Serious riflemen, at least the ones I know, view slug guns with either polite disinterest or complete disdain. Yet as human populations grow and open spaces shrink, many of these same riflemen will have to switch to shotguns someday or quit hunting deer.
That's the bad news. Here's the good: manufacturers are turning out slug guns that look and shoot more like rifles than ever before. I myself, deservedly not a household name among bench shooters, recently put five shots into 1 7/8 inches at 100 yards with a BPS Game Gun. That's phenomenal accuracy when you consider the state of slug shooting just a few years ago.
Even just ten years ago, MOA groups with a slug gun were unheard of; hunters boasted of guns that would put all their shots into a five-gallon milk can at one hundred paces. Scopes had to be jury-rigged onto most shotguns and rifled barrels were a curiosity. Most hunters simply squinted down the rib of a duck gun at their annual deer.
Between the 1950s and the 1980s, however, deer populations exploded and deer hunter numbers rose. As more areas were legislated off-limits to rifles the market for improved slug guns grew. Tinkers turned their attention to slug guns in the early '80s and of a sudden, hunters could buy a rifled barrel for their bird gun and simply swap barrels when deer season rolled around. At the same time, new slugs were being developed that shot beautifully in rifled barrels.
The Mossberg Trophy Slugster, introduced in 1987, was the first production rifled-barrel slug gun. Fitted with a rifled barrel, extended scope mount on the barrel, and a high-combed stock designed especially for use with telescopic sights, the Mossberg set the pattern for a new generation of slug guns. Remington followed with its cantilever mount 11-87s and 870s, Ithaca with the solid-frame Deerslayer II, Browning offered its BPS Game Gun, Winchester the 1300. All are shooters capable of two- to five-inch groups at 100 yards with sabot ammunition; both the Browning and Winchester successfully flout the long-standing rule that a gun with a removable barrel must have a mount on the barrel to shoot well.
Today virtually every manufacturer makes dedicated 12-gauge pump and autoloading slug guns and they're beginning to dabble in 20s. Almost all the new guns feature sling swivels and stock dimensions suitable for scopes and iron sights. Unfortunately most leave the factory with the same shotgun (read: heavy, creepy, bad) trigger that goes on bird guns. In time, manufacturers will likely address this problem. Meanwhile, Hastings has introduced adjustable rifle-type triggers for Remington 12-gauges, with other models to follow. In addition, Hastings offers an ever-increasing line of rifled barrels with scope mounts or iron sights. New for this year are barrels for Beretta autos and 20-gauge 1100s and 870s.
Several manufacturers offer rifled choke tubes to hunters who'd like to shoot buckshot occasionally or use the same gun for deer and turkeys. The jury remains out on most rifled tubes; in theory, they shouldn't work, since the slug is already traveling at top speed when it meets the grooves. Everyone, myself included, who's tested Browning's extra-long, five-inch rifled choke tube has been amazed to find it shoots as well as many fully rifled barrels.
The final, logical development of the slug-shooting shotgun occurred to Pennsylvanian Randy Fritz who reasoned: if a shotgun is going to be used as rifle, why shouldn't it be a rifle? Legally and semantically Fritz's Tar-Hunt is still a shotgun, since it is chambered for shotshells, but it yields rifle-like performance thanks to a free-floated Shaw barrel, a solid bolt-action lockup, a rifle-type stock, and a fine trigger. Fritz, a competitive bench shooter, has recorded MOA groups with the Tar-Hunt. Marlin has recently introduced its own bolt-action slug gun and Browning announced the A-Bolt Shotgun. Another new gun with intriguing accuracy potential is the H&R 980, a single-shot, break-open gun fitted with what is essentially a rifled 12-gauge varmint barrel.
In 10 years, shotguns have evolved from minute-of-milkcan accuracy to the point where a modern rifled slug gun with sabot ammunition will allow a skilled shooter to take deer to 125 yards. By centerfire standards, 125 yards is the merest of chip shots, but remember that 90 percent of whitetails are killed within 60 yards of the hunter. Thanks to improvements in sights and ammo, even smoothbores and traditional Foster slugs can be deadly to 60 yards and a few paces beyond. There's no reason, by the way, to spend the extra money on sabot ammunition if you're shooting a smoothbore; accuracy won't improve, and you'll actually be shooting a moderately less lethal projectile, although deer-killing power has never been an issue with any shotgun slug.
Today's slug hunter goes afield with the assurance that he can quickly and cleanly put down any whitetail that offers a good shot at typical ranges. That's hardly a new concept for deer rifles, but for slug guns, it's a revolutionary idea indeed.
Beretta U.S.A.
17601 Beretta Dr.
Accokeek, MD 20607
301-283-2191
Browning
One Browning Place
Morgan, UT 84050
800-234-2045
Browning
One Browning Place
Morgan, UT 84050
800-234-2045
Browning
One Browning Place
Morgan, UT 84050
800-234-2045
Browning
One Browning Place
Morgan, UT 84050
800-234-2045
Remington Arms
Delle Donne Corporate Centre
1011 Centre Rd.
Wilmington, DE 19805
302-993-8577
Remington Arms
Delle Donne Corporate Centre
1011 Centre Rd.
Wilmington, DE 19805
302-993-8577
Remington Arms
Delle Donne Corporate Centre
1011 Centre Rd.
Wilmington, DE 19805
302-993-8577
Winchester
U.S. Repeating Arms Co.
275 Winchester Ave.
New Haven, CT 06511
203-789-5000
Marlin Firearms Co.
100 Kenna Dr.
North Haven, CT 06474
203-239-5621
Ithaca Gun Co.
891 Route 34B
Kings Ferry, NY 13081
315-364-7171
Ithaca Gun Co.
891 Route 34B
Kings Ferry, NY 13081
315-364-7171
H&R 1871 SB2-980 ULTRA Slug Hunter
H&R 1871/New England Arms
Industrial Rowe
Gardner, MA 01440
508-632-9393
H&R 1871/New England Arms
Industrial Rowe
Gardner, MA 01440
508-632-9393
H&R 1871/New England Arms
Industrial Rowe
Gardner, MA 01440
508-632-9393
O.F. Mossberg & Sons
7 Grasso Ave.
North Haven, CT 06473
203-288-6491
O.F. Mossberg & Sons
7 Grasso Ave.
North Haven, CT 06473
203-288-6491
O.F. Mossberg & Sons
7 Grasso Ave.
North Haven, CT 06473
203-288-6491
O.F. Mossberg & Sons
7 Grasso Ave.
North Haven, CT 06473
203-288-6491
Tar-Hunt
Box 572
Bloomsburg, PA 17815
717-784-6368
MAGTECH Recreational Products, Inc.
5030 Paradise Rd.
Suite C211
Las Vegas, NV 89119
800-466-7191
Copyright (c) 1995 Philip Bourjaily. All Rights Reserved.
Home | Library | Hunting | Big Game Hunting