shotgun slugs

[bckmasterpro]

What are all you guys favorite slugs for whitetails?:confused:

[wrenchman]

winchester partition gold 200 yard kills are a can do with it and i have seen the first one this year.
The average shot i get becouse i hunt the edge of a field is over 75 yards i killed 1 deer at 125 and the other at 90
My bro inlaw shot a 6 pointer at just over 200 yards.

[skeet]

For the long range shots like Wrenchman talks of..I have found that the Federal Premium Sabots are usually accurate out of most Remington rifled bbls as are the Winchester Sabots. The Feds are a good bit faster I think out of my guns and the Winchesters are almost as accurate. The Winchesters also kick(recoil) less. For walking through the woods..still hunting or whatever I use an 11-87 skeet gun with either Remington or Winchester foster slugs. Most shots are close and quick. They are plenty accurate at those ranges and shoot good out of most open choked barrels. Daughter killed a nice 125 lb doe the other evening...at about 55 yds with one of the PMC foster slugs. One shot..one deer. Shootin my 11-87 skeet gun too. :D Darn gal does alright for herself:cool:

[fabsroman]

I had been using the Federal Barnes Expander sabots in my gun and they grouped pretty good out to 100 yards. I have 2 boxes of them left from last year and was hoping to use them again this year. Went to the local Dicks, which used to be Galyans last year, and they do not stock and Federal ammo (i.e., Dick's policy). So, I bought the Remington Copper Solid sabots. I am hoping that they will group just as well and do just as much damage on impact, but I will have to wait until later in the week to find out.

[Dom]

I've been using the Federal Premium Sabots, as they grouped the best out of my Win 1300 setup and have accounted for several one shot kills from 50 to 130 yards over the years. Just got back from Michigan, seen plenty of deer but none that urged me to shoot so let 'em all walk. I wanted to try the Lightfields out but couldn't find any; have heard good reports on them. Didn't have enough time to search for them -- 3 weeks went by in the blink of an eye and before you know it, well, here I am back at the grindstone already, Waidmannsheil, Dom.

[gd357]

Still using the foster-style Winchesters out of my smoothbore. Really don't see the need to change (at least for a while). I've got my muzzleloader for long range stand hunting, and the winchester pumpgun does well on drives.

gd

[wrenchman]

Hey fabs a lot of the clubs in my area wont let you youse copper solids and haystens has a warning not to youse them when you buy there barrels it couses barrel problims.
I am unsure as to what the problems are but one of the club range officer said they had barrel burst.

[fabsroman]

Wrenchman,

I have a hastings barrel on my Browning BPS slug gun and it came with the same warning. I bought that barrel about 8 years ago. I would have figured that either Remington would have fixed the problem with their ammo by now or the barrel manufacturers would have fixed the problem.

However, I will be using these rounds through an ER Shaw barrel that did not come with that warning. How can Remington be selling boxes and boxes of these loads if they could potentially kill people and they are ruining a bunch of barrels?

The Federal Barnes Expanders that I had been using are a lot like the Remington Copper Solids in that the Barnes Bullet is entirely copper.

ANYBODY OUT THERE USING THE REMINGTON COPPER SOLIDS, and if so, what has been your experience?

Good thing I only bought 3 boxes of the stuff and 4 boxes of the regular foster type slugs. Granted, the foster type slugs aren't quite as accurate as the sabots out of my gun, but they are good enough to kill deer while we are walking through the woods.

[fabsroman]

Okay, I did some investigating and there is nothing on Remington's site about the Copper Solid being a problem

So, I checked out the Hastings site and it has the following warning:

http://www.hastingsbarrels.com/safety.html

To sum it up, it seems as though the pre-1999 Remington Copper Solids caused some of the Hastings barrels to bend. None of them have blown up as of yet and Hastings does not recommend the use of pre-1999 Remington copper solids in their barrels. However, my BPS barrel is not on the list of barrels that have had problems with the pre-1999 Remington Copper Solids.

I think I should be okay with the new copper solid slugs I just bought. Of course, I still need them to group decently.

[Steverino]

To those of you that shoot Foster style slugs out of your smoothbores, what type of choke are you using and what kind of accuracy to you obtain?

The reason that I ask is because I have been using the Lightfield Hybrid expanding sabots the last couple of seasons with good success but the overwhelming majority of my shots are under 50 yards.

