Brenneke slugs in a rifled barrel

[CJW]

This is all very interesting. I originally asked the question because I recently acquired a used gun I was thinking of using as a slug gun too. However it is discontinued and the only barrels I can find for it are rifled.
I have shot rifled Brenneckes in the past and like them. I do know people who do not like sabots as they have had situations of very little or no blood trail with them. I will have to ponder my options.

Put a sabot where it needs to be 1/3 of the way up and the deer shouldn't go far and more than likely there will be a very good or at least visible blood trail.

 

[Hogpatrol]

A 12 ga slug weighs either 437.5 or 383 grains, a 20 ga. around 300 grains. IMHO, if they're hit with that much bullet and they don't go down quick, it wasn't the ammo. YMMV.

 

[Hogpatrol]

Put a sabot where it needs to be 1/3 of the way up and the deer shouldn't go far and more than likely there will be a very good or at least visible blood trail.

Someone once told me a 12 gauge slug for whitetails was the equivalent of a nuclear weapon for crowd control. Considering a one ounce slug is 437.5 grains, I tended to agree with him.

 

[HankBuck]

I’d hate to guess how many hundreds of deer have been shot with H&R rifled barrels shooting Winchester Super X rifled slugs here in Illinois. Lots of people will not pay $15 a box for slugs and just buy the cheap foster type. Rifled barrels or not.

@Wyatt Smith - it’s amazing where some hunters will decide to save money - buy a $7 box of slugs vs $15 (save $8 = $1.75 per slug? That you might shoot 2-3 slugs per season??). I’m glad there are cheapo’s out there - they leave more deer alive..

 

[CJW]

Someone once told me a 12 gauge slug for whitetails was the equivalent of a nuclear weapon for crowd control. Considering a one ounce slug is 437.5 grains, I tended to agree with him.

They tend to work one way or the other unless your placement is way off. But heck my BIL screwed up last year with a .444 and the deer got away. Any style of slug is a huge mass and a huge diameter hole. Put it in the boiler room and stuff is getting messed up. The lower velocity is the only limiting factor and big deer can take them like a champ while having a blown up ticker. Usually don't go far though. I've also seen deer dropped like they were hit by Thors hammer.

 

[BeeMaa]

I’m glad there are cheapo’s out there - they leave more deer alive..

...or injured to die a miserable death.

Never understood skimping on ammo.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Some are for sure. However it’s $15 (or more) for 5 rounds.

@Wyatt Smith
And here's me bitching about $35 for 25. That's about $22US, SO your paying sixty bucks for twenty five. Holy snappin duck shit batman that's over $90 Australian a box of 25.
Bob

 

[MS 9x56]

Someone once told me a 12 gauge slug for whitetails was the equivalent of a nuclear weapon for crowd control. Considering a one ounce slug is 437.5 grains, I tended to agree with him.

If you can stand the recoil you shouldn’t ever have to use 2. I can count on the fingers of one hand the deer I shot 2 slugs at and only one actually needed it. My Ithica deerslayer with foster slugs would hold 3” groups at 75 yards. My Browning pump with rifled barrel would hold 3” out to 125 yards. Took my largest buck ever at 163 yards with a remington copper solid with the BPS. Learning to shot slugs with a shotgun made me a better rifle shot. I still haven’t met a rifle that deals out that much recoil.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Someone once told me a 12 gauge slug for whitetails was the equivalent of a nuclear weapon for crowd control. Considering a one ounce slug is 437.5 grains, I tended to agree with him.

@Hogpatrol
What's a one and a quarter ounce ( over 500gn) 12 bore slug at 1,600 fps then. Armageddon.
Ha Ha Ha Ha
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

If you can stand the recoil you shouldn’t ever have to use 2. I can count on the fingers of one hand the deer I shot 2 slugs at and only one actually needed it. My Ithica deerslayer with foster slugs would hold 3” groups at 75 yards. My Browning pump with rifled barrel would hold 3” out to 125 yards. Took my largest buck ever at 163 yards with a remington copper solid with the BPS. Learning to shot slugs with a shotgun made me a better rifle shot. I still haven’t met a rifle that deals out that much recoil.

@MS 9x56
Your either a good shot or don't have many fingers one one of your hands
Just saying, HA HA HA HA HA HA
Bob

 

[Wyatt Smith]

I understand what you mean, but there’s a lot of ground between skimping and buying the most expensive. If a hunter sits in the thick woods where a long shot is 40 yards, and he can hit a soup can at that distance with a foster slug, he’s not skimping in my opinion.
Many of these men are hunting for the meat because it’s cheaper than beef. The money for that box of ammo comes out of their grocery money. $10 can be a lot at times.
It’s almost the same conversation we had about TSS on ducks about year back. If you can’t afford it to start with, it doesn’t matter.

 

[Ridge Runner]

@Wyatt Smith - it’s amazing where some hunters will decide to save money - buy a $7 box of slugs vs $15 (save $8 = $1.75 per slug? That you might shoot 2-3 slugs per season??). I’m glad there are cheapo’s out there - they leave more deer alive..

