Yes, you can.
in the former USSR most of the big game was shot with slugs from double guns (repeaters being a rarity, and rifles all but banned).
Most of folks had to use the same gun for birds, big game, whatever.
Lessons learned:
- accuracy is relative. Putting your shots in a 12 inch circle at 35 meters will bring you to the vitals of any big-game animal up to 50 meters, and shots over that are unrealistic.
- most doubles can do better than that. 6-inch circles are common, and 4-inchers can hardly be improved upon further.
- pattern the shotgun with slugs just like you would with a rifle. Shoot all available slugs to find what the gun likes, then vary the powder load (staying within safe limits, of course) up and down until you arrive at best groups.
- your biggest fear is the ring bulge in the choke area. some barrels just aren't made to be used with slugs. It mostly concerns thin-walled tightly-choked guns. DDR-made Merkel O/Us were a special pain in this respect
- for similar reason, don't shoot slugs in a gun that you value for its long-range patterns. Looks like slugs wear out choke area very quickly.
- if you have to shoot a slug from a tighter-than-tight gun, one tip is to use underbore Brenneke, say, 16-gauge slug in a 12-gauge gun. To have the slug centered, place it in a plastic shot cup.
- surprisingly, a chamber burst with slugs is unlikely, even with overbore powder load (some chaps here used to load a Brenneke with 1 1/2 to 2 times the max powder charge - did you know that USSR boys were raised on pretty suicidal role models? - but the guns didn't blow).
- however, your second biggest fear should be a loose action. A gun shot with slugs will shoot itself loose noticably faster than the one used with shot loads of the same weight with the same powder charge.
all things being equal:
- the shorter the barrels, the better
- the heavier the barrels, the better
Constriction of the barrels is the most controvercial issue. - the less constriction, the better, however, you generally want some constriction in the gun, IC or light modified. Doubles defy rules, and sometimes you'll get a light ling-barreled full-choked one put all bullets in the same hole.
An person experienced in shadow-ring test for gun barrels can tell if a gun is going to shoot well with slugs. The critical area to look at is the forcing cone, you don't want even a hint that it joins the barrel at an angle.
If you're considering buying an inexpensive vintage sbs to shoot slugs from, take a look at Baikal Izh 54. They are proven slugsters here. Izh 12 o/u works even better individually, but getting both barrels to shoot to the same POI is harder.
Finding the right slug is another story.
