Slug advice for smooth bore

I

isuhunter

New member
Hi guys
I got a late invite to join a deer hunt this weekend. I'm in Iowa so it's slug season. I'm thinking I'll use my Beretta 3901 20ga. With smooth bore and cylinder choke. I know I need to get out and shoot some groups and see how it does and what slug works best. Can you give me some suggestions on slugs to try? All I have is a bead sight and will probably be looking at 50yrd max shots.

I plan to leave work early and pick up some slugs and start shooting.

I'm tempted to buy a muzzleloader too for late season...that's another story lol
 
Personally I use winchester super X slugs in my mossberg 500 20ga. They always hit where I pointed it, and I've killed several deer with em. You definitely have to see what your gun likes though. Mine shoots remington slugs about 4" left consistently, whereas the winchesters will hit center. Just my suggestion because it's what works for me. Good luck with the slugs and on the hunt.
 
Buy full size slugs, (usually the least expensive) no sabots.

There will be a huge difference in point of impact in your gun between brands, and nobody can recommend anything unless they are using your exact setup, so your best bet is to buy about 5 boxes of easy to find, name brand stuff (Win, Fed, Rem) and see which shoots the best group closest to where you are aiming. My son's 870 20guage, w/improved choke was hard to find a good fit and ended up with Brenneke 2 3/4" shooting the tightest and closest to the aiming point. Everything else was shooting way low. In my 12 guage Win1200 w/open Defender barrel, Federal was the only thing that shot tight enough, though about 10" low at 50 yds. The point is, there is no best slug, just the one that best matches your gun, and that is a trial and error.
 
Another+1 on the Brenneke KO slugs. They are one of the few slugs that do well in both smooth and rifled barrels.
 
Buy the cheap slugs and see where they shoot. Expensive sabots in this case are just a way to spend money fast. $5 for 5 slugs vs $15 for 5. Start with 25 yards and once you see where it's shooting try 50.
 
Ok so I bought some and did some shooting today at 25 yards. The name is written above the target I was aiming at and the shots are labeled accordingly. Looks like I will be purchasing some more Brenneke KO.








 
Ok so the KO are shooting high but on target. If you have some spare time see what happens at 50 yards. The drop should bring them down to the bullseye.

I've never heard of the KO's but they look like a good choice.
 
Looks like you found your slug of choice of that bunch. Now you can either try more, for a better zero, or stick with the KO. Then its a matter of shooting at 50 and then 75 yards to figure out how much to compensate at those distances. It will be significantly more.
 
All I have on my gun is a bead and at 25 yards the bead more than covered my approx. 2"x2" target. I think I could benefit from a smaller bead or sight of some sort. Anyone tried rifled chokes?
 
would a pdx defender be allowed during slug season? probably not a desired round for deer hunting, but just curious if it would be considered a slug
 
I used my Xtreama this year with a full choke to sight in. I shot twice with win. superX 1 oz. slugs at 50 Yds. at a 6x12 target. I hit it twice. Afterwards I was told to use a cylinder choke so I switched to my improved Mod. since that was the best I could do at the time. Point being the full choke didn't get damaged and shot well. I ended up using buck shot in the dense swamp. No shot
 
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