Unlike the quality expected for rifle and handgun ammunition and firearms. Shotguns are not considered precision big game hunting firearms. Barring competition events: Shotguns are primarily meant to use shotshells for hunting small game, upland birds, and waterfowl. With very limited use for deer hunting in archery, muzzleloader, and shotgun only states.

Although improvements such as better quality slugs, rifled barrels, use of rifle iron sights and scopes, and meeting hunters in shotgun only states demands for better quality hunting shotguns have changed the dynamics of slug guns from being more than just 50 yard range brush-woods guns, to open agriculture and field 100 yard+ guns.

The reality of it is most shots on deer with slugs are still well under 100 yards. Slugs are not in the same ballistic realm as bullets. But more in the ballistics realm of a round ball being fired from a muzzleloader.

The concept of the more slugs costs the better the slugs are is a fallacy of sorts. With the quantity of older shotguns on the market and it hunter's possession these firearms aren’t designed to handle modern high pressure slugs. Thus so called "cheap" slugs are better than having an "heirloom" shotgun blow up in one's face.

Since the Demcommies out of control inflationary economics, the pandemic, the anti 2A and anti hunting culture, etc., everything has become more expensive. Even "cheap" ammunition is as effective today as it was decades ago for hunting using older shotguns that the slugs were meant for,....and in modern shotguns that can effectively...accurately....be used in.

As for a person only shooting 2-3 slugs per season....that depends on the state/province hunting regulations. What big game is available, the hunting conditions, the hunters preferred method of hunting, and how familiar the hunter is with the shotgun setup.

 

[Hogpatrol]

@Hogpatrol
What's a one and a quarter ounce ( over 500gn) 12 bore slug at 1,600 fps then. Armageddon.
Ha Ha Ha Ha
Bob

Yeah, more like a hydrogen bomb. I briefly owned a Benelli M2 in 12 ga. Shot a whitetail at 50 yds. with a 3" mag slug and destroyed the front end enough to not get any meat. Recoil was brutal. After that the gun and the ammo went down the road. Overkill is an understatement. Have since went to a smokeless muzzleloader and for swamp hunts and drives, a 20 Mossberg with the rifled barrel.

 

[Wyatt Smith]

Yeah, more like a hydrogen bomb. I briefly owned a Benelli M2 in 12 ga. Shot a whitetail at 50 yds. with a 3" mag slug and destroyed the front end enough to not get any meat. Recoil was brutal. After that the gun and the ammo went down the road. Overkill is an understatement. Have since went to a smokeless muzzleloader and for swamp hunts and drives, a 20 Mossberg with the rifled barrel.

What slug were you using. My experience e with brenneke slugs has been minimal meat damage. Just punches a 1” hole through them. Recoil is bad though.

 

[Ridge Runner]

Well Damn!! Looks like another project to add to my list. Anyone know who makes a .410 rifled slug barrel?

.....a double rifled barrel .410, or a rifled and smoothbore combination gun? Would that be in realm of a 404J in shotgun language? A cartridge .410 using bullets instead of slugs?

This is going to get expensive.

 

[HankBuck]

@MS 9x56
Your either a good shot or don't have many fingers one one of your hands
Just saying, HA HA HA HA HA HA
Bob

@Bob Nelson 35Whelen - agree, even a Bazooka thru the guts = a wounded deer.

 

[Hogpatrol]

What slug were you using. My experience e with brenneke slugs has been minimal meat damage. Just punches a 1” hole through them. Recoil is bad though.

Been a while but it may have been the Lightfield 3 & 1/2" magnum round with a 1 & 3/8 oz. slug instead of their 3" version.

 

[BeeMaa]

I'd be much more inclined to use a 20 bore instead of a 12 to minimize meat damage, extend the range and save my shoulder from the punishment of a 12 bore magnum load.

 

[MS 9x56]

I'd be much more inclined to use a 20 bore instead of a 12 to minimize meat damage, extend the range and save my shoulder from the punishment of a 12 bore magnum load.

I loved my 20 gauge deerslayer with a 24” barrel. Killed a lot venison and grouse with it over the last 52 years.

 

[HankBuck]

I'd be much more inclined to use a 20 bore instead of a 12 to minimize meat damage, extend the range and save my shoulder from the punishment of a 12 bore magnum load.

@BeeMaa - Good point and although I use a 12 ga sabot slug (Rem Buckhammer) out of a Browning ABolt 12 ga bolt action slug gun —- it kills no better then my Son’s 20 ga H&R single shot slug gun. I bought him the H&R in 20 ga when he was 15 and didn’t want him “pounded” by recoil, figured he could use my 12ga when he got older and bigger. 20 years later - he still prefers the 20 ga and his results have been out standing. He liked the cheap-at-the-time ($200) H&R 20 ga single shot - had a ‘trigger job’ done, now close to Rifle Quality trigger, its always been more accurate then my $900 Browning Abolt 12 ga…. I know others that prefer the 20 ga slugs and with 240 gr slugs they are reaching out to 175-200 yrds and making accurate shots. Another big plus - after sighting in your 20 ga Slug gun….you still have your teeth left.