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Posted By: MinnesotaJoe Doubles and slugs - 11/18/18 05:51 PM
I own quite a few side by sides. Ive always hunted grouse, pheasant and woodcock. Ive recently started bowhunting whitetail and i questioned whether or not you can shoot slugs safely thru side by sides? Most of my guns have 2 1/2 chambers and i saw the other day that 2 1/2 slugs are available.Ive never shot slugs and i guess i have the impression that there would be alot more recoil than the bird loads i shoot, potentially damaging stocks and whatnot, do any of you guys have any experience with this?
Posted By: Geo. Newbern Re: Doubles and slugs - 11/18/18 07:16 PM
Equal slug weight vs. shot weight results in the same recoil. Some type slugs will go through tight shotgun chokes and some will not do so well. I don't use sabot type slugs in my doubles. Regulation can be a problem...Geo
Posted By: Saskbooknut Re: Doubles and slugs - 11/18/18 09:48 PM
Slugs of equal weight and velocity produce equal recoil to equivalent shot cartridges.
Most slugs are at higher velocity, and have recoil that will get your attention.
You may have difficulty shooting foster slugs well enough with your double to reliably place them on a deer beyond 40 or 50 yards. Only testing will tell.
Posted By: RWG Re: Doubles and slugs - 11/19/18 01:14 AM
The solution is handloading foster slug, just like it is for pellets. You can create whatever velocity and pressure suits your shotgun.

Regulating both barrels of the gun for slugs is another matter.
Posted By: Nudge Re: Doubles and slugs - 11/19/18 01:45 AM
MN Joe,

I toyed with this for 5 minutes a while back. It CAN be done, but as a practical matter really isn't a great choice unless you just feel like a new challenge. As was said above, you CANNOT use Sabot slugs, which are meant for rifled shotgun barrels (I know...I know...which makes them basically a rifle.) You want the old type Foster slug, like Remington Slugger, for example. These are mde for smooth bores, and will fire through any choke safely because the projectile is considerably smaller than the bore. It is the flexible plastic "fins" which yhe projectile sits in front of that keep it centered in the tube. These fins will bend through any choke.

As a practical matter, though, a rib and single centered front bead dont make for very good sighting for "aiming small." This is one area an over and under would offer an advantage.

My general disposition is to use shotguns as shotguns, and rifles as rifles. The lone exception to this being a turkey shotgun which is set up with rifle sights and "aimed" accordingly.

NDG
Posted By: Ted Schefelbein Re: Doubles and slugs - 11/19/18 01:51 AM
My younger brother has used a Savage BSE 12 with slugs to take deer for decades. The gun is robust, with 30” tubes and mod/full chokes. It has a single non selective trigger that fires the mod tube first. A good thing, the mod choke barrel will consistently put it’s slug into a pop can at fifty yards. The full choke barrel does not. We don’t actually know where that one goes, as it won’t hit the thirty inch circle on a web printing stock end at ten yards.
He has taken many deer with the gun. He only loads the mod barrel.
I imported slug guns from France that performed better, but, always considered them a compromise I wasn’t interested in.

Best,
Ted
Posted By: 2-piper Re: Doubles and slugs - 11/19/18 03:05 AM
I have never shot at a deer with a shotgun. I did once carry a double shotgun on a deer hunt but did not get a shot. This was some 45 years ago when deer weren't the Vermin they are now in my area. Just prior to this my Wife had gone on a ladies only hunt on a wildlife management area where only shotguns were allowed. She carried my Richland 707 20 gauge double & killed a doe with it. We had sighted it in & the left (full choke) barrel hid dead center, with the right barrel shooting off by around 6". I don't recall for certain now but as I recall it crossed & hit to the left. I told her if she got a shot to pull the back trigger first, which she did. She was using standard Foster 2 3/4" factory loaded shells, Remington, as I recall.
Posted By: Stanton Hillis Re: Doubles and slugs - 11/19/18 03:18 AM
There is a long standing tradition in the South of driving deer with hounds and using shotguns loaded with large buckshot, 0 and 00 sizes being the most popular, with 00 probably carrying the polls. It is effective, when used in tightly choked guns, out to about the range that slugs can be counted on to hit a deer's vitals out of a smoothbore shotgun with a bead for a sight.

Some of us call the big buckshot pellets "blue whistlers". A broadside shot is very effective. A frontal shot in the chest, not always so much, IMO.

SRH
Posted By: L. Brown Re: Doubles and slugs - 11/19/18 11:57 AM
For a long time, Iowa was slugs only for deer. And that's still how most deer are taken there (other than with bow or muzzleloader). Not being a deer hunter, I have no personal experience. But what I always heard (from those who didn't use rifled slug barrels) is that cylinder works the best.
Posted By: HomelessjOe Re: Doubles and slugs - 11/19/18 02:18 PM
Stan I've saw the term "Blue Whistler" in print but never knew what buck shot size they were referring to or where the term originated.

Peter's made a blue paper hull 12ga. load during this time period.

