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Rifled slug accuracy?

8197 Views 28 Replies 1 Participant Last post by  ShotgunPro, 
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I found a pretty good deal on a used 12ga Winchester 1300 with a smoothbore slug barrel similar to the online picture below. The one I found doesn't come with a vent rib barrel. I am looking to use this for deer hunting and wanted to know what accuracy folks have gotten with rifled slugs. I realize that I will be shooting rifled slugs and not sabots. This gun doesn't have a rifled barrel, so I wouldn't be using sabot slugs. I'm primarily going to use this for deer with open sights. Since it is smoothbore and a relatively short barrel, it would also double as a HD gun with buckshot.

I know at least some of you guys have experience shooting rifled slugs from smoothbore barrels, so I wanted to tap your experience.

I appologize if this is redundant. I tried searching the forums, but either I got zero results or I got a ton of stuff not related.

Here is a picture I found online of the same model I found (this isn't a picture of the gun if found).
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Your best off trying a bunch of different slugs and find the one that likes your particular shotgun best. Brenneke slugs are usually a good option for a smooth bore. Remington Buckhammers work good in smooth bores if you can tolerate the recoil. For deer manage and reduce recoil slugs are probable sufficent. Remington manage recoil slugs work great in my Rem 1100.

I would also suggest asking your question over at Shotgun Worlds forum. There is a sub-forum for slug guns and several very helpful and knowledgeable members.
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I can usually keep my shots on a paper plate out to about 125 yards with a similar setup (Mossberg 500, 20" smooth barrel, rifle sights).

FWIW, I've found that with a smoothbore slug gun, there is usually not a whole heck of a lot of difference, performance wise.
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Thanks for your input. I'll definitely have to pick up a variety of types of rifled slugs to see which one my gun likes. I'll be picking it up tomorrow, so I'm pretty pumped to get it. I have it on hold right now. I recently moved, so I need to update my driver's license before I can purchase another firearm. :-( BMV is closed on Monday's, so I'll be in their office tomorrow on my lunch break. Assuming all goes well at the license branch, I'll be able to buy the shotgun after work. I have it on hold right now at the gun shop. I'm getting it used for $200, which I think is a very fair price. The gun is in pretty nice shape.
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I'm a fan of winchester super X slugs.

Cheap, accurate, and effective. As said above, there doesn't seem to be much difference in smooth bore shotguns in terms of accuracy.
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Cuda66 said:
FWIW, I've found that with a smoothbore slug gun, there is usually not a whole heck of a lot of difference, performance wise.
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I'm sure "some" accuracy is gained from a rifled barrel, but I often wonder how much of that is actually hype. I shot two deer last year, both at about 80ish yards with my scoped inline muzzleloader. During other times in the season, I missed a chance at two large bucks because I wasn't able to follow up with a second shot. I'm pretty good with iron sights, so that's how I'm probably going to keep this shotgun. I can't wait to shoot it this weekend to see for sure what the accuracy looks like.
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Rifled shotgun can be significantly more accurate than a smooth bore shotgun. But just slapping on a rifled barrel on you regular pump or semi-auto is going to result in only marginal improvements. You really do have to setup the gun by pinning or shimming the barrel if your receiver mounting a scope, getting good sights (iron or optic) and taking the time to find the particular load that works will with your particular rifled barrel. (This is true for both smooth and rifled.) Guys are creating legitimate 200 yard rifled slug guns although that range with a shotgun takes a lot of work with hardware and even more time practicing at the range.
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mcb said:
Rifled shotgun can be significantly more accurate than a smooth bore shotgun. But just slapping on a rifled barrel on you regular pump or semi-auto is going to result in only marginal improvements. You really do have to setup the gun by pinning or shimming the barrel if your receiver mounting a scope, getting good sights (iron or optic) and taking the time to find the particular load that works will with your particular rifled barrel. (This is true for both smooth and rifled.) Guys are creating legitimate 200 yard rifled slug guns although that range with a shotgun takes a lot of work with hardware and even more time practicing at the range.
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I dont know about receiver mounting a scope...but with the cantaliever mount setups now with a rifled barrel and the new hyped up sabots shotguns are pretty darned accurate. I shoot an older 11-87 with the cant mount and i can be dead accurate out to 150. I dont have a range to try any further than that, but my terrain is usually a limitation to 150 and under anyway. It is a lot more accurate than the 870 smoothbore i used to shoot. Before i would ste a 5 gallon bucket up and if i could hit that at 75 yards i was happy. Now its like sighting in a rifle at the bench. No, its not putting 3 shots in one hole at 100, but you can put 3 shots within 2-3 inches at 100. You wont get that with a smoothbore and rifled sites.

