[theblakester]

To answer the OP simply, rifled barrels on shotguns are still shotguns, because of the ballistic coefficients of the projectiles. Even with a rifled barrel, a sabot slug can't reach out and touch something like a rifle can.

The rifling on a rifled barrel creates spin of the projectile. This helps with accuracy. Rifled slugs from a smooth bore barrel are less accurate than sabot slugs from a rifled barrel. However they are both shotgun slugs and will not reach out to rifle distances due the to poor ballistic coefficients of the heavy short wide projectile of a slug. After 150 yards, the trajectory of sabot slugs (or any shotgun round) really start slowing and dropping off. After 200 yards they begin to lose a lot of accuracy and will drop to the ground. My dad lives in a community that sells lots in 22 acre increments. Because of the size and rectangular shape of these properties, hunters are limited to shotguns and pistols on them. Rifle bullets will travel faster, straighter and longer creating a risk that the projectile will travel across multiple properties and potentially hurt or kill a neighbor. Shotgun rounds, rifled slugs or sabot slugs, will not do that when shot at the same angle of said rifle shot because the round is heavier, slower, shorter, and fatter, gravity pulls it to the ground faster.