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Shotgun slugs - which chokes?

5K views 22 replies 5 participants last post by  Maser 
#1 ·
Living in the western states, shooting rifled slugs from a shotgun is not very common. So my question is, which chokes can you shoot slugs out of? I'm assuming full choke no, but modified and improved cylinder are fine.

Thanks
 
#2 ·
You actually "can" shoot rifled slugs from a full choke, but it's not advisable because you not only will put added stress on the choke threads, but also you will get horrible accuracy. For rifled slugs, the best is either an open choke or improved cylinder. And of course with sabot slugs you want to go with either a rifled choke or fully rifled bbl. DO NOT shoot rifled slugs through a rifled choke or barrel because you will get horrible accuracy and you will HATE cleaning the leading in the rifle grooves.
 
#5 ·
It's just an accuracy issue. Same thing for shooting rifled slugs thru a full choke. I've tried it, and if you can hit a gallon milk jug at 20 yards, you would be doing good. I have hit them out to 75 yards, but only because I knew where the gun was shooting. Not worth a cent for hunting.
 
#7 ·
ok i got ya. that's what i figured, ruins accuracy.

And if it it a full choke with a choke insert, you are abusing the insert and it will eventually fail..e tc.
That's about the size of it. A good shooting smooth bore is good out to about 100 yards. A good shooting rifled slug barrel is good out to 150+ yards. You may find some guns shoot better, but most won't.
 
#8 ·
Thanks guys for your comments. Both of my shotguns are fixed chokes. My 20 ga is a full from my teen years. Don't shoot it much anymore but lots of sentimental value since it has taken many many birds. My 12 ga is the basic Mossberg 88 which I have setup for home defense. Its loaded up with 00 buck but I have some rifled slugs I'd like to try. Mossberg vaguely suggests no slugs but a couple guys at the range say they shoot fine.

I am considering one of the Rem 870s, have always one since I was a teen. I have too many guns on my want list.
 
#11 ·
Rifled slug barrels, or even smooth bore, will be 18" in length, or longer, if you want the longer barrels.
 
#19 ·
That's what I was thinking, anything under 18" is illegal, rifled slug barrel, or smooth bore.
 
#21 ·
If you are asking about a pistol that shoots both pistol rounds AND shotgun rounds then yes it needs to be rifled.
Now if you are asking about a pistol that ONLY shoots shotgun round then I believe that would be a SBS and would be illegal.
But I will look into it to make sure.
Mike
 
#22 ·
sbs illegal? wouldn't it just be NFA if anything?

but yeah, my post was bout things like judges and those cheap palm guns that chamber 45lc or 410 shotgun.

I would think if one was smoothbore it would have to be registered as a sbs... or actually.. perhaps an AOW for a smoothbore pistol shotgun.. right?


and lemat revolvers get away with it because it is blackpowder.. right?
 
#23 ·
I'm not totally sure about this because my head is usually very foggy when it comes to the whole AOW vs SBS topic. What I am thinking is that if the shotgun started out life as a non-shoulder fired weapon and has a fully rifled bbl and OAL well under the NFA rules, it could be classed as a pistol much like how a Krinkov style AK47 can be classed as a pistol. However, if the said shotgun has a smoothbore bbl, that is where the problem is and would have to be classed as an AOW.

Moderators, please edit or remove my post if I am wrong because I sure as heck don't want my post to get anyone in trouble with the law on the federal level.
 
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