Rifled slugs in bead sighted gun...worthwhile?

[GRIZ22]

My accuracy with your average Rem and Winchester slugs seem to range right around 6-10" groups with a bead sight at about 60-75 yards or so...that isn't outstanding

It is not outstanding but adequate for a HD situation. You rarely will be faced with a 25 yd shot is a SD situation. For SD I wouldn't worry too much about which slug to use. I use RP or WW reduced recoil. Either will penetrate a torso so anything else is overkill AFAIC. A BG hit with a reduced recoil slug at 1200 fps or so will swear it was a full power slug at 1600 fps.

 

[DPris]

I wouldn't say you can't shoot slugs beyond 75 yards with a bead, and I have tried it, but I would say it's slower, more difficult, and much less efficient than with sights.

In the woods, if you have plenty of time to line up your bead with your receiver and your eye, the bead is not regulated way off on elevation, and you've shot your gun & ammunition combo enough to be able to judge holdover (or holdunder), it's doable.

As a defensive tool, the bead is a poor choice for slugs beyond 50 yards, where you need quick reference points for aiming and relatively quick shots, including followups.
Beads are not tunable to point of aim in mating with a given slug load, slugs vary in trajectory on both planes just like cartridges & bullets do, and if you have the money, it's very well spent on sights that give you consistent aiming points, quicker acquisition, greater precision overall, and the ability to mate gun with ammo.
Why handicap yourself needlessly?

You CAN get by with a fixed sight S&W Model 10 .38 Special, but a whole boatload of savvy cops traded in their 10s for adjustable-sighted 15s after living with fixed sights and having to adjust the shooter to the ammunition used rather than the gun, way back when.

You CAN get by with a bead, but if you're going to bet your life on a tool, why not put your chips on the most efficient version of that tool that you can?

Denis

 

[oneounceload]

Dave, my mossberg 500a shoots ridiculously high with the bead sight on the barrel of my 18.5 in SD barrel (no vent rib). How would you recommend adding a base? or raising the bead? Thanks

Are you seeing rib/barrel? If so, your gun doesn't FIT - too many want super short stocks on their HD/tacky-cool guns, but then it doesn't properly fit.; If you are seeing barrel/rib, you're holding the gun so it shoots too high

 

[mgkdrgn]

"s buckshot in the SHOTgun and a rifle for anything else the only effective outlook?"

I guess it really depends on -where- you are to a large degree.

I live in a suburban neighborhood, and HD range for me, is at best, 10 - 15 yards or so. I don't have a shot nearly that far inside my house, and outside my house any further than that you would be off my property.

Those closer in distances is also why I -would not- consider using slugs in my HD shotgun here. They are quite capable of firing completely through a car (in one door and out the door on the other side), and just as capable of passing through -several- interior walls, an exterior wall, and then the exterior wall of one of the neighbors. With #1 shot (personal favorite) or smaller buckshot ... not so much of a problem, it's unlikely to leave your dwelling unless shot out a window.

 

[Sebastian the Ibis]

Are you seeing rib/barrel? If so, your gun doesn't FIT - too many want super short stocks on their HD/tacky-cool guns, but then it doesn't properly fit.; If you are seeing barrel/rib, you're holding the gun so it shoots too high

With a natural cheek weld I can't see the bead at all. If I raise my head so that the bead just begins to eclipse over the receiver it shoots high. FWIW, I have an ordinary full size Mossberg stock on it, and a recoil pad if I'll be shooting all day.

 

[oneounceload]

Try taking your UNLOADED gun in your living room - hold it down in a low mount position, pick a spot on the wall - maybe where walls meet ceiling in a corner - close your eyes, mount the gun, open your eyes - is the gun and your sight picture where it was before you closed your eyes? If not, then the fit needs adjustment.......

 

[Al LaVodka]

Muskets were used at dozens of yards. You have a much improved version -- yes, a rifled slug is good to 100 yards. Try it a few time...
Al

 

[Howaido]

My shotguns are basically set up for buckshot. Big Dots, big white beads, etc. I don't think of them as anything but a pistol-ranged weapon. However, if I were to dedicate a shotgun as a trunk gun, it would be rifle sights and slugs all the way.

 

[Youngster]

A bead on a long barrel is a lot easier to be accurate at a distance than a bead on a riot barrel, even a short bead barrel should be decently accurate with a little practice out to 50 yards or so however.

 

[DPris]

In military engagements, muskets were typically used in volley fire, from specific formations, at 50-75 yards. They were pointed in the general direction of the enemy formation and fired as a group on command. With enough men lobbing enough lead, somebody would get shot somewhere, but they were not generally used as aimed-fire weapons. I've fired a smoothbore Brown Bess with bayonet-lug-front-"sight", the mainstay of the British military forces for well over a hundred years, and I've fired rifled muzzleloaders with genuine sights. Given a choice between the two (which the soldiers did not have), if I actually wanted to hit something & in a hurry, it'd be the rifled bore with rifle sights. Or, at the very least, a smoothbore musket with real sights. If you're happy with, again, an inefficient system when you can afford a much better one, then it's your life.

Pretty much the bottom line, for me, is that yes- you CAN make the beaded smoothbore do things it was not designed to do with slugs, but if there's an easy way to increase a shotgun's efficiency as a defensive tool, that's the direction I go.
Sights are a relatively cheap way to do that.
Denis

 

[ArmedBear]

The way YOU shoot, the way YOUR gun fits, and what YOU are comfortable with matter a great deal.

I'd suggest buying the smallest box of slugs you can, finding a place with dry dirt backstop that kicks up dust (for reference, if you miss your target completely), and giving it a go.