tommy.duncan
Member
I posted a thread about a 590/870 for home defense. How accurate are slugs in a short barrel shotgun. I also want to thank everyone for all the great info on me last thread.
Rem 870-Moss 590- Slugs
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There are 18.5" barrels for the 870 that are threaded for choke tubes. Remington has one and Carlson's imports one. With these barrels you can put an extended rifled choke tube in it for sabot slugs and can change it for use with buckshot or rifled slugs. This info is only useful if you intend to hunt with the gun though as any standard HD barrel will shoot slugs with more than enough accuracy for HD situations. Carlson's also offers the same short threaded barrel with adjustable sights.
lemaymiami
Member
Learning to use slugs with an ordinary beat up, rack grade, riot gun was part of my training for years.... Every one of these were simple 18 - 20 smoothbore items with only a bead sight. I never had a problem putting basic slugs in a 10" paper plate at 25 meters... With sights and a bit better grade ammo most defense shotguns should do better....
Whatever slugs you choose make a point of sending some down range since the point of impact will be slightly different than 00 buck - and will certainly vary from brand to brand of ammo...
Whatever slugs you choose make a point of sending some down range since the point of impact will be slightly different than 00 buck - and will certainly vary from brand to brand of ammo...
Snowblind
Member
I agree with the consensus- buy a few different brands and see what you like.
I frequently shoot Remington Slugger 1200 FPS at 50 yards through my 870 police 18"
They are definitely my favourite 12-gauge slugs. It's not uncommon for me to hit groups the size of a baseball glove, though I do use a 1x red dot sight.
The full-power Remington slugs don't seem any different except hurting more at the end of the day, but the Federal 1650 FPS slugs seemed a pinch tighter and more accurate, and I didn't even re-zero. They also produce a spectacular fireball at dusk.
I have also tried the Federal reduced-recoil slugs, but found they neither significantly reduced recoil nor had any accuracy bonus over the Remington Sluggers. Those same slugs are also quite stinky for some reason, never noticed any smell with any other Federal offerings.
Sometimes I buy PMC slugs because they're cheap. I will probably stop doing that now, in my experience they shoot fine but tend to leave a lot of residue and cycle quite poorly- they frequently lock the action forward, requiring you to slam the pump back as hard as you can to eject them.
I frequently shoot Remington Slugger 1200 FPS at 50 yards through my 870 police 18"
They are definitely my favourite 12-gauge slugs. It's not uncommon for me to hit groups the size of a baseball glove, though I do use a 1x red dot sight.
The full-power Remington slugs don't seem any different except hurting more at the end of the day, but the Federal 1650 FPS slugs seemed a pinch tighter and more accurate, and I didn't even re-zero. They also produce a spectacular fireball at dusk.
I have also tried the Federal reduced-recoil slugs, but found they neither significantly reduced recoil nor had any accuracy bonus over the Remington Sluggers. Those same slugs are also quite stinky for some reason, never noticed any smell with any other Federal offerings.
Sometimes I buy PMC slugs because they're cheap. I will probably stop doing that now, in my experience they shoot fine but tend to leave a lot of residue and cycle quite poorly- they frequently lock the action forward, requiring you to slam the pump back as hard as you can to eject them.
Fred Fuller
Moderator Emeritus
The answer to that question will have more to do with the shooter than the shotgun. Slugs from a 12 gauge can be pretty punishing as far as recoil is concerned, especially from a fairly light weight shotgun. That can often affect a given shooter's ability to deliver slugs on target.
Given a capable shooter with a smoothbore shotgun which has sights, and rifled slugs proven to be accurate in that gun, hits on targets at 100 yards should be pretty much routine...
Given a capable shooter with a smoothbore shotgun which has sights, and rifled slugs proven to be accurate in that gun, hits on targets at 100 yards should be pretty much routine...
No kidding. The way the loads are going one wonders why they don't offer extra hard projectiles to elephant hunters. I don't know if it was a misprint but 1&1/4oz at 1800fps is loco.
The heaviest recoiling slugs I've dealt with were from my own handloads. I now mostly load reduced recoil slugs, but as far as factory stuff goes I've mostly felt that recoil was rather mild in comparison to buckshot loads. I have not used the more modern factory slug loads though as I've loaded my own for the past 25 years.
Personally I'd just as soon try to kill an elephant with a sledge hammer and a ladder as I would a shotgun and slug regardless of it's composition, but I'm not that brave.
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