Hunter59-
I'm glad at least one fella has commented that the SST's have shot well for him! I was starting to worry about the Quality Control from Hornady! I should say that your barrel and the load are a match!!!
As for slug breakup, thats a problem here in NJ. There's an unwritten rule that goes something like this:" Whoever puts the deer down, it's thiers"!!! I've shot Lightfields to hit behind the shoulder and blow out the ribs. The deer often take off on their death run and drop 50-100 yds away, where another hunter is sitting and drops your deer with his shot. Whamo, you lose!!! Go back to your stand and try again!
I then started shooting directly at the shoulder to break it and thus drop the deer in its tracks. Works great with a rifle,or with foster slugs from a smoothbore. I wanted to increase my accuracy and range, so the rifled barrel, scope and sabots were the way to go. I found the Lightfileds to be exceptionally accurate in my gun, but the slug broke apart on the boney shoulder. Had a few with one lung destroyed, the other intact on deer. Also had a significant quartering away shot at one good 8 pt buck( 155lbs dressed). The slug enetred just in front of the rear ham, went up into the paunch and never made it to the vitals( found it broken in the liver/stomach). Had to track for over an hour and finish him off at 20 yds with a slug to the neck. Not my favorite type ofresults! I like one slug, one deer kills at any distance! Hence, my efforts with the SST's.
So, I'm back at square one and will try to create a new combo that works well and that I trust shot after shot!
I know what my rifles can do and what my handloads do everytime I take a shot. I want the same confidence in my old, but good slug gun. Yes, the trigger has never been worked, but then all my shots should be sloppy if it was the trigger's fault. Why then would some brands of slugs shoot well and others stink? Probably like a rifle: some barrels like certain bullets and thats that! My reloading bench consists of Nosler's Partitons, Bal Tips, Hornady's V-Maxs, Barnes TSX's and Sierra's Game Kings. Each bullets duty varies with the load/powder combo and out of which rifle I shoot it. True, my fault for not doing more homework on the SST slug, but in retrospect, 5 shots at 50 and 5 at 100yds were all I felt I needed. This time, I'll take the new scope and new slug to the next level. Its gonna' be expensive($4.00 p/slug), but worth it in the end.
When this slug gun is put into retirement, I think I'll go with a bolt action shotgun like a Tarhunt, Browning or Savage110. Any of you use these already?