Having said that...if this is what you can get, by all means get it! I still hunt with plenty of people that are shooting rifled slugs from a smoothbore and killing deer. Plus you can shoot more because slugs are cheap! You dont want to go blazing with a box of 5 for $20 with the sabots!
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You won't seem much if any difference between non-rifled slugs and rifled slugs out of a smooth bore.

My 590 with 18.5" barrel is accurate with slugs at 100 yards with just the bead sight. Rifle sights and a rifled barrel would probably extend that range with rifled slugs, but long range shooting is not why I got the 590.
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Rifling would only make a slug more stable out past 150 yards compared to a smoothbore. If you are going over 150 yards you might as well get an actual rifle anyways.
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well speaking from personal experience first deer i ever killed was a nice doe from 70 yards with Remington 1100 20 ga stoked with brenneke ko slugs and the doe traveled 120 feet and dropped dead. It was my nephew's gun and he has since killed 3 more deer with the same box of slugs (i've since moved on to muzzloaders for venison harvesting).

I've always gone on the theory it depends on where you are hunting. I've seen rifle barrels get out to 150 yards, but the property I hunt, 100 yards is pushing it due to brush and thick cover - so rifled slugs are just fine. If you are hunting fields and open areas where you might push 150 yards, I would consider putting a rifle barrel on the winchester and use some quality sabots.

Oh, and if you are going to try hybrids like Brenneke or Litchfield around here they get really hard to find the closer to november you get so stock up now!
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misfit-x said:
Rifling would only make a slug more stable out past 150 yards compared to a smoothbore. If you are going over 150 yards you might as well get an actual rifle anyways.
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Not always an option; there are plenty of areas that are shotgun only zones for deer (yes, and sometimes muzzleloaders and sometimes handguns...).

And, yes--a good sabot out of a scoped, rifled bore will take deer down at 250 yards; I've seen it done.
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The cheapest slugs I can find for range practice in my FNH SLP. They do just fine at 100 yards as long as I do my part.
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Cuda66 said:
Not always an option; there are plenty of areas that are shotgun only zones for deer (yes, and sometimes muzzleloaders and sometimes handguns...).

And, yes--a good sabot out of a scoped, rifled bore will take deer down at 250 yards; I've seen it done.
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Very true. Those Hornady SST's look pretty wicked.
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arizona98tj said:
The cheapest slugs I can find for range practice in my FNH SLP. They do just fine at 100 yards as long as I do my part.
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For where I hunt, that would be pretty decent accuracy. Longest shot I would need to take would be around 100 yards, most of which are under 50.
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I did end up picking up that shotgun yesterday. I've stripped it all down and did a thorough cleaning. It's now all back together ready for action. Hopefully the weather this weekend cooperates so that I can get out and shoot some. I picked up a few different brands of rifled slugs, so we'll see how it goes.

Pics to come probably later tonight. Time to go cut the lawn.
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jon45xdtac......how did it go
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arizona98tj said:
jon45xdtac......how did it go
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Dude... I love this gun. I got a chance to take it out Saturday and put 8 different rifled slugs through it to see which would be most accurate in my gun. Out of the slugs I tested, the Federal Premium Truball seemed to perform the best. Maybe equal to the el-cheapo Remington 2-3/4" Sluggers. I'm going to retest these two to better determine which to use.

The full range report can be found on this thread:

http://www.xdtalk.com/forums/shotgun-talk/153210-winchester-1300-range-report.html
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Might I suggest long range testing of the sluggers?

My experience with sluggers is they drop past 25 yds, and 50 yds is a no go for deer hunting. They just don't seem to do the job for killing deer, not enough penetration past 25 yards. Maybe they changed things now, but a few years ago, they were pretty bad. Where the super X slugs flew pretty straight to 50 yds, and started to drop slowly after that. A friend killed a deer with a super X out of my mossberg @ 70 yds this past deer season. Federals seem to be decent slugs too, but haven't tried any newer ones.
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Deer Slayer said:
My experience with sluggers is they drop past 25 yds, and 50 yds is a no go for deer hunting. They just don't seem to do the job for killing deer, not enough penetration past 25 yards. Maybe they changed things now, but a few years ago, they were pretty bad. Where the super X slugs flew pretty straight to 50 yds, and started to drop slowly after that. A friend killed a deer with a super X out of my mossberg @ 70 yds this past deer season. Federals seem to be decent slugs too, but haven't tried any newer ones.
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You must've gotten some bad ones; I've taken Federal Sluggers out to 125 with no major difference in drop between win, rem and fed.
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