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New to Shotgun Slug hunting, Have Question...

rich1317
Hi everyone,

I have a question that I think is real stupid but hey, I'll ask it anyway. I've been deer hunting with the bow and muzzleloader for 10 years now but never shotgun hunted for deer mainly because I had no access to land. I caught a break this year and secured some land so I'm looking into shotgun hunting. In my state you must use a slug, no buckshot. I have a Remington 11-87 which I've used for turkey, pheasant and such. Well I'm a student and really have no extra $$$ laying around right now to buy a rifled barrel or slug gun. My question is, can I shoot slugs out of this barrel? I never thought I could but for some reason I'm second guessing myself now. I only need something that can shoot no further than 50 yards, odds are it'd be less than that where I plan to be hunting. So, can it be done? If so, what loads are recommended? Thanks in advance!

Rich
rlaporta13@hotmail.com

Rich
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Comments

11 comments

Date Votes
  • D@D
    Yes you can use the barrel you have now just change your chokes.
    Don't use your turkey choke for slugs.

    I don't approve of political jokes. I've seen too many of them get elected.
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  • rich1317
    That's good news, thanks for the reply, but it brings up another question, what kind of choke would I have to use? I never thought about that part of it. I think of using chokes for the tightness of a pattern while using bird shot. What do I use if I was to shoot slugs out of the gun?
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  • duckhunter
    REMINGTON MAKES A SLUG TUBE. YOU ALSO CAN USE A IC OR MOD. WHEN WE FIRST STARTED USING SLUGS BACK IN THE "60" WE SHOT THEN WITH FULL CHOKE GUNS BECAUSE THAT IS ALL WE HAD. GOOD LUCK.

    I WOULD RATHER BE DUCK HUNTING.
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  • D@D
    I to would start with a improved cylinder choke.

    I don't approve of political jokes. I've seen too many of them get elected.
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  • rich1317
    Hey thanks a ton guys! I'll look into all of this!
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  • springer1
    I say spend the 125 for a fully rifled barrel with sights
    you wont be sorry
    The rifled choke for about 30 would be next
    Then just a improved/cyl choke about 15 bucks
    All will work
    As far as the extra barrel, it will keep most of its value also
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  • vegasblj
    I would use a rifled choke in your barrel, but its well worth the money to go with a slug barrel with open sights, I would check around here on gunbroker or ebay for a used one.

    ben
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  • gskyhawk
    since your range is short and you do not have sights on the gun , just go with the IC or MOD choke which ever one you have , buy some of the cheaper slugs , ( foster type) don't waste your money on the high price sabot slugs unless you buy a fully rilfed barrel to go with them ,--
    you should get around 4 inch groups with just the plain old lead slug and a open choke
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  • rrfhunter
    What you really need to worry about is aiming and point of impact. I will vouch for the effectiveness of slugs. I shot a wild pig one time with a 12 gauge slug, the entrance wound was about 4" in diameter and it removed most of the far shoulder! I've shot 5 gallon water bags and they go Pha wooooooooomph! VERY IMPRESSIVE! Even a .410 slug has more energy than a .44 mag. 12 gauges are pretty much off the chart.

    Get yourself a scope mount and try something like a red dot style scope. You can get them both very cheap on fleabay. You should be very impressed at the short range you describe.

    ....I never met a gun I didn't like!
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  • allechalley
    If your in a slug area, generally your shots won't be more than about 50 yards or less. If that is the case, the smooth bore will do fine if you go out and do some practice/targeting. The bad part is 12ga. slugs generally recoil somewhat in the range of an elephant rifle( at least it seems like it from a bench or when you aren't hunting). DO try more than one brand, espec. the fosters(cheap). A couple of us were trying out a new one (a .410) and found we couldn't get it on a 20" circle at 25 yds. Apparently that one had a bent barrel (new gun). Some slugs don't shoot as well as others even tho they look the same. If you go the rifled choke tube or barrel route, then you can step up to the saboted slugs. The rifled choke was supposed to shoot almost as well as the full barrel (article a couple years ago in Shooting Times), but you will probably need a dot sight or scope to make use of it. Still practice at different yardages. You're shooting something that has a lot of the characteristics of a cannon ball, not exactly laser straight.
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  • nononsense
    Rich,

    The funny part of this is that rifled chokes and fully rifled slug barrels haven't been around all that long. As kids, we didn't think much about grabbing our shotguns to go deer hunting. We just did it and in most cases we all managed to put venison on our respective family's tables. Shots weren't taken at long distances with 10-40 or 50 yards being the range that we were used to seeing. Slugs were perfect.

    If you want to maximize the use of a smoothbore barrel, I generally suggest that you take the time and make the effort to buy a selection of the available brands of Forster style slug shotgun shells. Take one of each, one at a time and cut a shell open and remove just the slug. Measure the slug diameter with a caliper, then measure the barrel choke or muzzle diameter. What you're looking for is a slug that most closely matches the diameter of the your choke or bore. The closer the match the better. Believe me, not all slugs are the same diameter and not all choke tubes or bores are manufactured to be exact diameters. There can be a significant amount of difference in any of these combinations. You can achieve a higher degree of accuracy, faster and cheaper when you buy and measure slugs than just testing different boxes of slugs willy-nilly.

    Best.
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