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18.5 inch barrel slug accuracy
- Thread starter niekamp
- Start date
From my experience with slugs, you will be very, very lucky to group better than 12 to 15 inches at 100 yards. There are a lot of factors, the two biggest being open sights coupled with the inherent poor accuracy of the "rifled" slugs. I have no doubt that one could hit a deer, but hitting it where you want to hit it is a different matter.
Best bet would be to buy a rifled slug barrel, and use sabot slugs. You will be able to get 2" groups at 100 yards. But this is an expensive proposition - a rifled barrel will run you $200, and sabot slugs are $2 per round.
I got a rifled paradox barrel made by Hastings for $202 from MidSouth Shooters Supply. I believe that they have rifled barrels starting at $150 or so. With a non magnifying red dot scope ($35), I have no problem getting touching holes at point of impact at 50 yards. No signs of the recoil being too much for this bargain basement red dot either.
Next bet - a 20 inch rifled sighted barrel with choke system. IC or modified will help, as will rifled chokes.
If you want to keep your hardware the same, practise stalking to 50 yards and shooting at that distance or less.
Good luck,
Bowser.
Best bet would be to buy a rifled slug barrel, and use sabot slugs. You will be able to get 2" groups at 100 yards. But this is an expensive proposition - a rifled barrel will run you $200, and sabot slugs are $2 per round.
I got a rifled paradox barrel made by Hastings for $202 from MidSouth Shooters Supply. I believe that they have rifled barrels starting at $150 or so. With a non magnifying red dot scope ($35), I have no problem getting touching holes at point of impact at 50 yards. No signs of the recoil being too much for this bargain basement red dot either.
Next bet - a 20 inch rifled sighted barrel with choke system. IC or modified will help, as will rifled chokes.
If you want to keep your hardware the same, practise stalking to 50 yards and shooting at that distance or less.
Good luck,
Bowser.
Having owned, hunted and experimented with both smooth and rifled barrel shotguns my experience is a little different than Bowsers. Using a Remington 870 with a saddle-mounted 2x scope as the platform I didn't notice that much of an improvement with a rifled barrels. At 100 yards, Brenneke and Challenger slugs grouped from 8 to 10 inches (center to center) from the smooth bore while the rifled barrel might shave an inch or two off that using various sabot slugs. I didn't consider that enough of an improvement to justify the extra expense of a rifled barrel. Rifled choke tubes were a wash neither improving or hurting accuracy compared to the smooth bore.
The problem with the Remington 870 set up is play between the barrel and receiver. Some hunters I know have installed a set screw to fix the barrel to the and receiver. Others have gone to the cantilever barrel with an optical sight attached to the barrel. The best slug accuracy I've seen came from a Browning A-Bolt 12 gauge with a fixed rifled barrel but I don't think these are still in production and are a single purpose firearm.
In these parts, slug hunting is an up close proposition with most animals being taken from tree stands or fixed positions. The deer are most often driven towards the shooters and practice on moving targets is more relevent than "long" distance shooting.
The problem with the Remington 870 set up is play between the barrel and receiver. Some hunters I know have installed a set screw to fix the barrel to the and receiver. Others have gone to the cantilever barrel with an optical sight attached to the barrel. The best slug accuracy I've seen came from a Browning A-Bolt 12 gauge with a fixed rifled barrel but I don't think these are still in production and are a single purpose firearm.
In these parts, slug hunting is an up close proposition with most animals being taken from tree stands or fixed positions. The deer are most often driven towards the shooters and practice on moving targets is more relevent than "long" distance shooting.
It took 20 years for me to get around to benching my slug guns at 100 yards.That's about 3X the range of usual kills w/ slugs and fairtomiddlin' accurate 870s.
Slug hunting is close business, rarely is there a shot opportunity past 50 yards. The only 100 yard+ shot I recall in the last decade was a Hail Mary shot on a cripple(not my cripple).
As for your second question, not much difference.
The only advantage I can see with a longer bbl is a greater sight radius.
Also,PJR speaks truely about bbl/receiver slop. I get asked to take a look at a lot of slug guns, and almost invariably the mechanical problem that comes up is that slop. Pilot error ranks ahead tho, many folks are underqualified and/or terrified of their shotguns.
The vitals on a whitetail are about the size of a paper plate, maybe 9". If you can keep ALL your shots in that(and 6" is better) from field shooting positions at a given distance, you can make quick and humane kills at that distance. If you can't,don't try, please....
Slug hunting is close business, rarely is there a shot opportunity past 50 yards. The only 100 yard+ shot I recall in the last decade was a Hail Mary shot on a cripple(not my cripple).
As for your second question, not much difference.
The only advantage I can see with a longer bbl is a greater sight radius.
Also,PJR speaks truely about bbl/receiver slop. I get asked to take a look at a lot of slug guns, and almost invariably the mechanical problem that comes up is that slop. Pilot error ranks ahead tho, many folks are underqualified and/or terrified of their shotguns.
The vitals on a whitetail are about the size of a paper plate, maybe 9". If you can keep ALL your shots in that(and 6" is better) from field shooting positions at a given distance, you can make quick and humane kills at that distance. If you can't,don't try, please....