Rifled Slugs for Hunting

[dak0ta]

Hey guys,

I'm planning to hunt mule and black-tail deer with my Mossberg 500 28'' barrel IC choke and rifled slugs. What advice can you guys recommend? What effective range should I be looking at? Brands, ammo, etc. Are the slugs accurate enough with a mid and front bead lined up?

 

[lloveless]

I have never hunted those deer. I presume it is in an fairly open area. Shotguns give decent hunting accuracy to about 100 yds. A 2-5 x scope would help the accuracy. Shoot it alot to become familiar with the gun and what it and you are capable of hitting.
ll

 

[shiftyer1]

I cant speak for mulies or black tailed deer but I know most fat Minnesota white tail are killed with 12 ga slugs.

I'll always remember the guys that got early christmas presents with scopes. About 50% ended up with black eyes. lol Don't creep up on your scope

 

[sKunkT]

I have heard of people shooting with the bead, but if you have a vent ribbed barrel, you could get those clamp on turkey sights. They are fiber optic, inexpensive, and adjustable. I knew a kid that could consistently hit at 100 yds with a smoothbore, but I personally wouldn't go much past 50 or so. Before you go spending all sorts of money, just pick up some rifled slugs and go to the range and try it. Rifled slugs are cheap.

 

[dak0ta]

To mitigate recoil, does the push/pull method work in which with the firing hand you pull the gun into your shoulder and with your support hand on the pump, push forward, this way the net force is negated? It works for trap and buckshot, I was wondering if slugs are too powerful for that.

 

[Steve C]

If you are using a shotgun because you are in a shotgun only hunting area the human dwellings are usually fairly close and the terrain is often heavily forested which generally is going to make shots short range or hunting from blinds or stands.

With practice you can get pretty good with just the bead sights on the shotgun but sights like the clamp on ones, a barrel with sights mounted or a electronic red dot will help a lot.

As the other poster said you need to buy some slugs, Walmart has 15 rnd boxes that are not too expensive, and see how well you can hit at different ranges with whatever sighting system you want to try.

Ideally you would want to hit a kill zone about the size of a large paper plate (dinner size) so that would give you a target to use and goal to reach for.

 

[au_prospector]

Mossberg makes a slug barrel called a 'Slugster'. I have one for my Mossberg clone and it shoots great! Its a 24 inch barrel and does not have markings for the choke. I assumed you shot rifled slugs with a cylinder choke only, but my assumption on that may be incorrect. Sight is adjustable for elevation and you can tap it to move for windage. I have about 4 practice sessions with this barrel and can get 4-5 inch groups at 50 yards easily. My father put them in the 10 ring, but I am not as steady as he was. Only problem I run into is lead fouling after about 5-10 rounds, accuracy suffers.

Anyway $125 was paid at a gun show. It swaps right out with your current field barrel on the Mossberg 500.

My set up is 20 gauge. I have better luck with Remington 'Slugger' rifled slugs than I do with Winchester for some reason. The Winchester Super X land further off the bulls-eye, where as the Remingtons are true. You should try out 2 or three brands yourself to see which one works best for your shotgun.

 

[d2wing]

That push pull thing sounds like creating another problem for your self to me. I've never heard of it improving anything. Accuracy varies but is not too good with smooth bore slugs. 40-50 yards is is typically max for 100% kill zone shots. Maybe better with luck and practice but not by much. You can more than double that with a rifled barrel, scope and sabot slugs and practice. I'm sure many guys that don't actually measure anything will dispute that.

 

[rcmodel]

+1

Pushy-Pully may or may not help recoil.

But I can GayRonTee ya it will not help your slug accuracy or clay bird scores one little bit!

rc

 

[5.7Man]

I suggest getting some Brenneke slugs as well, They have always been much more accurate in the shotguns I have used them in. It you don't want another Barrel I second the Clamp on rib sights. Good Luck.

 

[Kendal Black]

Hey guys,

I'm planning to hunt mule and black-tail deer with my Mossberg 500 28'' barrel IC choke and rifled slugs. What advice can you guys recommend? What effective range should I be looking at? Brands, ammo, etc. Are the slugs accurate enough with a mid and front bead lined up?

My thoughts on the matter are as follows--just IMHO:

Your gun and barrel are all right.

To the range question, I would say you should get as close as you possibly can. While a good killer, the rifled slug out of a smoothbore gun is not a precision item. Let the accuracy you achieve set your maximum range. When you can't hit an 8 inch circle you are shooting too far.

Ammo: Brenneke slugs and Federal Tru-Ball have top reputations for accuracy.

Finally, put a real sight on that gun. Beads are for the birds. A popular way to add a sight is to buy a side mount or a saddle mount that bolts onto the receiver and gives you a place to mount the optical sight of your choice. In theory it would be better to mount a scope to the barrel, since the barrel is not permanently and rigidly mounted to the receiver, but the off the shelf solution for doing that is a new, rifled barrel with a rail attached. That solution works very well, but costs a lot more and the barrel is good for only one thing.

A final suggestion: target practice!

 

[dak0ta]

I went to the store today and bought the brands they had to offer.

Remington 2 3/4'' 1oz reduced recoil slug at 1200 FPS
Federal Power-Shoke 2 3/4'' 1oz rifled slug at 1600 FPS
Federal Vital Shok (Truball) 2 3/4'' 1oz reduced recoil slug at 1300 FPS.

I'm going to guess that the Vital Shok will be the most accurate for me.

Anyways, all of these brands should take deer cleanly at 50 yards?

 

[Nicky Santoro]

Yes, if you do your part, but that range is about max for a sporting shot. If you want to go out to 100 yards, a sabot slug from a rifled tube is really required. A lot of guys claim good accuracy 100 yards with a rifled slug out of a smoothbore but I don't believe it. I think they just can't judge distance or shade the truth a bit.

 

[Dr.Rob]

Buy a few 5 round boxes of different brands of slugs, see which one shoots the most accurately in your shotgun and hunt with that.

I tried Remington, Federal and and Winchester before deciding on Winchester 1oz slugs exclusively.