I'm going pheasant hunting on Saturday with my brother and will be taking the Beretta 391 and will then be deer hunting on Sunday.Was considering picking up some Foster slugs to pattern prior to our hunt on Saturday-be nice to dirty only one gun this weekend!

:D

[skeet]

I've tried them in just about everything and they don't seem to shoot for squat. nada terrrible. Hope they work better for you Fabs. I just bought a bunch of BRI Sabots at an auction. 16 boxes of slugs for 27.50. Those things shoot great in an 870 bbl I have. Kick though!! But that is the nature of the beast when you shoot a pump. Gonna sell that bbl...and shoot the ol lemon-87 Just got a rifled cantilever bbl for it. Let my daughter get a few more up where she hunts. Nature conservancy bought the farm in back of her and they let her hunt the darn place cause she keeps an eye on it for them. 400 acres of private hunting. Kinda nice huh??

[wrenchman]

thanks for the info on the copper solids fabs i have steared clear of them in the past it is nice to no.
I do wish i could youse foster styl slugs more often i like energy they deliver a close ranges but the ranges i am shooting i need a good sabot round
I have also heard hornade is makeing a nice slug have yet to see any being sold.

[gd357]

Steverino,

I shoot the foster-style slugs through a smoothbore slug barrel which I believe is a cylinder bore with rifle sights. When I was less confident with my slug gun, I used it for several summers on groundhogs. I got to the point where it was a done deal if they were within 60 yards. It'll group well enough to take deer out to 100 yards, but I haven't had to shoot anywhere near that far lately.

gd

[fabsroman]

I'll be sighting in the copper solids in about 5 hours. I'll let you guys know how it goes. Hopefully well because I don't have much else to hunt with and the hunting will commence right after the sighting in. Hopefully, they will group okay enough to kill something and I will be able to post on their performance on game.

Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Skeet,

Hearing about your daughter hunting on 400 acres is making me jealous.

[fabsroman]

What a morning.

I wounded a deer at a little over 100 yards using Federal Barnes Expander sabots. Missed a deer 3 times at a little over 50 yards as she stood still and looked at me broadside. Didn't know if I was hitting a bush or something. Then, I managed to miss a deer at something like 30 yards, not just once, but 6 times. After burning up $20 in ammo and getting pissed off, I decided to sight in my gun. I was shooting a foot high and 6" to the right with the Copper Solids. Dialed it in and ended up connecting on the next two shots when we started hunting again. Neither of them were long shots. One was 50 yards on a big doe and the other was about 20 yards on a yearling. Both deer dropped like a sack of potatos. However, when I went back to the big doe, she was still alive. It made me sick to see her there. I had broken her back and she couldn't move her back legs. The gun was back at my truck, but you can bet I got it as quickly as possible and put her out of her misery. Once we were able to look a little closer at her, I was able to determine that the bullet hit her right below the spine and on top of the shoulder. I hadn't hit any vital organs like I thought I did. In fact, the bullet only hit about 2" of meat, if that, and the wound looked almost like a FMJ bullet. On the 20 yard shot, I crushed both lungs and blew out the heart. The Copper Solid bullet performed pretty well on that shot.

I am going again tomorrow morning. Hopefully, things will go a little better.

[buckhunter]

I've been using plain Remmy Fosters for years. As long as the shot is under 75 yds and you hit the animal its going down.

This year I finally got around to buying a rifled cantilier slug barrel. I had only enough time to set it up with forster's which did group about 2" at 50 yds. Good enough for around here. Did hit at small doe and she went down in a hurry.

I have been buying just about every saboted slug I can find. Have about 6 or 7 different ones now. Plan on doing some testing after the season is over. I suspect I will settle on either Rem Solid Copper or Federal Barnes however nothing is settle yet.

[8X56MS]

I have never killed a deer with a slug. Some hogs, yes, but not a deer. Still, when hunting birds or squrrels during deer season, I always drop a few Brenneke 12 GA slugs in my vest. My Remington Wingmaster will keep slugs on a paper plate at 75 yards.

[Handgun'r]

Hey gang,

Thought I'd chime in after reading through all the posts.

Being an avid loader and bullet caster for many years, I decided several years ago to try and apply myself to building a "better mouse trap" when it came to shotgun slugs.
I was disappointed with their accuracy after I moved to New York's southern tier and was forced (by law) to use a shotgun/slug for deer rather than the rifle I was always used to.
Not thinking I was better than the factories as far as technology or nothing, but I thought that the slugs could be improved upon, by the same method as other factory ammunition, handloading.

