Rifled slug through a rifled barrel?

[Wheezy50]

I have a .20 ga to sight in, it hasa cantaliver scope mount with a rifled barrel. I have some horndy sabots to hunt with but I need to get the scope sighted in first. Will it damage the rifling to shoot cheap rifled slugs through it first to get close, maybe 3-4 shots, and then use the sabots to fine tune it?

Will the rifled slugs intended for a smoothbore hurt the rifled barrel?

 

[Mgderf]

Probably won't "hurt" the barrel, but you will get NOTHING for groups.You will not be able to properly sight it in with rifled slugs.

Go buy some saboted slugs to sight it in.

Rifled slugs are for smooth-bore barrels. Sabots are for rifled barrels.

 

[kludge]

^this^

Paper plates at 50 yards is a challenge with rifled slugs in a rifled barrel. I never did hit the plate at 75 yards.

And I can't bring myself to pay $3-$5 a round.

So I gave it back to my brother.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

My advice would be to sight it in with the exact loads you're going to hunt with. In my admittedly limited experience with rifled slug barrels, there are huge differences in point of impact and consistency among different ammunition through the same barrel. My Mossberg will clover leaf Hybred Lightfields at 50 y. Some other rounds I tried after sighting in where 9-10" lower but with a decent group, some where hard to hold on the paper.

 

[Hookeye]

You wont know unless you try it. Foster slugs (many called them rifled slugs- all lead deals) may lead up the rifling fairly quick.
I had a Mossberg 835 with rifled cantilever bbl.
Guess what shot the best from it?
Not great, but a 3" rig at 100 yards, had to clean every 20 rounds for sure, then fire a fouler.
I tried a couple of different brands in sabot slug, 2 3/4 and 3". They were all over.
Note: 835 had a 3.5" chamber. It shot notably better with 3" fosters over 2 3/4".

I also had a 500 with rifled bbl, and it shot 2 3/4" fosters about the same.

2 rigs, rifled, and paper plates at 100 were gimmes.

The guy who bought my 835 barrel likes it with Lightfields. Said it shoots best with those, but wasn't unhappy with the foster performance accuracy wise.

 

[Hookeye]

On saving a dollar to kill a buck...........

I really liked the WW Hi Impact Supremes when they came out. BRI style sabot but they opened up on deer.
Expensive and not common, I found that I could initial setup and rough zero with regular silver box BRI slugs, bought on closeout after season cheap.............and then when it was super close, check with the HI Supremes. Sometimes it was just a minor tweak of the scope or none at all. Of course those were diff lot numbers (reg vs HI Supreme).

All of the Supremes were from the same lot (sucks buying them in quantity at first, but it was enough for a couple of years).

 

[Wheezy50]

Thanks for the quick replies!

I shoud probably clear up my thinking here. Im definitely going to use the Horndy slugs to finish sighting in the gun. I just wanted to get it somewhere close with the cheap, rifled slugs and then "fine tune" with the sabots. I don't know if it will take 3 or 13 shots to get it sighted in and at near $3/shot it could get expensive.

I understand the rifled slugs will produce crappy accuracy from a rifled barrel, just curious if would damage the rifling in my barrel.

Thanks

 

[kylew765]

I just sighted my 500 in the same way. got it on paper with cheap Remington and then tune with my hornady sst. The hornday at 100yds were almost 2ft high.

 

[Small's]

You wont hurt anything. My rifled barrel on the 870 shoots rifled slugs fairly well within 50 yards. I haveny tried it any farther than that. If your gun is way off it should get you fairly close at closer ranges. Might be worth a try to see how well they do or dont group.

 

[bdybdall]

It would be cheaper, less wear and tear on the shoulder, and more productive to bore sight first and then use the Hornadys to sight in. Set your barrel on sandbags or another stable platform pointing at a target about 50 yds. downrange. Peer through the barrel, align it with an aiming point and then adjust your scope to align with that same point. Try to do that without moving the barrel. Go through the procedure several times. Now you can load up and shoot a 3 shot group and adjust your scope to suit. Don't cheap out and try to sight in with 1 shot groups. Once it is sighted in at 25 or 50 yds. you can go to 100 and readjust.

 

[DragonGunner]

Thanks for the quick replies!

I shoud probably clear up my thinking here. Im definitely going to use the Horndy slugs to finish sighting in the gun. I just wanted to get it somewhere close with the cheap, rifled slugs and then "fine tune" with the sabots. I don't know if it will take 3 or 13 shots to get it sighted in and at near $3/shot it could get expensive.

I understand the rifled slugs will produce crappy accuracy from a rifled barrel, just curious if would damage the rifling in my barrel.

