Why do all rifled slugs shoot like crap in my 870

[hankhill33]

All right here we go again......As some of you know ,I am now the proud owner ,of a 20 inch, rifled ,iron sighted
Remington 870 12 gauge.
Seeing that I ( DID) own a smooth bore .The large collection of Remington and Winchester rifled slugs ,is not doing me a whole lot of good! I have been playing around with RB .685, In a shot cup ,rapped in a M16 patch, And doing quite well. Pretty consistant and right at point of aim. 3 to 5 inch groups at 50 and 6 to 7 at 100...no fliers if you consider 7 inch groups (no fliers)..good enough for deer, bear,or wild bore, at close range.
But the Remington and Winchester Rifled Slugs , are shooting 10 inches high and 8 inches left. And alot ..I mean alot.. of fliers. Will non rifled slugs shoot better? Should I try a Lyman Foster type... Lymans 525 Sabot Slug ......or even ..if I am willing to wait 10 to 15 weeks to get a LEE key foster type.(unless 1 of you guys know where to get one)....
Deer season grows closer every day and I need some help!!
Looking foward to your answers
HANK

[sluggertwo]

rifled slugs are for smoothies, Hank. When you switched to the 870 rifled barrel, you needed to put all those shells on the shelf with your old gun. Try Lightfield, Hastings, even Remington Buckhammer sabot slugs in your 870 and you should be right back on track. ASSA has a cheap deal on sabot ammo, and on STI hammerhead sabots for reloading, which are all I ever use in my H&R USH 12 gage and 20 gage guns. Figure on 2"- 3" groups at 100 yds with any of this stuff, no fouling, no probs. Main thing is to avoid full bore lead, since that just fouls the rifling, makes more work having to clean the bore every dozen rounds or so.

[hankhill33]

O.k Sluggertwo
I now understand......and now I still need to know what is the next best thing to hammerheads
I would like to get a mold for a fo-sabot like the Lee or the Lyman
What slug mold works the best in a rifled Remington 12 gauge

[eye shot]

The 525 Lymans if you cast are very accurate. I just buy mine from Gardners Cache, high quality and reasonable price.

[RePete]

O.k Sluggertwo
I now understand......and now I still need to know what is the next best thing to hammerheads
I would like to get a mold for a fo-sabot like the Lee or the Lyman
What slug mold works the best in a rifled Remington 12 gauge

[cloverleaf]

OK New to this board- Glad to find it. Have been trying for at least 10+ years to get used to the idea of shooting slugs. Being originally from Gods country in S.D. I grew up shooting flat fast .25 calibre rifles and developed a passion for those "cloverleaf" groups. Anyway, being in self imposed exile here in Mn I have tried to teach myself how to shoot slugs. So I committed the lightfield slug page to memory and even did a little reloading trying to find a decent group. I have put probably 500 rounds down the barrel of my "Mooseberg" Trophy slugster. Fed premium barnes expanders deliver 2-3 inch groups at 90 yards. Hornady SST will give me a 2-3 in group at 50 and took deer for me last year. At least they aint 3.00 a shot. BUT I am going broke and its to expensive to work on my of-hand "technique". So on a fluke I bought a box of Brennke "K.O." slugs. They printed about four inches higher at 50but the groups were no bigger. Also this year I borrowed a 20. ga 870 for my daughter to use. That thing threw barnes expanders in a 7-10 inch pattern at 50 yds. BUT also on a fluke I tried some Brenneke "green lightning" short mag slugs in theat 20 ga. I could cover the entire box worth of shots with my palm. Now I understand the difference in velocity between the slugs accounts for much of the change in group size. So my question is: why shouldnt I shoot attached wad lead slugs in my rifled barrel? As accurate or better than most, and way cheaper. Shots at a 100yds with no wind are at best "minute of deer" accurate and anything beyond that with any kind of a breeze off-hand are spray and pray at best. So again, why not attached wad lead slugs? Thoughts appreciated. CL


Pray hard....shoot straight.

[Brush Hunter]

I'm not 100% clear on what your guns are like. Areyou using smoothies or rifled barrel slug guns? If the latter, go get some Lightfield Sabots, some Hastings Lazer Sabots or Remington Buckhammer Sabots and shoot them. All 3 are cheap and should get you well under 3" and on the way to your beloved cloverleaf at 100 yards if you have decent sights and good control. Lots of us in the Club use STI reloads and print tight groups with them for about a buck a shot. No reason to ante up for the high end cost, low end performance of some of the plug slugs you mentioned.

[cloverleaf]

Just to clarify-My mossberg 500 has a cantilever mount, rifled barrel and is ported. I am using a 1.5- 4.5 bushnell shotgun scope that seems to be holding up WAY better than it should....but how can you tell? Still seems to track adjustments about as well as any bushnell. I have tried two different light field sabot loads. No better than the SST's,. Hastings were terrible that day anyway and arent the buckhammers and attached wad as I reffered to. Havent tried those yet. Where do I find the STI components? Are they what used to be "hastings components" I used them years ago. but I think lightfield bough the patent as the slug/sabot component they offer looks identical.
Nobody played with the Brenneke offerings? Thanks for the reply. CL

[Brush Hunter]

The STI stuff is available from http://www.slugsrus.com, which is actually Sabot Tchnology Inc. Pretty sure they're the same as what goes into Hastings sabot slugs. I think the Lightfield design was a Sabot Tech design too, but before they signed up to supply Hastings. At least I've got an old box of Lightfield Hybred Exp Sabots that says distributed by Slug Group New Paris PA on the back, and that's where STI has their home office still. New Paris is about 6 houses and a gas station out in the west PA woods, so I'm guessing there can't be two different shotgun slug experts in the same town, unless it's some kind of extended family. I don't know which came first, or who's on second; maybe ask them when you call up to order the wads and etc.

[eye shot]

The STI-SPW and the Lightfield Commander IDS are not the same sabot. I load both, but mostly the Lightfields because they are a little shorter that means more powder with less wad pressure. They both are very accurate, but the Lightfields are also cheaper.