ORIGINAL: geterdun2
troy - i would but see the barrel i have is smooth, not rifled so i assumed that slugs couldt be shot out of a smooth bore. thats why i never shot slugs from it, b/c either the gun didnt come with a slug barrel or i lost it, so i just have the smooth. what do you think?
ANY smoothbore gun can shoot LEAD shot of anby diameter, including 00 buck! However, buckshot of any size is a very poor deer load, and has an extremely limited effectiver range-25 to 35 yards for reliable kills! Maybe as much as 40 yards for a 3" magnum shell with 12-15 pellets instead of the nine in a regular shell.
In your gun, you can shoot Foster-type and the old style Brenneke slugs, including the up-to-date Lightfield copy of the Brenneke. In a smoothbore, if accurate enough, the Brenneke or Lightfield is a better killer than a Foster type slug.
You need to test several makes of slugs to see which brand and load shoots best IN YOUR GUN. While slugs themselves are nothing to get excited about, they kill deer much better and at much greater range than buckshot will.
You
only have to have a
RIFLED bore if you want to shoot the modern,
SABOT type slugs. BTW, the sabot-type slugs are much more effective than any other kind, and, because they are fired from a rifled bore, usually more accurate (but not always!)!