Originally Posted by
Mojotex
In order to stabilize the slug, it is the air passing over the slug's grooves that causes it to spin. This results in rather rapid energy loss, restricting effective killng distance on white tail sized critters to about 125 yards.
Not quite. Rifled slugs don't spin unless shot from a rifled barrel or smooth barrel with a rifled choke. They're built like shuttlecocks (badminton), with all the weight forward. That's what makes them stable in flight. The rifling on the slug was once thought to cause spin, but it's since been proven otherwise. Still, the rifling does swage down to fit through various chokes, making it possible to shoot them out of full chokes.