With a sabot you need the components to match the gun. With a bigger slug like a lightfield, or rifled slugs, they 'squish' and fit the bore easier. Definitely not the most accurate, but I feel I can put that slug in any single 12 gauge shotgun ever made and hit a deer are reasonable distances. Most consistant sabot slug you've shot to.
The Home Defender 20ga Double Ball load is intended for close range defensive use. This load gives shooters an option not otherwise available in this caliber. For those shooters who prefer a small bore shotgun, this load provides the only option to lead or copper projectiles. This load can be used as a painful warning shot, but can also be lethal under some circumstances. Those who may be reluctant to shoot at another person even in their own defense can now control their personal space with greater confidence. This load also provides a greater margin of safety to innocent persons nearby or in adjoining rooms. The Twin.60 cal. Balls have relatively high velocity but have relatively low mass. The available kinetic energy is shed quickly over distance.
Penetration of the body is possible at close range. Some level of injury should be expected and can range from serious injury or death to painful welts or bruising. Results can vary based on the weapon used, distance to target, clothing, body weight and part 01 the body hit. Shots to the lower body, legs and arms are less likely to cause serious injury, while impacting the head, neck, spine and upper chest are more likely to be serious. Shots to parts of the body with large muscle groups, soft tissue or covered by clothing will have a lesser likelihood of penetrating. Caliber: 20 Gauge. Bullet Style:.60cal Double Rubber Ball.
Case Type: High Brass Plastic Hull. Muzzle Velocity: 900 fps. Quantity: 5/Box.
The most consistent slug for me is either the 12 gauge Federal trophy copper 3' or the 12 gauge Winchester BRI sabot 3'. Both have given me under 3' groups at 100 yards in every single shotgun I have put them in. I will have to give the edge to the Federals, because the BRI's go nuts after 125 yards or so. I have a feeling its because They are meant for barrels of 34:1 or slower- which was the most common when they came out. I only tried them that far in a SBEII, Benelli Nova, and an USH singleshot. They shoot great at 100, and ok at 125.
I couldn't even hit paper at 150, and I couln't see hits in the grass. My 200 yard is in a field, and I could see hits off to the sides. It seems they start to fly diagonal after which caused them to just take off in seemingly random directions. The Federal trophy copper slugs have been outstanding to me.The most inconsistent has been the Hornady SST. Some times I'll get a few that all go into the same hole. Then the next box will not even hit the target.
Most of the time they put 2 touching, and another a foot away. I just cant understand it. I never know what a Hornady SST will do. The exception has been the USH, which is reasonably accurate with them.Its not on topic, but I'd have to say my USH is the most consistent slug gun I have ever had.
I dont think there is a slug this gun wont shoot well. I once had a long discussion with Dave Henderson concerning what is IMHO the single most significant problem that plaques sabot slug ammo today: inconsistent performance. When they first came out, I had the same exact experience with Remington's new Core-Lokt sabot slugs as you did with the Hornadys. I told Dave about my experience with the Core-Lokts, in that the first time I shot them I was getting 3-shot 100yrd groups that left me literally awe struck. I had shot 5 3-shot 100yrd groups none of which were larger than 1.5' C-C. That level of accuracy remained constant for that particular lot# of Core-Lokts.
I had wisely went back to Cabelas and bought all of the Core-Lokt's they had left in that lot#. Once I had exhausted all of those, I bought more.
But I had learned the hard way not to buy any more slugs of any lot# than was needed to shot them to confirm their accuracy. The next lot# of the core-Lokts shot so badly I thought there HAD to be some thing wrong with my Browning A-Bolt or my scope bases or rings had worked loose, my scope had finally failed, or I was simply having a terrible range session. Lucky for me I long ago developed a policy of always bringing with a known accurate load to shoot out of any rifle I own as to always be able to double check said rifle, it's optics and mounting system. I was able to quickly eliminate the rifle, scope and mounting system as the potential cause for the Core-Lokt's accuracy melt down. This left no other possibility but the Core-Lokt's themselves.Mr. Henderson told me he also had the same exact experience with other sabot slugs as well. He was positive the cause of this wildly varying levels of accuracy is caused by inconsistentcies in manufacturing.
He explained to me it is much harder to manufacture shotgun shells in terms of consistantcy than metallic rifle cartridges. It's not the ammo makers fault as much as it's just that difficult.I have also learned that barrel rate of twist is also has a huge impact on which sabot slug will shoot well out of your gun.
My 1 in 28 twist Marlin 512 shoots better with certain sabot slugs than does my 1 in 32 twist A-Bolt. As a matter of some what embarresing fact my Marlin 512 who's MSRP was $349.99 shoots every bit as good as my 1st run A-bolt who's original MSRP was $850. I did have the Marlins muzzles crowned, action bedded and I polished and honed the trigger.To this day I only buy 10 of any sabot slugs and shoot them before I commit to buy more. If they perform acceptably at 100yrds, I then buy more and test at 150, then 200. I use Hornady SST in both my rifled barrel and 21' smoothbore with a 6' rifled choke. They give outstanding performance and accuracy out to 100 yards.
Sub 2' groups with the scoped rifle barrel, and 3' groups with the shorter open sight short smoothbore barrel. I have taken countless hogs with the shorter barrel and about 10 deer with the rifled barrel. I never had to shoot over 100 yards with either one, so I can't attest to their accuracy at 200 yards. They have a devasting effect on both deer and hogs and have never had to shoot more than one shot for a clean kill. The most consistent were the rem core lokts 385 gr, but they have been hard to find in my area for two years. The hornady sst's shoot real good out of my gun if I pick the tight bullet to sabot fits out of the box.
