Shooting Slugs

B

Bill Gass

Active member
I've got a new Rem 870 Express with Skeet, IC and Mod choke tubes. I know the proper way to shoot slugs out of a shot gun is to go out and buy a slug barrel. However if I do that I may as well just buy another whole gun as they are going for around $250 here in Canada and the whole gun can be had for $320 when it is on sale. All the time that I was growing up and hunting, shotguns only had the one barrel that came with it and we fired anything that fit into it in the proper gauge. Is it unsafe to fire slugs out of my 870 with the skeet tube?

Thanks
Bill G.
 
Use Forstner type slugs and try some in each choke. A sabot slug won't shoot worth a hoot in a smooth bore.You won't hurt the gun.
 
Bill,
Buy some slugs and start firing. Try the skeet choke first. But I knew guys who regularly knocked bucks down every year with modified and full chokes using slugs. Paper tests will tell you what to do.
I've seen after market add on rifle type sights that clamp onto vent ribs so that may help you also.
Be sure to show us pictures of the buck and bear you take with it.
 
Just be sure to use rifled slugs in the smoothbore if hope to get any kind of accuracy out of it.
 
Bill,

Get yourself a Rifled choke tube and the previously recommended sites that screw to the rib and you have put together a 100 yard slug gun. Test out a number of brands of slugs because they do perform differently out of different barrels. Make sure Winchester 2-3/4" 1oz slugs are in your trial group as they historically have shot very well out of most barrels. With a smooth bore & Winchesters my 870's through nice 3" groups at 50 yards that held up to roughly 75 yards. By that point the slugs were losing stability and the group was opening up fast. With the Remington screw in choke the slugs practically cut the same hole at 50 and were holding a 3-4 inch group at 100 yards. This doesn't mean she's a flat shooter but sighted it at 75 she's point of aim to 100.

Just a historic note that shows my age, When I bought my Rem. Cantilevered Barrel, back in 1983 / 84, Remington didn't offer fully rifled barrels only Hastings. So I've been shooting the riffled choke tube, smooth bore barrel since. The tube is wicked convenient to clean which is critical because either slug style fills the riffling in fairly quickly impacting accuracy. Foster (hollow based - shuttle cock) slugs are soft lead and at 1500 fps will lead up the rifling and Sabot Slugs are plastic and will leave plastic in the rifling. I have never tried Remington's Solid brass slugs so can't comment on them.

Best of luck,
Scott
 
OK thanks guys for the insight. This my first new shotgun and first one with the screw in choke tubes. We're working on a sweet little stand on my brothers 100 acre woodlot. We've just got the floor done and from there I'd say you can see maybe 50 yards till the under brush gets too thick. I've saw moose, deer and bear sign/tracks in close proximity. Moose is a draw here in NB, kind of like winning the lottery when you get your lic, so they're safe. For deer you buy a buck tag and then enter the draw for an antlerless deer tag. I didn't get mine this year so I'll be looking for a deer with visible antlers. And for bear you can just buy it, there is a spring and fall season, however your only allowed one bear per year. Thats interesting that somebody mentioned that sabot slugs won't fire right in a smooth bore as last year my nephew fired at a buck with his new 870 using a sabot slug and he missed. The deer was probably no more than 15 yards so I don't think that the slug was at fault he told me that he was shaking pretty bad when he fired. That old buck fever. Anyway he got a nice doe that evening so he was happy. Anyway with the bears frequenting the area of our new tree stand, my nephew has a new Rem 30-06, he got it after he got his deer last fall and is really looking forward to taking his first big game with it. So I thought that if we both got our bear tags I'd let him do the shooting with his new rifle and I could take my 870 with slugs for back up. You know just in case the buck fever sets in again.

Thanks
Bill G.
NB
 
Bill,

Sabot Slugs have to spin so the plastic sabot halves spin outward simultaneously and leave the slug free to carry on unaffected by the sleeve. Out of a smooth bore the three pieces do not cleanly separate nor is the total chunk of plastic and lead stabilized or balanced to fly straight.