I initially bought the Lyman foster style mould for a 12ga. and as much as I tried, in several different guns, I couldn't get that slug to shoot worth a damn.
Finally, after measuring the slug, and contacting Lyman, it was found that they made the moulds so that the slug would cast small on purpose just in case someone tried to shoot it through a full choke (.690/product liability). Bases on other slugs like Remington, Federal and WW, all measured at .725-.730, tapering to the nose.

The only remedy to it all was to either machine the mould larger, or swage the cast slugs larger (which I did). They shot as good, or better than the factory loads after that. The so called factory "rifled slugs" with the angled fins were their answer to getting good accuracy through "cylinder bore" barrels, and the fins would crush down to fit through the barrel with a full choke.
The Lyman slug is smooth, so when swaged, it had to fit the barrel almost precisely.
With those problems understood, I decided to "shelve" the whole thing and leave it. Too much of a pain.

I didn't use slugs anymore anyway (handgun hunter), so it was no big deal.

As usual, not being able to leave things alone, I decided to buy Lyman's Sabot slug a couple of years ago to play with. It's 525grs. and ballistically, it looks and flies like a badmitton birdie. The slug is the same basic design as Lightfield uses, but they use a friction fit wad at the base that stays with the slug all the way to it's target, as well as a slight recess at the nose (claimed HP).

The Lyman sabot was designed to be shot through a smoothbore (cylinder bore) barrel. After reloading this sabot slug in several different hulls, and with many different wads, I finally hit paydirt with one of Lyman's book loads.
I had a ton of Federal and WW hull's from my dept. range, so I opted for a load using the Federal Gold Medal hulls.
Using the book load of 32.0grs. of Herco, a WW F114 (yellow wad), and a WW 209 primer, I seated the wads with 20#'s of pressure on my MEC loader, and then pushed the slugs down into the wad. The load required a "folded crimp", which is easier for most shotgun loaders anyway, and after loading up a good batch of them, I headed out back to my range.

Using my father in law's 11-87 with the rifled cantilever barrel, we decided to shoot a variety of foster slugs, as well as Lightfield's 2 3/4" slugs, and the one's I loaded.
The fosters (Federal and Remington) all shot to a given point of aim at 50yds. The Lightfield's were next and shot a nice 1 1/2" to 2" group only 8" higher than the foster slugs.
Slightly skeptical of my loads besting the Lightfield's, we went ahead anyway.
The first three rounds of handloaded slugs hit the exact same point of aim as the Lightfields did, only after the first load, the second went through the same hole, only elongating it slightly. We thought it missed until we got closer. The third, same thing, only elongating the other side of the original hole.
All three together made the normal nickel sized meplat of the slug look like it was the size of a quarter or so.

We stood there with our mouths open.......:eek:

My loads are book advertised at 1400fps. or so, and at first chance, I'll be chronographing them. Their slug weight and velocity is the same as the Lightfields (one reason why they probably hit the same point of aim).
I know the Lightfield's, with the permanent wad attached, although claimed to stabilize the slug, makes the slugs loose velocity quite a bit faster by drag.
By the slugs design alone, and that the Lightfield slug is the same basic configuration as the Lyman, the wad really doesn't appear to be needed. The Lyman slugs shoot proportionally the same at 100yds., meaning they follow their line of flight.....1" at 50yds. = 2" at 100yds. and so on.

I was able to pound 3 slugs into an 1 1/2"-2" at 100yds with that same gun. And another thing....with those slugs and their big flat nose, you can really hear them when they hit the backer.....they strike with a real loud WHACK!.

After better than 15yrs., I finally found my Holy Grail :D

If you load shotgun shells, but don't cast, the Lyman slug can be purchased at Gardner's Cache (http://gardnerscache.com/index.html) (link).

Sorry so long winded...thought you'd be interested.

Thanks,
Bob

[Montana Cowboy]

Howdy Folks
The Remington copper solids have performed very good for my brothers and I over the last seven years. Between my brothers and I we have shot 25 deer the last seven years all with the copper solids. All three of us use a Remington 870 slug gun. The only thing I don't like about them is the cost,but hey, they work well, and when ya come right down to it they are a small part of the cost of a good hunt. MC

[skeeter@ccia.com]

I have found the Buckhammer to work wonders in my 835. Best yet all factory.