Deerhntr1213

Hi all, i recently saw ted nugent speak at the outdoorama here in Michigan. He said that in no-way would a smooth bore shoot any slugs with any accuracy. I have a 12ga mossberg 500pump with a 24inch slugster barrel ha happens to be a smoothbore with a rifled sight the sight is off so i have to put a scope on it..my question is. will this gun be able to consistentle hit paper at 100yards shooting from its smoothbore barrel rifled slugs with a good scope??

bigcountry

Yea, with a scope you should be able to hit 6-8" groups at 100 yards with sluggsters or simular slugs. But remember the Bullistic Coef. on those slugs are so bad, for you to sight in a 100 yards, you are probably going to be 6" high at 50 yards. Not really what you want.

3030win

Bigcounty is right. Your looking at 6-8" groups if you are lucky. A smoothbore slug gun is best at 50yds. If you need to be able to shoot at 100yds, get a rifled barrel.

kodiakhuntmaster

I must be the exception here. I have a mossberg 500 28" barrel smoothbore. With federal 2-3/4" rifled slugs and an IMP choke it shoots fine out to 100 yards. I only use the bead sight that came with the gun. On a calm day, I can shoot out to 125 yards and still hit a paper plate. Any slug (rifled or smooth) is best at 50 yards. Mine shoots about 3" high at 50 yards.

I' ve read some of ted nugents stuff on slug guns. It wouldn' t matter if a smoothbore would shoot 1" groups at 200 yards, he would still be against hunting with it. He just doesn' t like them. We all have guns that we like and ones that we don' t, and he don' t like a smoothbore. (he' s mainly an archery kind of guy). I' ve seen rifled slug guns not make better than a 6" group at 75 yards. It' s all in the individual gun you have.

My dad also has a J.C Higgans pump smoothbore shotgun that was my grandpa' s. It has a fixed full choke and will make paper plate groups at 100 yards too.

kodiakhuntmaster

Just as a side note, my gun shoots 2-3/4" federal rifled slugs very well, but the 3" slugs would barely hit a paper plate at 20 yards. Like I said, it' s all about the individual gun you try. Some do great and are ethical 100 yard guns, others may be best under 20 yards.

In general most rifled slug guns shoot better than smoothbores (and you' re probably better off with one), but I wouldn' t get rid of your smoothy until you give it a good try at the range with different brands of slugs.

A mossy 500 smoothbore is all I use for big game.

Oh, and if you want more consistant 100 yard shots you can get a rifled choke tube and shoot those expencive sabot slugs. My buddy does that and can get 3" groups at 100 yards.

coyoteseeker

first off you need to ask yourself the question,how far will i need to shoot??if all your shooting is going to be 100 yards or less then that smooth bore will work great.if it will be farther then 100 yards then you need to invest in a rifled barrel and sabot slugs,regardless if your useing a scope or not.i have shot rifled slugs thru smooth bore barrels all my life(i live in a no rifle zone)and they have never failed me.my longest shot on a buck was 125 yards,folded right where he stood.my average shot is 30 yards.theres one important thing you must do regardless if its a rifled barrel or smooth bore,find a slug thats your gun likes.you will be amazed at how differently slugs shoot.buy all the different kinds of slugs you can afford and shoot five slugs of each brand on a 9 inch pie plate from a good bench rest at 25 yards,use different plates for each brand.now you need to relize your not going to get 1/8 inch groups with these slugs,what your looking for is to get all five slugs on the pie plate.some brands won' t put any on the plate.pick the slug with the best five shot group and then sight in dead on at 50 yards.after you sight in shoot at all different yardages up to and beyond the 50 yard mark and find what your hold over(or under)will be.if you do this leg work your smooth bore will be as deadly if not more deadly(within its range)then any rifle.

kodiakhuntmaster

http://www.tar-hunt.com/Info/sgzero.htm

This page has lots of good info on slug guns if you search around on it. This link will take you to a page that explains zeroing of a slug gun.

bigcountry

Yep, kodiak, that is a lightfield. With a BC of .1. Guess what your rifled slug with no sabot has? Drop is tremidous. Better check out these numbers. Very large difference between the sabot' ed slugs and sluggers.

http://www.remington.com/ammo/ballis...l/slubkbal.htm

kodiakhuntmaster

Good link BigCo,

I like smoothbores. With a rifled choke tube you can shoot the sabot' ed slugs. Not as well as a rifled barrel, but better than a smoothbore. I like the smoothbores mainly because I can load up buckshot on a deer drive. They just seem so much more versatile.

The new rifled slugs they have now are much better than the old foster style slugs. Sometimes you' ll even find a smoothbore that will shoot sabots well. They' re rare though.