Slug recommendations for Smooth bore 12ga

Protected One

Protected One

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I have a smooth bore 12ga shotgun and am looking for recommendations for a slug for home defense. Understand rifled slugs are most accurate?

Thanks
 
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Most all standard Foster type slugs are "rifled". The effectiveness for this purpose is questionable. It does allow the slugs skirt to conform to bore diameter. In smooth bore guns standard slugs are average 6" at 100 yds.
most slug models will do better than that. 3" at 100yds is not uncommon. Bottom line for HD/ SD purpose plain old Foster slugs will work fine and cost much less than sabots and other fancy ammo for rifled barrel slug guns.
 
Std 1oz. Winchester rifled ("Foster") slugs work best in my smooth bores. I tried Sabots in the past, but was not impressed, not even when I upgraded to a rifled barrel.

AFAIK, all non-Sabot slugs are rifled. At any rate, I have not seen any that weren't.
 
Standard Foster type slugs are widely available and cheaper than other
types and are best for smooth bore barrels as mentioned above. In my
accuracy and chronograph tests Winchester brand gave the best results.
 
You don't mention particulars. Are you looking for accuracy at any particular range? Particular degree of accuracy? There are tactical slug loads at reduced velocity that are at least more pleasant to shoot and possibly more accurate than the standard loads.

Note: you may find one brand of slugs to be more accurate in your particular arm. It pays to experiment and buy (a bunch of) what best meets your requirements. Point of impact with slugs is not necessarily that of shot. Again, experiment.
 
max503 said:
Breneke are very accurate in my smoothbore 870. Far better than anything else.
Click to expand...

Second the Brennekes. Worked best in the Buck Special barrel of my Auto-5. The Forsters worked well also, but the Brennekes did give better groups.
 
Protected One said:
I have a smooth bore 12ga shotgun and am looking for recommendations for a slug for home defense. Understand rifled slugs are most accurate?
Click to expand...

Based on my experience, most 12 ga slugs will perforate your home, the next home and potentially the next home. The traditional Foster slug is a serious piece of lead.

Not saying that slugs don't have a purpose in defending the homestead, but understand how the pumpkin balls readily penetrate. I keep a pair of slugs on my 870 but not in the tube, they are available if I need to kill a rampaging elephant.

I also switched to the hard to find low recoil Federals. Stout recoil is reduced and accurate at 50 yards for me.
 
Protected One said:
I have a smooth bore 12ga shotgun and am looking for recommendations for a slug for home defense. Understand rifled slugs are most accurate?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Rifled slugs in common use = Forster slugs. Mostly what I buy are Remington Sluggers. At 100 yds from a ghost ring sighted security shotgun I dare say they're as accurate as most of the old milsurps I have shot.
Super slow motion video of Forster slugs show they actually spin from smoothbores. Whatever, they work.
I love to shoot them at reactive targets because the terminal effects are spectacular but TBH buckshot makes a better HD round, IMO.
 
I had to deer hunt in Ohio with slugs since a kid. We've only had rifle last few years. Anyway became involved in the perfect slug gun, building slug guns, shoots, ect. I ended up using Brenneke myself. For serious shooting we are talking under 1" at 100ft. You couldn't depend on standard slugs to do that. At one time we would use the hottest slug out, 2.75" mags ect.
Rem, Win or Fed. You can dump out a few boxes of standard slugs. Pick up each one and shake it. If it rattles you have a flyer. Brenneke are not Fosters and aren't necessary for HD. They also have more penetration than standard slugs. I do think #4 buck much better HD load. I'm not much of a what iffer to worry about over penetration but I don't like to miss.
 
Military loads for infantry are #4, 00 for security and MP's
 
We've always used the Federal Hydra-Shok and Truball slugs have done very well while being pretty accurate out of a smoothbore barrel. The Truball were a little more accurate.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Any rifled slug will do in a smooth bore. But for in house I'd be using 00 buck. And rifles slugs are rifled to impart or minimize tumbling in the air during flight for better accuracy at slug distances, there's no spin in the barrel as far as I know. If I'm wrong feel free to correct me.
 
Tru Ball

Federal Tru Ball, Brenneke TKO are cheap and work well. I wouldn't used slugs in the house
Slugs would not be my first choice. But if so it would be low recoil variations. Longest distance in my house is under 45 feet.
 
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I've been using Brenneke reduced recoil slugs in my 870 tactical. They shoot inside 3in or less at 50yds off hand. I don't think that a deer or bad guy will notice the reduced velocity. Just my 2cents.
 
All the above info is very good on slugs. However if you are looking for home defense, you would be better served with standard trap or skeet loads,( 7.5-9 size shot). Plenty of knockdown power and very limited penetration. Slugs penetrate way too much.
 
If the potential engagement distance is not over, say, 50 feet, it will not matter as long as you are not trying to shoot sabots out of a smooth bore gun. Buy some kind of low-recoil slug loads,
Shoot a few at varying distances to verify points of impact, and don't worry about it. Minute-of-angle accuracy is not needed here. The ability to hit an 8 inch plate consistently is good enough.
I personally would prefer some sort of buckshot for short range use myself, but that's me.
 
A Foster slug flies true because weight is forward , the rifling veins allow the skirt to expand to fill the bore. Cut a foster slug out of a shell. It will drop through any choke without touching. For run of the mill gun with standard Foster slugs there is no point going beyond that for HD use. The make wouldn't make any difference either.
 
Skip slugs. They convert your shotgun into an unwieldy, heavy, hard to operate, low capacity, hard kicking rifle.

If you want to use a shotgun, feed it buckshot. That's what a shotgun is for.

If you want to shoot bullets, get an M4 or pistol caliber carbine.
 
On YouTube, check out the ballistics test from tnoutdoors9 using foster slug. Was an eye opener!
I use 00buck myself, but would be fine with slugs. Don't really recommend birdshot as I have seen it penetrate less than 25 acp in gel.
 
What WR Moore said!!! he nailed it. I have shot a lot of deer with rifled slugs and sabots going 1600+ - 2000+ FPS, even at 50-70 yards I get a complete pass through. With that said, for home defense I would recommend G2 R.I.P 303 grain 1430 FPS. And on the less expensive side Fiocchi Low recoil @
1150 FPS.
 
Several others have stated in regards to a home defense round accuracy at long range is not important, what you want is great terminal performance and any sluggish should do the job. My preference in my HD shotgun is staggered #4 then slug and repeat for my 5 rounds using 3" magnum for all defense loads.

Buy the most of what you can afford.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
Birdshot ineffective

ruger 22 said:
All the above info is very good on slugs. However if you are looking for home defense, you would be better served with standard trap or skeet loads,( 7.5-9 size shot). Plenty of knockdown power and very limited penetration. Slugs penetrate way too much.
Click to expand...

Taken from shotgun and personal defense sites. Birdshot thought to not be as effective as buckshot. Penetration or lack of is a problem. Always better than nothing. The military uses #4 buck, and OO for guard duty. I keep #4 or #1 for the house.
 
Brennekes👍🏻

max503 said:
Those Breneke's are so accurate out of my 870 that I've never felt the need for a rifled barrel.
Click to expand...

The TKO were cheap and accurate to 75 yds ( my personal max)
Tru Ball work equally well.
 
fyi

the rifling on foster + Brenneke slugs do not promote any spin to the projectile at all - heavy nose + hollow base or wad is what stabilizes slug in flight - for home defense large birdshot or small buckshot are a better safer choice - at most home distances the shot will be acting like a single projectile anyway -
 
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