I have got pretty good results with the fed power shok sabot 438 gr also. Dead rising 5 2019. I have found that my gun has a general tendency to shoot the longer bullet/sabot configurations. To bad it doesn't shoot the win partition golds, because I think it is a good bullet.
I can't recall trying the platinum tip or dual bond. I have tried some of the other sabots though like lightfield or win BRI styles, but because their ballistics really aren't suitable for 200 yard shooting, I don't shoot them very much.FOR YOUR ACCURACY ACCURIZING SLUG SHOTGUN KITS FOR CANTILEVER (INTEGRAL) SCOPE BASE SLUG BARRELSMay your hands be warmed on a frosty day. My vote goes for the old Winchester Partition Golds as the top performers I've used based on accuracy and hunting performance.
Started loading their bonded slug I recall those Golds were suppose to be moving at something like 1900fps and were the fastest I recall in that era; see they are a little slower now but I havent used them in a long time. Additionally, back 10 years ago or so when I was using them, my top muzzleloader recipe was with the Nosler partition handgun bullet so I was rather partial to the performance of the Winchester offering in the slug gun. Always sub 2 inches from HR Slugger at 100 yards. I seldom do much shooting past that so can't say anything about 150 yds, etc. And those partition golds killed a number of deer for me; large holes and what I would describe as devastating performance.The Nosler partition had historically out performed the Hornady XTP in my muzzleloader from an accuracy standpoint. But somewhere along the line I wanted more from the muzzleloader and tried the Hornady SST offering which had recently been put on the market for the inlines. I found even better accuracy with that load which caused me to try it in the slug gun.
It also just slightly outperformed the old Win Golds in the accuracy department from my H&R. I still give downrange 'devastation' to the partitions but I've killed a pile of deer with SST's in both the muzzleloader and slug gun. The SST has never failed me in that department. In the grand scheme of things, with either offering you are pushing a heavy pile of copper jacketed lead with lots of energy.
There is no shortage of potential to break thru lots of bones and keep on going and it really doesn't take all that much to kill a whitetail. I do have a concern going forward as I had a multiple year supply of older SST's slugs but I have just used them up. The new SST's that I bought seem to rattle something fierce and I have no idea what to expect from them in the accuracy dept.
I emailed Hornady and they told me not to worry about it but I'm not yet convinced. Find it hard to believe that such a loose fit between bullet and sabot makes for an accurate load. Maybe the fit between the sabot and bore will be fine but if they go all over the board when I test them out I have no idea what I'll switch to????And I'm still shooting SST's in my muzzleloader but I did buy a box of Barnes to try in the gun just for fun later this fall. For me the primary reason to hunt with the slug gun is for convenience. Even with the single shot H&R, it is handy to just jam a 2nd round in if needed and the cleaning process is so much nicer. However, from a pure performance stand point, I lean to the muzzleloader due to the fact that you can build the load you want.
It really annoys me that each lot of slugs seems to be a little different than the last. Its nice that manufacturers keep giving us more choices in loads but there is no guarantee that you favorite load will be around next year or whether it will be loaded identical to years past if it is around.
And who knows if slugs will be like 22 rimfire and all of a sudden not available at all. The most consistent sabot I've shot is also the Worst performer on deer.Remington Copper Solid 12g-2 3/4 (new and old style). Consistent 1-2' groups @ 100 yds from several Slug gun setups.
Fast twist rate or slow twist rifled barrels they just group nicely on paper period. Even better than Accutips and the other newer sabots which are fantastic shooters in the 2' range.BUT.it is a horrible performer on deer. It simply doesn't kill deer very well unless put in the heart or both lungs. This is possible due to its accuracy on still deer and of course they run no further than a bow shot deer as its the same effect. 1/2 ' entrance, 1/2' exit. Anything left or right of perfection as on running deer etc will result in a slow death due to bleeding etc. I have seen 3 deer shot with them, 2 were recovered 1 was not.
1 was shot 3 times in the neck at 40 yds which knocked it out cold and we thought it was dead. When we walked up on it, he stood up and tried to run and was then shot with a fosters 1 ounce in the chest and he fell.Another was a 120lb doe we kicked at 15yds and was shot as she ran/quartering away. Entered behind ribs caught a lung and stopped before leaving brisket. Deer ran and we found her 1/2 hour later alive and had to kill her.Swore never to use them again.had a handful of boxes leftover so I decided to give them another try last year. Shot a walking doe broadside at 75 yds, seen her kick and followed her blood trail about 50 yds.
Into a ticket. Idecided to come back after lunch because I didnt want to kick her up. Came back an hour later and resumed trail, 100 yards into the thicket I kicked her up and she ran/stumbled away. I never found that deer.Although this slug might work well for targets and standing deer where you can ensure shot placement is perfect.It simply isn't a good choice for moving targets unless you are a hell of a shot:)FWIW- the only other slug that is as accurate is now discontinued.The Remingtion buckhammer put 1/2' groups out of my rifled barrels and 2' groups with smooth/rifled choke.IT KNOCKED deer down NOW.and although a fantastic shooting slug from bench it was hard to shoot them in a 6' group at 50 yds due to the extreme recoil.
I'll agree with that Buckhammer as an excellent choice in the past. I used it in my smoothbore Encore with a rifled tube for nasty weather hunting without a roofed blind. For open sights at 50 yards it would stay within a couple of inches which I thought was great. And it knocked down deer with authority but as noted it kicked something fierce. I've switched that rifled tube setup to Lightfield Lites which don't kick, shoot just as accurate but have only killed one critter so dont have much to go with regarding performance.