Thanks

This has been beat to death just recently....I have been shoting rifled 1 oz. slugs, Winchester from my rifled barrel for over 15 yrs. No problems and accuracy is hitting a baseball size target at 110 yds every shot. I have shot sabots before that....and they did ok, but hardly any better than the Winchesters. I tried the Winchester when my brother switched to them and gave me a Outdoor Life magazine that tried many different sabots and rifled 1 oz. slugs through a Mossberg 500 rifled barrel.....guess what....the Winchester SuperX 1 oz. rifled slugs came in number 2 in accuracy. I have shot probably 50 or so sabots, then about 30 or so Brenneke Rotweiler rifled slugs and now about 40 or so Winchester SuperX slugs with no sign of loosing accuracy or barrel damage. Pick a brand of slug and try it out....if you don't like the accuracy try the next one....each barrel will have a preference.

 

[traderdan]

Ithaca Model 37 Deerslayer...Prefers 2 3/4 inch Foster type rifled slugs...

 

[longbarrel]

Why in the world would a person shoot a rifled slug through a rifled barrel? If you don't want, or can't afford sabots, then why the rifled barrel?

 

[Ryninger]

My wife's 500 20ga likes cheap federal sabots, hated SST's! The federals are $5/box. Expensive doesn't equal better!

 

[patience0830]

Because my H&R single shot 20ga will put Remington Buckhammers touching at 100 yds. Thats why. Won't shoot Sabots for

 

[Hookeye]

Why in the world would a person shoot a rifled slug through a rifled barrel? If you don't want, or can't afford sabots, then why the rifled barrel?

Because such a barrel may shoot better than a smoothbore with foster slugs, and if not, allows one to try sabots. Duh.

 

[Tombs]

Rifled slugs lack the physical ability to damage your barrel. The myth of things like this is due to lead fouling, some fudds think lead fouling in their barrel means the rifling has wore off.

You should be able to shoot rifled slugs from a rifled bore MORE ACCURATELY than from a smooth bore. That rifling on the slug doesn't produce much spin at all when fired in a smooth bore, it's just there to make it safe to shoot through a choke. There's another thing, any foster type slug is safe through any constriction type choke, just do not fire them through a wad stripper as it can batter the threads. You can even run a slug through some of the more modern duckbill spreaders, to give you an idea of how little risk they pose to your barrel.

Your point of impact is going to be way off from a saboted slug though. You could probably do the standard range boresight on the target and get closer to the right point of impact than you will with a 1 ounce foster slug.

 

[Small's]

People used to tell me not to shoot birdshot through a rifled barrel and i would ask why not? They would say oh the plastic with clog up the rifling. Oh really and your saboted slug dont fly down the barrel in the same type of plastics wad. I understand the patterns not going to be great. When i bought my 870 remington had just came out with the copper solid saboted slugs. They were the cats meow of the time. My gun didnt like them at all so i stuck with the cheapo fosters and brenneke and have had good luck with them and im cheap.

 

[DragonGunner]

Rifled slugs lack the physical ability to damage your barrel. The myth of things like this is due to lead fouling, some fudds think lead fouling in their barrel means the rifling has wore off.

You should be able to shoot rifled slugs from a rifled bore MORE ACCURATELY than from a smooth bore. That rifling on the slug doesn't produce much spin at all when fired in a smooth bore, it's just there to make it safe to shoot through a choke. There's another thing, any foster type slug is safe through any constriction type choke, just do not fire them through a wad stripper as it can batter the threads. You can even run a slug through some of the more modern duckbill spreaders, to give you an idea of how little risk they pose to your barrel.

Your point of impact is going to be way off from a saboted slug though. You could probably do the standard range boresight on the target and get closer to the right point of impact than you will with a 1 ounce foster slug.

!00% correct.

 

[DragonGunner]

People used to tell me not to shoot birdshot through a rifled barrel and i would ask why not? They would say oh the plastic with clog up the rifling. Oh really and your saboted slug dont fly down the barrel in the same type of plastics wad. I understand the patterns not going to be great. When i bought my 870 remington had just came out with the copper solid saboted slugs. They were the cats meow of the time. My gun didnt like them at all so i stuck with the cheapo fosters and brenneke and have had good luck with them and im cheap.

The reason its not good to shoot birdshot isn't the plastic, but as you said the pattern. If you were to shoot 00 buckshot through a rifled barrel you would see that you wouldn't hit anything you were aiming at passed maybe 20 yds. The pellets start a spin and come out spinning in a bigger and bigger circle the farther they go out. I think they shot at a man size target at 30 yds or so and not one pellet hit the target, but there were holes all the way around it. The farther the distance the bigger the circle pattern gets.