Old school slug gun

[jjas]

I posted this on "another forum" but thought it would fit in nicely on the updated forum here as well.

Seven or eight years ago my best friend's dad passed away. He always loved hunting/shooting and had a decent collection of guns. Nothing high end, but Remington, Ruger, Winchester, Ithaca, Mossberg, etc. Used, but well taken care of. For Christmas this year, they (my friend and his mom) gave me a Winchester 1200 shotgun from that collection of guns.

This particular model came w/2 barrels (a smooth bore slug barrel w/rifle sights and a 30 inch full choke barrel). I figured I'd use the gun for turkey hunting and maybe as a back up deer gun (maybe).

After doing some research on foster slugs (it's been years since I shot any) I decided to try some Winchester Winlite rifled slugs. The velocity is listed as 1200 fps and they generate 1400 ft lbs of energy @ the muzzle. Enough to kill a deer, but not enough to beat you silly like most foster slugs will.

After a couple of trips to the range, I must say I'm pleasantly surprised with the accuracy! I started out @ 25 yards to see where the gun was shooting. One hole groups and an adjustment to the open sights later and I was shooting @ clay targets @ 50 yards. To my amazement, I hit the clays every single time! Hell, I was on to something here! I moved on out to 75 yards and again, hit the clay targets every time!

Now these reduced recoil loads start dropping energy pretty quickly much past 75 yards and I figured 100 yards w/open sights would be pushing my luck and I was right. The slugs were dropping well under the clays @ that range and the energy is dropping as well.

But 75 yards w/open sights, shooting .60 cent per round slugs and hitting clays everytime was pretty impressive to me. Definetly minute of deer.

And while the loads and the gun won't replace my primary deer gun, it was fun to see how well the new foster loads would shoot from my old school gun and I will definetly hunt next season with it.

The way I see it is most deer are killed @ less than 75 yards anyway, it's accurate and besides....it'll be like going hunting with my friend's dad one more time.

Jim

[assa_admin]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for coming here and posting that great piece. Welcome back.

ADMIN

[jjas]

Old School Slug Gun - Part II

Last month I wrote about a friend passing on an old Winchester 1200 slug gun and how I enjoyed seeing how well it shot with today's foster slugs. After doing so, I got to thinking about another shotgun I have in my safe that is primarily a turkey gun, but I figured why not see how well it would shoot slugs.

This gun is a Mossberg 500 12 gauge. It has a 28" vent rib barrel w/standard mossberg flush accu-chokes. The only change to the gun is a slip on Limbsaver pad. I mounted a Nikon ProStaff 3-9x40 scope on the receiver with a $6.00 weaver mount, installed the improved cylinder choke tube and went to the range.

For this slug gun experiment I had purchased some Fiocchi 12 gauge slugs (12LESLUG). At $8.00 for 10 the price was right and I had read about how accurate they were in smoothbore guns so I hoped it would be a good place to start.

After sighting in @ 25 yards (one nice ragged hole), I moved on out to 50 and managed a nice 2" group. I moved onto the 100 yard range and instead of shooting groups I figured why not just shoot @ pop cans. After setting up 5 cans, I missed the first one just low. I raised the cross hairs and managed to hit the next four in a row.

I did clean the gun every 5 shots and let the barrel cool. I probably will tweak the elevation adjustments next time @ the range but all in all not too bad.

While not a moa experiment it did prove to me that 100 yards is very doable w/a very inexpensive scope/gun combo that I never dreamed would be this accurate.

Jim

[Big20]

Round about 1972 or so I, then 18 yrs. old, bought an Ithica Mdl. 37 Deerslayer in 20 ga. Up until about 5 years ago, with an occasional fling with muzzleloaders excepted, we were inseparable buddies. Feed her Remington 5/8 oz. Sluggers and out to 50 yards any deer I ever fired her at went home with me. I hunted the same place over a good piece of the intervening years between then and about 2 years ago. Toward the end ot that time period I began having to take follow-up shots and chase badly hit deer. Why? The wood I hunted all that time was logged about the time I began to hunt it. In the 20 years plus since I began the woods "grew up" again. and I was pacing off more and more 65 yard shots, too far for the grouping ability of the Ithica. Know your gun's limitations, abide with them and you'll have a happy relationship. Otherwise you'll end up on some website, a Pilgrim all over again.