Shotgun slugs and sabots for rifled shotgun barrels only?

Question

My friend went to go get some supplies for a hunting trip and got carried away. He bought some Winchester Supreme Elite sabot slugs that cost $20 for 5 rounds. The box said for rifled barrels only, which neither one of us has. Store policy is no refunds on ammo. Are we stuck with these things or could we use them in our non-rifled barrels? The store website says suggested for rifled barrels, but the box says rifled barrels only. I can't see what the problem would be using a non-rifled barrell except maybe a decrease in accuracy.

Answer 1

They will work..but you wont get optimum accuracy potential. Velocity is a function of powder charge and projectile weight... they just wont stabilize in flight as well as they would from a rifled slug barrel.

I have killed a lot of deer with those cheap 2 3/4 Remington slugs over the years... I guess todays deer are armor plated (or marketing got better)

Answer 2

You can use them, but the effects that you are going to see in accuracy are going to be less than what it would be if it was used with a rifled barrel. A rifled barrel will shoot them more accurately at a greater distance. Your barrel having no rifling in it will shoot them still  you might not see a great pattern with them though.

Answer 3

Well you got them, so go target shoot with them in a quarry or something to see how they preform. You can shoot them out  of a smooth bore shotgun, they just don't preform well because that's not what they were designed for.

Answer 4

Most everybody has got it right here.... Consider it a $20 lesson --- Go ahead and do a little target practice with them... I wouldn't try to hunt with them -- At a longer distance it might be unpredictable how far they would accurately travel.....

At close range on an animal they most likely will still work fine but for long distances they really need that rifling to have a decent trajectory to get out to where you want it.....

Look here for some tips on shotgun slugs....

http://www.chuckhawks.com/shotgun_slugs....

http://www.chuckhawks.com/more_slug_guns...