slugs through full chokes
- Thread starter john45
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A standard full choke with standard lead slugs is safe. Don't matter if they are fixed chokes or interchangeable tubes. You probably won't get good accuracy. The new sabot slugs or solid copper, really anything but lead, should probably not be used in full choke guns.
The extra full or super full tubes designed for turkey hunting are not meant for slugs.
The extra full or super full tubes designed for turkey hunting are not meant for slugs.
Yep I agree that sabots are for rifled barrels only. Good way to ruin a regular barrel for sure. Improved cylinder is the best to use, but full choke will work also. Every gun is different in regards to accuracy, so it's best to shoot it and see what you have....regular rifled slugs, that is!
mingo
mingo
A_Matthew
Member
I would take a slug out of a shell and try pushing it down my barrel. If it slides through the choke, then go ahead and shoot it. If you can't push the slug through the choke, then I wouldn't shoot it.
I tried it on a full choke once, and it wouldn't slide through no matter how hard I tried. So what is it going to do to your barrel if you just force it through by firing it?
I tried it on a full choke once, and it wouldn't slide through no matter how hard I tried. So what is it going to do to your barrel if you just force it through by firing it?
B1gGr33n
Member
I have fired lead rifled slugs through the full choke on my 12ga, but as mentioned accuracy hurts. It would hold minute-of-deer at about 75 yards with full choke, but IC choke lets me get out about 150 yards.
Today's regular saboted loads will not ruin a smoothbore barrel.
Accuracy will vary with them, if no rifling present. Some will keyhole, some won't.
Pushing a slug down a barrel to see if it'll clear the choke tells you exactly nothing of any use whatever.
Foster slugs are hollow, the "rifling" is there to allow them to swage down in passing through a tight choke.
Solid Brenneke slugs still swage down.
A sabot (the plastic "shoe" that contains a bullet) is compressible enough to also "swage" itself down sufficiently to pass through a choke.
Accuracy may be affected, as noted above, but it's perfectly safe to fire slugs of all three types through a choked bore from Full on down. I would not do it with anything tighter than Full, though.
Denis
Accuracy will vary with them, if no rifling present. Some will keyhole, some won't.
Pushing a slug down a barrel to see if it'll clear the choke tells you exactly nothing of any use whatever.
Foster slugs are hollow, the "rifling" is there to allow them to swage down in passing through a tight choke.
Solid Brenneke slugs still swage down.
A sabot (the plastic "shoe" that contains a bullet) is compressible enough to also "swage" itself down sufficiently to pass through a choke.
Accuracy may be affected, as noted above, but it's perfectly safe to fire slugs of all three types through a choked bore from Full on down. I would not do it with anything tighter than Full, though.
Denis
A_Matthew
Member
I've heard of guys splitting their barrels wide open from firing slugs through a full choke. Maybe that's just my experience, and you've had better luck. But once you hear something like that, you tend to stay on the safe side.
I've never heard of anybody doing that, so maybe we cancel each other out?
Gotta be more to the story, the ammomakers know some people will be shooting their slugs through a FULL choke, and if it was at all likely to blow up any modern barrel in good shape you can believe you'd see WARNING: DO NOT USE IN FULL CHOKE printed prominently all over the packaging.
May possibly have occured in Damascus barrels, or aftermarket screw-in chokes installed in relatively thin-walled barrels. Gotta be something else going on besides merely shooting a slug through a FULL choke.
I'd have a hard time believing it otherwise.
Denis
Gotta be more to the story, the ammomakers know some people will be shooting their slugs through a FULL choke, and if it was at all likely to blow up any modern barrel in good shape you can believe you'd see WARNING: DO NOT USE IN FULL CHOKE printed prominently all over the packaging.
May possibly have occured in Damascus barrels, or aftermarket screw-in chokes installed in relatively thin-walled barrels. Gotta be something else going on besides merely shooting a slug through a FULL choke.
I'd have a hard time believing it otherwise.
Denis
MtnCreek
Member
Firing full bore slugs through a full choke will cause the choke to no longer be 'full'.
Doing so should have no effect whatever on a modern FULL-choked barrel in good shape, aside from the possible issue with thin walls with an aftermarket choke installed.
The slug will swage in before the barrel/choke will expand out.
Denis
The slug will swage in before the barrel/choke will expand out.
Denis
NCsmitty
Member
DPris has it right.
As long as the shotgun has a modern steel barrel, standard rifled slugs will work.
The factories produce sabots to be used in rifled barrels, and mark them so, but it's all for the sake of accuracy, not that they're unsafe. They will funnel through a smooth bore just fine, but usually suffer inaccuracy.
NCsmitty
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