[ffs1942]

Not that clueless. Been shooting 50 yrs, but just got a rifled barrel for my Mossberg 500. I got it with irons cuz
I think they are totally OK for deer under 150m. I also think irons will complement the uncanny pointing of the 500, whereas a scope or dot sight would be hard to snap shoot. I got some different 5 packs of slugs by Winchester, Remington, Hornady and Federal for rifled barrels. Some are sabots. I think I even got a pack of Beneke, but wanted to stay with common domestic slugs. I also have a leftover supply of old "punkin (pumpin) balls" i.e. rifled slugs for smoothbores.

1. Can I use punkin balls safely and effectively through my rifled bore just to get on the paper?

2. Is the accuracy of a smoothbore punkin ball enhanced by a rifled barrel, or does it fly wild?

3. What is recommended zero range for a slug gun with rifled barrel?

4. With the M16, we zeroed at the prime ordinate of 25m and this gave us a maximum ordinate of 250m for our zero. What might I use for a close range zero to get a 100 yd zero? Remember my irons hug the bore.

5. What's the max effective range of 12g slugs from a rifled bore?

6. What do you recommend for a zero range? Iowa ranges from dense brush to harvested cornfields.

7. If I needed my shotgun in a civil emergency(about as likely as zombie apocalypse in Iowa) and proper rilfed barrel slugs became scarce, would the short, rifled barrel handle punkin balls or buckshot well or would I be best off putting the long bird barrel back on?

8. What's the best slug for the Mossberg 500's factory option rifled barrel?

TIA
Brian
Des Moines