I shoot a Beretta 12/70 semi auto shotgun with a 66 cm smooth bore barrel. I’m trying some slugs on it just to see how they shoot, for now I’ve only tried Sauvestre, Rottweil Brenneke and Winchester Slugs.

The question is :

Is it safe to use sabot slugs in a smooth bore ? with what chokes cylinder ? improved cylinder ?
I was thinking about the Remington copper solid or the Federal Hydra-Shok Sabot HP

Cheer´s

If im not mistaken, the sabots have no rifling on them. Then, I would think, without rifling on the sabot, and without rifling in the barrel, the shot would be pretty inaccurate. Since the sabot is not spinning at a high rate, it wouldnt be stable in air.

Im sure it would fire fine, same as the same size rifled slug, but the stability jsut wouldnt be there.

The sabot slugs won't harm a smoothbore barrel, however, they won't be as accurate as they're designed to be fired through either a rifled barrel or rifled choke tube. The rifling in the barrel, choke is what will cause it to spin and stabilize, without that it will pattern all over. Your best bet would be to get a rifled barrel or tube for your gun if it's available if you intend to shoot sabots. Good luck.

Nsiro

Which of the regular slugs gives you the best accuracy? I have a Browning Citori and a mossberg 500 pump that I want to occasionally use slugs out of. The old American Foster slugs are very poor out of the mossberg.

SuperMagnum Wrote:

quote:

The sabot slugs won't harm a smoothbore barrel, however, they won't be as accurate as they're designed to be fired through either a rifled barrel or rifled choke tube.

Do the smooth and rifled barrels have the same internal diameters ? I read somewhere that the rifled barrels were produced with stricter tolerances then the smoothbores, because the sabots are hard and don’t seal the various diameters bores like the wads from shot shells do.
Does this make any sense to you ?
Will the Hard Plastic Sabot’s like the ones from Federal Hydra-Shok Sabot HP cause any excessive pressure on firing thru a choke that is not cylinder ?

Ganyana :

I’ve tried the Winchester Foster Slugs and accuracy was also poor, the best ones so far are the Rottweil Brenneke MP 1oz (440 gr) and the Winchester loaded Brenneke Emerald 1,2 oz (525 gr) you can also try the Sauvestre which also gives good accuracy.

Cheer´s

The only discarding sabot slug for a smoothbore that I can think of is the Sauvestre 'Arrow'. From memory, they were designed to be used from a smoothbore, not a rifled BBL.
I tried a few a while back, they seemed to shoot OK, accuracy was about the same (4MOA) as the Rottweil Brenneke 12g, but not quite as good as the Remington sabot slugs (3 MOA) from the rifled BBL of my 'paradox' shotgun.

BRI makes sabbot for that shoots great from my bineli smoth bore. air stabilized sabbot slugs work just fine

The rifleing on a slug is to help go through a modified or full choke barrel. Not to put a spin on the slug. The forster slug is designed with the center of gravity in the front, like a badmiton shuttlecock. That is what stabilizes it.
I would not shoot a sabot through a tight choked barrel. I think also that you'll be disappointed in the accuracy of a sabot in a smooth bore.

As far as which brand is best, you'll just have to experiment. Most foster type slugs are cheap so it's not expensive to try a couple kinds. In my Ithaca field barrel (mod. choke) Winchesters shot best. When I got a slug barrel it wouldn't keep Winchesters on the paper. In my slug barrel Rem. sluggers shoot very good. Brenneke are accurate but the brass seams a little soft and I have trouble with exraction. I've not tried the BRI, they're shaped like a pellet gun pellet, but have heard good things about them.

Another idea that I've not tried is the rifled choke tubes. You might concider those if you really want to try sabots.

Use foster type slugs in a smooth bore. Use sabot slugs in a rifled bore. Its that simple. A foster type slug is soft lead. It can be used in any choke IC, Mod. or Full. A sabot is not as forgiving as it is not soft lead. Some are jacketed, or swagged alloy, harder then pure lead. Ohiosam gave good info , except i differ on the foster type slug, i feel the rifled slug does make the forster type spin. But remember the soft lead forster slug will expand to the bore diameter on fireing, probley making the rifling useless on most guns.