifle sights were a big step up.

 

[RaiderRich]

Used rifled slugs out of a smooth bore for years in Upstate NY. Yeah 100 is about max range and in east coast woods most of your shots are under 100 anyways

 

[Gut Shot]

The best answer to your questions is "it depends". Different guns (and different chokes) will be more or less accurate. Different types of slugs (Fosters or Brennekes) will behave differently in different guns as well. Grab a few different boxes and try them for yourself. Generally speaking a Cylinder or IC choke will be best but I had one shotgun that wasn't good much past 40 yards with anything I tried. Other guns did a lot better and would shoot into 6-8" at 100 yards.

 

[Boarmaster]

When I shot a smoothbore in Ohio I used Rottweil Brenneke slugs. For a smoothbore were accurate and they killed deer like the hammer of thor.. You wont have any issues blood trailing.
I eventually moved on to a rifled barrel with a scope. The lightfield sabots where much more accurate but I didn't think they punched a hole in a deer like those big rifled slugs. Most of my shots in Ohio were 15 yards out to 50. One step up from Hand to hand combat there.
For me a 100 yard shot would have been a Hail Mary with my smoothbore. I kill several deer out to 80 yards and I felt I was reaching out there. I practiced at 50.
100 yards was still a good poke with my rifled barrel but a better bet than the smoothbore.

 

[Tikka06]

I have shot lots of them out of both combat style and hunting guns. Mainly the Remington sluggers. Most accurate guns I ever saw were an 870 with a smooth bore barrel and scope on it and a 870 SBR with a 14in barrel surprisingly. The SBR shot with rifle style accuracy at 50 and 75 yards.