Also out to 50 yards the foster slugs will work great in a smooth bore. Your major issue will be an accurate sighting system. The slugs will do their part if you do yours.

Your wood lot set up sounds great, good luck and have a BLAST!

Scott
 
The sabots don't expand to fill the bore. I tried them when they first came out with my 870 smoothbore slug barrel. This gun has shot Forster slugs into 2-4" at 100 since I got it for my 16th birthday and it was dismal with the sabots.Unlike Scott, my gun likes Rem slugs. It's amazing how picky a smoothbore shotgun can be about chunking a hunk-o-lead....get a box of each brand you can find and try them out.
 
I was looking at slugs at Walmart, pack of 5, $4.45 for 2 3/4 inch and $4.85 for 3". Now a 3 inch shell normally means more shot, is a 3" slug actually longer or would it have more powder. I also see that they are hollow point.

Bill G.
 
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Bill,

I have never tried the 3" forester style slugs. The 3" gets you 1760 fps for the 1 oz Vs 2-3/4" ! oz at 1700 fps (just checked Winchester's site). Everything I've read has indicated a drop off in accuracy with the pure lead slugs when you push them harder. 1oz at 1700 will do the job very nicely while still kicking you as hard as most guys ever want to be hit.

Lee, please note I have never tried the 12 Ga. Rem. slugs. And after having great success with the Winchester I probably never will because I don't like messing with what works well and they are about the least expensive round on the market in this area anyway. Out of curiosity, are you shooting the lead or the copper slug?

Scott
 
Scott, I shoot the 2 3/4" Rem plain lead Forstner slug that has been the mainstay in our house since I was in diapers...now it will probably be here when I am in diapers again. I became interested in seeing what shot best in my gun after reading an article in a gun magazine...and...my father in law gave me a bunch of Winchester slugs that he wouldn't use anymore. This was probably 20 years ago. I picked up Federal, Winchester and Brenneke to try out. The cheapest at the time was the Rem's and they shot the best. The Federals and Brenneke's really sucked in my gun and the Winnies were almost as bad. Just the opposite in the smooth slug barrel I put on my son's 1100 20ga, the Brenneke slug shot like a rifle. I wouldn't waste time on a 3" slug either.
 
Bill, everything people are saying above fits with the experiences I have had. We have to hunt with slugs in IL for deer. I used to use Remington sluggers in a 20 ga with a full choke 28" barrel and adjustable clamp-on rifle sites on the vent rib. I killed plenty of deer with that gun before I got a 12 ga. For a number of years I used a 12 ga 870 express with a 28" barrel and a modified choke shooting Remington sluggers. It would hit an empty slug box at 50 paces every time. If I put an improved cylinder choke in the gun it shot 1.5' low at 50 yards. Now I have an old 11-87 with a smooth bore slug barrel with rem-chokes and a receiver mounted 2.5 power scope. I have an extended rifled choke tube in the end of the barrel and it shoots Winchester foster type slugs and Remington sluggers very accurately to 75 yards. Between 75 and 100 yards it falls apart and drops a foot or two.

I have friends in WI who hunt bears with hounds and they are unimpressed with slugs on bears. They like 45-70. I do not know what kind of slugs they were using. Brennekes are made to penetrate better than most foster type slugs.

I would recommend putting a set of clamp-on adjustable rifle sites on your vent rib. Or get a scope mount that goes on the receiver. My uncle uses an old wingmaster with 26" or 28" barrel and a modified choke with a receiver mounted scope shooting Remington sluggers. His set-up works well.

I shoot 2.75" slugs. I do not like the recoil on 3" slugs.
 
I would also recommend sticking with the 2 3/4 shells. I developed a serious flinch after sighting in my shotgun with the 3" shells. Been using the 2 3/4 shells for the last 20 years out of a Hastings barrel on my 870 and it has great accuracy and knock down power.
 
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