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Old November 27, 2014, 12:53 AM   #1
baddarryl
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Effective Range of 20ga slug?

Hi all. I am thinking of getting a youth 20ga for my kids and bambi. I already have a .243, but need 2 guns to hunt with for them. How much range would a 3 inch 20ga slug be lethal for?

Also my understanding is you can use them through normal barrells as long as it is not a full choke. Is that correct?

Thank you.
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Old November 27, 2014, 07:23 AM   #2
SARuger
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I trust my 20ga 870 with a Remington rifled/cantilevered barrel to 75yds. Its accurate well past that with Hornady SST sabot slugs but you really start losing that knockdown power for a quick kill. I also like the Federal Fusion 3" sabot slugs but thats gonna have a good bit of kick for a young/small kid to shoot. Note that sabot slugs are not cheap!! Hornady's are selling for $13 a box of 5 local

If you stay with a smooth bore and shoot rifled slugs it will be cheaper but a good bit less accurate. Use an "improved" choke for a smooth bore and rifled slugs.

Good luck to you! My 13yo son hunts deer with a 20ga Rossi single shot. I noticed that Gander has them on sale today for $130! Thats a cheap way to get your kid in the woods and spend time with them

My 870;
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Old November 27, 2014, 08:00 AM   #3
Virginian
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The slug will do the job at 100 yards, but the gun and the shooter have to be able to put the slug in the right place. In my experience, you have to find the right combination of choke and slug for best performance. I have seen a smoothbore fixed modified choke barrel shoot excellent groups at 150 yards and a bead sight. I could get 8" groups - about twice as bad as the owner. That was with standard Remington rifled slugs. I have never seen another smoothbore combination that was anywhere close to that one.
Eons ago, I had a Mossberg 20 bolt action, and with the C-Lect choke set between IC and Modified, that thing was an excellent slug gun with standard Winchester slugs out to 75 yards. With Remington slugs I wouldn't have trusted it to 50 yards, and with Federal maybe 60. That was the only thing I ever found that gun was good for.
Good luck.
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Old November 27, 2014, 08:03 AM   #4
riflemen
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If you can swing around $500 the savage 220 is about the best option, IMO With hornady sabots figure 75 yards easily..
youth models are around $460 on gunbroker
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Old November 27, 2014, 12:58 PM   #5
Bella
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75 yards? The same effective range as the 45 acp?
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Old November 27, 2014, 05:37 PM   #6
SARuger
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I'm hunting in heavy brush, not open fields. A 75yrd shot is long when that slug is barreling through tree limbs/leaves/briars. The heavy brush is why I use a slug gun and not a rifle.
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Old November 27, 2014, 10:10 PM   #7
TimSr
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For Ohio sized deer:

My son started with a 20 gauge 870 Youth Model. You can shoot slugs in any choke, but they are usually more accurate, the more open the choke. My son shot through an improved cylinder choke.

Slugs lose speed quickly, and the 20 gauge is good for about 75 yds max with full size slugs. Shoot full size rifled slugs in smooth bores. Sabots are for rifled barrels, and are a lot lighter, which give you a little more reach to 100+ yards.

Try several different slug brands to see what shoots most accurate and at the height closest to your sights. After 7 boxes of slugs, we settled on Brenneke Heavy Field Short Magnum 2 3/4" slugs which performed far more accurately in his gun than the others, and was acceptable for the whole 75 yard range.

The 3" magnums gain more recoil than velocity, and I'd stay away from them for kids. For smooth bores you're better off basing ammo choice on what shoots in the gun best.
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Old November 28, 2014, 01:08 AM   #8
Water-Man
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Take a look at the Remington 870 Express Combo. I've had one for seven years and have found it to be both versatile and dependable.
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Old November 28, 2014, 01:12 AM   #9
JD0x0
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Quote:
How much range would a 3 inch 20ga slug be lethal for?
I think a slug will be lethal out way past it's usable range.


I believe the limiting factor would actually be the accuracy of the gun and the skill of the shooter, not the 'lethality' of the slug. Slugs will start dropping like rocks because of their fairly poor ballistic coefficients.

Also, depending on how accurate the load/gun is, past a certain range, your groups will be too large to effectively and humanely harvest an animal. If you can only manage 3'' groups @ 100 yards, 200 yards your groups will be at least twice as large.

I'd say a slug could be lethal past 400 yards pretty easily, if it hit the right spot. The trouble would be getting it into that specific spot.

Most shotguns and the people operating them, will not be able to shoot past 100 yards.


Just to put it into perspective. A 250 grain SST 20ga slug will cross the sound barrier @ roughly 250 yards. That means the slug still has more mass and velocity (and therefore energy) @ 250 yards, than a .45ACP +P+ load has at the muzzle..

560 yards the slug is traveling about 830FPS
That's the speed of a standard .45ACP military load, at the muzzle, still with 20 more grains of bullet mass...
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Old November 29, 2014, 09:29 AM   #10
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You can be the only judge of that. The maximum range of any round is the longest range that you or whoever is the shooter, can put 10 out of 10 in a target the size of a deers vitals. I hunt with a guy who regularly takes deer with his 20 at ranges out to 175 yards or so. He has a lot of range time under his belt, and nothing survives a 20 ga. slug through both lungs. On the other hand, my son-in-law can't hit a moose with a rifle at 45 yards. He proved that last year.
It's all up to the shooter. I have 2 sub-moa target rifles. In my son-in-law's hands, they are 6 minute rifles at best.
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Old November 29, 2014, 11:11 AM   #11
jmr40
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Buy your kids another 243, or even 223. Even 20 ga slugs recoil a LOT more from lightweight guns. Yea, they'll kill deer, but why handicap them when there are better options. Most of those guns are in the 5-6 lb class and will generate 30-06 recoil levels to young shooters.

The rifles are much more accurate and lethal, ammo is much less expensive leading to more practice and the significantly reduced recoil will make them better shots.
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