The slug gun blues!
 

I live in the only slug gun county in my area. I'm surrounded by rifle counties. I prefer hunting with my rifles. However, there is some really good deer hunting in my county....including right behind my house.

That being said, I've been having nothing but trouble with my slug guns for years. I have two Remington 1187's, a 12 ga. and a 20 ga., both with 21" rifle barrels with the cantilever scope mounts w/Leupolds Shotgun Scopes on both.

I've tried about every type of sabot slug I can in both of these slug guns and can't get them to shoot better then 5-6" groups at 100 yards. I will get a good group, then the next group opens back up. I've sent barrels from both guns back as well as both scopes. So my conclusion is it's probably not an equipment problem, it's me.

I'm doing something wrong. I can't figure it out. I have friends that shoot 2 to 3" groups with their slug guns. I'm at a loss here.

Help, NYH1.

Get a Savage 220 and try a bolt action slugger.

Bullet spends more time in the barrel = less forgiveness

Have you shot your friends guns? Had them shoot yours? Have you personally seen them shoot 2-3" groups? Are your first groups good then falling apart with a heated barrel?

Ive gotten 1" groups out of my savage 220

I ran in to the same issue with my groups. I shoot a single shot rifled barrel. So feeding and the like was not the issue. I actually found this on another site and while I've only tried 3 of the brands the Remington Accu tips gave me the best groups 2.5 inch. Winchester Platinum...bad
Winchester Partition...bad
Hastings Laser Accurate..Had some good groups, and some flyers.
Lightfeilds..great at 50, very poor at 100 yards.
Remington Copper solids..pretty good!
Remingto Accu-Tips..Very good.

Hope it helps

I also use accu tips

No.


Yes. I've also seen other guys at the range with similar setups as me shoot pretty good groups as well.


No, they all seem to be bad. Then I'll get a good group. I'll shoot another group and it'll open right back up like the other groups. This is with both guns.


NYH1.

Thanks, I've tried most of those. My results with Lightfields is about the same, OK at 50, not so good at 100. Partition Gold, Accu-Tips, Hornady SST all over the place.


NYH1.

Please don't take offense at this but I think you may have an operator problem. This is actually a common problem with 12 gauge slug's. Even in a semi auto they tend to knock the snot out of the shooter. Some can't even recover well with a 20 gauge as they aren't the light kicking slug guns some think they are. If it isn't you, then you could just have a couple of barrels that are inconsistent. Poor rifling consistency could easily cause poor grouping. I would also take a close look at the crowns on both barrels. Just a tiny wear spot on a crown of a slug barrel will throw the accuracy to the wind. Like others mentioned, have the guys that you know can shoot consistently with their own slug guns take a few rounds with yours. If they are still throwing badly, then you know the culprit is the guns and not you. Shooting from bench rest positions with a slug gun is brutal to say the least. I don't think I have ever met a soul that finds it a fun day at the range to shoot slugs from a bench. One thing I found though to take a lot of the brutality from it was shooting from high bags and sitting upright. This position will still allow a good rest position while giving your stock much more meat to take the recoil as well as much more natural movement as you would in the field. Give that a try and see if your groups improve.

No offense taken. Recoil doesn't bother me within reason. I've been shooting slug guns my whole deer hunting life, 26 years. The only gun that ever bothered me was my friends 1187 3 1/2" turkey gun. I shot it with 3 1/2" #2 turkey loads IIRC. That was brutal. I lost focus in my eyes for a few seconds.


However, I do believe it's a operator problem. I just can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.


Thanks, NYH1.

Are you shooting from a bench? Are you letting the gun jump freely when you shoot? Feel good about your trigger pull? Are you able to stack them up at shorter range?

I would certainly try trading shots with your buddies and see how that goes. What guns are they shooting?