a friend told me that you can only shoot sabot slugs through rifled barrells on shotguns, this true? he said u cant use just regular slugs, they must be sabots. anyone that knows more about this please enlighten me, thank you

phildo--you can use regular slugs. They are alot cheaper and they shoot almost as well as the sabots. I used to use sabots because I loved the wound they created on the pass through. Other than that, regular slugs can be fired through a rifled barrel with close to the same accuracy as sabots.

I was always told to only shoot sabots through a rifled barrel. That's all that I've ever put through my 20ga. w/ rifled barrel. I can't say for certain not to shoot regular slugs because I've never done it. But it is what I was always told. They told me it would ruin the rifling. Plus most regular slugs have rifling on the slug so it counter-acts the barrel's rifling. But again, I'm no expert.

You can use regular slugs just make sure you clean the barrel real good. I used $14 a box SST's and $4 a box remington sluggers and they both were just as accurate out of my barrel. I cleaned the barrel good and theres no damage to my barrel.

P.S. i killed my first deer with the sluggers, NOT the SST's.

Rifled slugs are designed for smooth bore barrels. Sabots for rifled barrels. You are wasting money shoot sabots through smooth bored barrel. But the comment that rifled slugs shoot as well as sabot slugs is alittle off the mark. Sabots in some guns with a good marksman can shoot tight groups out to 150 or more yards. I have yet seen rifled slugs compare.

I guess i should have mentioned that my shots are only about 75-95 yards. I would NEVER try a shot over 100 yards with a rifled slug. Yes sabots are good out to 150 yards and the SST's are zeroed at 150 and guaranteed at 200. When shooting both at 100 yards the sluggers were just as accurate as my SST's. My neighbor has been shooting rifled slugs out of his rifled benelli barrel for several years and theres nothing wrong with his barrel.

Yes you can shoot rifled slugs through a rifled barrel...The accuracy might not be the best but it can be done...Be sure to scrub your barrel very well afterwardsto remove all lead fouling...I used to shoot Remington Sluggers through my rifled barrel with no problems and the accuracy wasn't bad at all...but it sure doesn't compare to Federal Barnes X slugs...

"But the comment that rifled slugs shoot as well as sabot slugs is alittle off the mark."

You are right ihunt1975. I used to only shoot around 75 yards max with my rifled slugs and sabots...I could see the difference starting to appear when the shot distance increased. So I take tha back b/c I was only shooting like I said, around 75 yards.

shadow

You need rifling to place spin on a sabot slug, a rifled choke tube works too....foster slugs have "rifling" cast into them to create the spin required to fly accurately...you can shoot fosters in a rifled barrel but they will foul the crap out of the rifling...

Actually this isn't true at all. The fins on foster slugs do nothing to impart spin on the slug. They are there to crush as the slug goes through a constriction in a bird shot barrel or to make up for the difference in sizes between different manufacturers barrels. They stay stable in flight because they are hollow and have most of the weight forward, much like a shuttlecock in bad mitten.

You can shoot rifled slugs out of a rifled barrel, some are pretty accurate actually until the rifling fouls out, which could be as short as three or four shots. They even make some rifled slugs for rifled barrels using a special coating and/or harder alloys in the lead to reduce fouling.

A sabot bullet, especially a modern sabot bullet normally has better ballistics and performs better than a foster style slug though.

What you DON'T want to do is shoot sabots out of a smooth bore. Complete waste of money since they are designed to stabilize by spinning while moving through the air.

Paul