Ps...Since I was 13 years old I've shot all my deer with rifles.
Posted By: Drew Hause Re: Doubles and slugs - 11/19/18 03:19 PM
McGinty's Blue Whistler
http://www.netdotcom.com/revmexpc/cannonpc.htm
Posted By: Ted Schefelbein Re: Doubles and slugs - 11/20/18 12:47 AM
This appears to be set up as a slug gun. I had nothing to do with this Darne, and would need more pictures, but, it certainly looks the part. Notice the beaver tail and the squared stock mount.

https://www.gunsinternational.com/guns-f...un_id=101062799

Best,
Ted
Posted By: Hal Re: Doubles and slugs - 11/22/18 05:23 PM
As I recall, only buckshot was legal for deer at MCB Quantico, VA in 1956-57.
Posted By: Hal Re: Doubles and slugs - 11/25/18 09:29 PM
Odd situation here during deer season. If I use my Janeck (Dresden) 28ga/.577 buscheflinte I can only use the rifle barrel. Cannot use slug or patched ball in the smooth barrel as law states 20 ga or larger if shotguns used. I use R.E.A.L.s in the rifle barrel.
Posted By: steve white Re: Doubles and slugs - 12/07/18 05:08 AM
There was an old Winchester single barrel 12 kicking around our family that accounted for about 30 deer from two people using 00.
Posted By: Stanton Hillis Re: Doubles and slugs - 12/07/18 11:52 AM
There was never much shotgun slug use around these parts. From the time I began roaming the woods, up until the very late 60s, there were no rifles either. All the deer were deep in the river swamp, with none out here "on the hill". All deer hunting was with buckshot ahead of a pack of dogs, mostly hounds. It was just as much a social event as is a dove shoot.

I remember a fellow over near Groton Plantation in SC, with whom I got to hunt occasionally. He used a single shot 12, as Steve mentioned. His had an ejector, and I'm telling you he could "cycle" that thing faster than you can believe. He held three shells between his fingers of his fore hand, and could shoot, reload and shoot again so fast it was amazing. Many years of practice, and "one gun".

SRH
Posted By: mergus Re: Doubles and slugs - 12/07/18 10:13 PM
Shooting slugs out of a shotgun is a ton of fun. I have an old old Bay State with the barrel cut down to 25" giving a cylinder choke. Using AQ slugs in my hand loads it shoots to point of aim at 30 yards. I have yet to shoot a deer with it, but if I get the chance to pull on one, I feel good about my odds.

I had a gunsmith braze a Browning rifled choke onto the end of an 18" barrel on my Mossberg 500. I can keep sabot slugs all on a paper plate off hand at 80 yards regularly.

Williams Gunsight company makes a adjustable rifle sight that will clamp onto a vent rib of a modern shotgun. Some day I will get me a set of those and try them on my Citori.

Mergus
Posted By: Hal Re: Doubles and slugs - 12/08/18 04:21 PM
Hate to admit it, but as teenagers in the early '50s we used to shoot slugs at rafts of canvasbacks to try and get them moving. Other guys tried shooting arrows out of their .410 single shots and one guy claimed he did it with .38-55 brass in his .410.
Posted By: Geo. Newbern Re: Doubles and slugs - 12/08/18 05:26 PM
My most used turkey gun is a NEF 12ga single with three barrels. One of the barrels is for slugs and is rifled to accept sabots. Iron sites are a challenge now days, but it shoots pretty true. If I were serious about shooting a deer with it I'd add an optical sight, and I'm sure it would do the job...Geo
Posted By: 2-piper Re: Doubles and slugs - 12/08/18 05:28 PM
.38-55 brass would be a mighty sloppy fit in a .410. Didn't look it up but as I recall the .38-55 would be around .05" loose in a .410 chamber

A former Co-Worker of mine told me once when he was a teenager he decided to "Make" a slug. He opened up a shell & poured out the shot, melted it & poured it back in. It only filled about half of the space the shot had occupied so he poured in the melted shot from a second shell. Fired it from a Stevens 311 & amazingly the gun held with no apparent damage, but he Said it sure Kicked Like a Mule, so he didn't try it again.

Also once heard of an ole Mountain man who used #5 shot for everything in a single barrel 12. For deer, he opened the crimp & poured in melted beeswax. He claimed it would punch a hole all the way through a good-sized tree. Seems it was common practice in his locale & they referred to it as "Waxing a Buck".

NOTA BENE; I do not recommend any of these methods.
Posted By: Tom Findrick Re: Doubles and slugs - 05/13/21 10:35 PM
That’s called a “cut” shell, IIRC.
Improvised munition when you don’t have a slug and birdshot won’t get it done.
Think civil emergency where repelling bad people is possible, abd all you gave is #8 dove loads.
Posted By: GMCS Re: Doubles and slugs - 05/16/21 02:15 AM
For slugs I use an RBL professional 20 GA. outstanding accuracy with the cheap Remington slugs after testing every type of slug I could lay my hands on. not worth a dam shooting buckshot. for buck I tried lots of Guns but the best I found was a cheap Belgian side lock I picked up while traveling. It really likes#3buck. good luck in your quest.
Posted By: Tom Findrick Re: Doubles and slugs - 05/16/21 11:01 AM
Uggie slug gun

https://www.gunsinternational.com/g...ugartechea-640-slug.cfm?gun_id=101654768
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