houtsdg

Had to give myself a baseline before I dropped the change for slug gun, so I went out and shot the box of cheap Federals that I bought last December through my Benelli Nova without rifle sights or scope. Shot at cardboard sillouhette:
2 shots @ 25 yards -- 1 in leg/shoulder, 1 in kill zone. However, these 2 shots managed 2 holes each in target -- 1 clean and 1 ragged. Does the plastic wad shoot far/hard enough to cause this?
2 shots @ 35 yards -- 1 in kill zone, 1 miss low and right.
1 shot @ 40 yards -- missed low and right.

Is this par for smooth barrel with rifled slugs? My brother-in-law says this combo is horrible for any sort of accuracy.

Now, I'm ona budget. I would love to get a slug gun w/scope, but if I end up with rifled sights, what kind of accuracy can I expect in relation to the smooth barrel and a rifled with cantilever?

Vapodog

Use a rifled slug...the old style used in shotshell barrels.....smoothbores... I also recommend a cylinder choke.....My smoothbore cylinder gun shoots three shot groups at 25 yards into the size of a clay pigeon 10 out of 10 shots. Actual groups are about 2.5" at 25 yards.

I use iron sights and no scope. This rig is a 100 yard gun max.....but it's extremely powerful in that range.

jcchartboy

Yes... the plastic wad will fly that hard and fast.

I find Sabots from my gun in a target at 50 yds on a regular basis.

CapDog

I shoot a Reminton 870 smoothbore using Federal Maxim slugs on a regular basisis at work. With just the bead sight you should be able to get consistant hits out to about 50yds or so. If you go to a rifle sight or ghost ring sight you will have no problem getting out to 100 with practice.

And yes the wadding comes out with quite a bit of force. Our targets are all along sheets of plywood and they easily punch through the plywood out to about 40 yards

Wingbone

Is the Nova backbored or overbored? Guns with backbored barrels don't shoot slugs well. As was said, you should have a cylinder or improved cylinder tube in when shooting slugs. Try Brennecke slugs in your smoothbore. I get 4" groups at 100 yd. with them in my old Browning. I think Federals are undersized to fit through a full choke.

Rebel Hog

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Bulzeye

Houtsdg,
The miserable hits you are getting is because of the lack of sights.
I wouldn't hunt without at least iron sights.
The smooth barrel and rifled slugs can do much better.

With a ghost ring and post, I got 2 out of 5 brands of rifled slugs to give me 5" groups at 50 yds. With a no magnification red-dot, I brought them in to 3" with the same ammo. I wasn't impressed, so I bought this...
http://www.remington.com/firearms/shotguns/870exp_slug
...and now on a good day the hits make one ragged hole at 50yds with Rem CoreLokts. At 1900 fps, these little sabots are really cookin and shoot very flat for a slug gun.

The rifled barrel with sabot slugs, is the end-all-be-all of slug guns, and will produce rifle-like accuracy within it's effective range, and will get you out past 100 yards with a 2x or 4x scope.

Rebel Hog

Have you tried the Brenneke Black Magic smooth bore slugs?

Paul L Mohr

With my mossberg 500 and a smooth bore it shot winchester rifled slugs fairly well. With the twin beads it was alright but not on center and no way to adjust it. You just had to compensate for it when you shot. I put some clamp on style fiber optic sights that go on the rib and things impmroved a little. I could prabably get 3 inch groups at 50 yards and it shot well enough I could take a deer at 65 or 70 yards, but that was my max with that gun. I only used it as a back up for my inline muzzle loader.

Now I have a buddy that has a fiocci (spelling?) auto in 20 guage that will shoot well enough out to 90 yards to take a deer. And that is with beads. However this gun is so light it beats the crap out of you when you shoot it. Every gun is a bit different.

The right ammo out of a rifled slug gun is a WORLD of difference. Yesterday I shot some of the same ammo in my H&R that I used in my Mossberg and it shot better at 100 yards than the mossberg did at 30. 1 ounce rifled slugs at 1760 fps. 2 bucks a box! Makes a mess in your barrel, but the difference in accuracy between a good rifled barrel with a scope and a smooth bore is pretty impressive. And then if you find a good premium sabot load the are even more consistant and cleaner to shoot. However they over twice the money.

Another thing to consider in accuracy is if you are using a pump or something with a removable barrel, don't mount the sights to the reciever. It will not be very consistant most of the time. And if you pull the barrel to clean it you will most likely need to re-sight in.

I say if you are going to do close up stuff and take fast shots, a smooth bore pump or auto can work pretty well. But if you are looking for longer ranges and precision shots, a good rifled barrel is the way to go for sure.

Just my opinions any way.

Paul

eldeguello

With one lot of Remington Foster-type slugs, my old Ithaca M37 Deerslayer would shoot 3" to 4" groups at 100 yards (had a 2.5X scope on it). With other brands of slugs, it was hopeless or worse! Federals and Winchesters were particularly bad.

A lot depends on what kind of a wad they put under the slug-if is is a thick, stiff card wad that will not enter the base cavity in the slug and deform the slug, the load will shoot a lot better than loads that have soft, easily deformed wads right under the slug. Also good are slugs that have a plastic plug in the slug's base cavity to prevent distortion of the slug as it passes down the bore.

It is important not to have too much choke constriction in a tube you plan to shoot slugs in, and any barrel that has the same inside diameter as the slug's O.D., the better it will shoot THOSE PARTICULAR slugs! (This has nothing to do with safety - a slug will swage down and pass thru any reasonable degree of choke. BUT the more the slugis deformed before leaving the barrel, the worse the accuracy will be.)

A real problem is that no two outfits make slugs the same size around, and even slugs of the same brand can vary a lot in size,weight, and even wad column configuration. That's why it is important that, when you find one particular lot number of a brand of slugs that shootwell in YOUR GUN, you need to buy a case of them!! They may be different next year!