Another choice for you guys. What do you load with?

[John Doe]

Ddupleks Hexolit 32- 2 3/4 12 gauge 1 1/8th oz slug 1400 fps

Ddupleks Dupo 28- 2 3/4 12 gauge 1 oz slug 1460 fps

Winchester Super X- 2 3/4 12 gauge 1 oz slug 1600 fps

Remington Slugger- 2 3/4 12 gauge 7/8 oz slug 1800 fps

Federal Premium Hydra-Shok- 2 3/4 12 gauge 1 oz slug 1610 fps

Brenneke Tactical Home Defense- 2 3/4 12 gauge 1 oz slug 1378 fps

These are the ones I narrowed my choices down to. I have tried a ton of different loads, but I found these work best in my M4 personally. The only one I would say that is a little much is the slugger round, even in the M4 that thing kicks like a mule. I think my favorite out of all these is the Federal Hydra-shok round. The mechanics behind it are great and it is a very soft shooting round for it being a 1oz slug going 1610 fps. I will do some more shooting with these and get it narrowed down, but I am interested in what you guys think. What is your go-to slug and how has it worked for you? Do you use different slugs for different situations? Why did you ultimately pick the slug that you did and does all of it really matter? 

 

[Sukhoi_fan]

I'm high on the Ddupleks Dupo 28 or 32.

You overlooked the sabot rounds. I'm also high on sabot rounds. Non-sabot slugs deposit lead in your bore. Also, rifled slugs gain no advantage in a smooth bore.

https://ammoseek.com/ammo/12-gauge?ikw=sabot

[John Doe]

2 hours ago, Sukhoi_fan said:

I'm high on the Ddupleks Dupo 28 or 32.

You overlooked the sabot rounds. I'm also high on sabot rounds. Non-sabot slugs deposit lead in your bore. Also, rifled slugs gain no advantage in a smooth bore.

https://ammoseek.com/ammo/12-gauge?ikw=sabot

Yeah, I like the Ddupleks, they shoot soft and have been pretty accurate. They also claim that you can shoot them through any type of choke. I have not tested this with anything tighter than IC and I just haven't found the time to call them yet and get clarification on what they mean by ANY choke. But if you can shoot these safely through a full choke they will shoot to the top of my list.

It was my understanding that shooting sabot rounds through a smooth bore is kind of pointless and you lose the potential of the round and that a sabot round through a smooth bore does no better, if not worse, than a rifled slug through the same barrel. I could be wrong, please educate me on the subject if my understanding is incorrect.

[M2_shootr]

I’ve shot quite a few winchesters over the years. I must say I prefer the Federal from what is shown. 

[Sukhoi_fan]

The M1 Abrams has a 120mm smooth bore and shoots sabots to an effective range of 2 km. A barrel full of lead is a PITA even with a stainless tornado brush on a drill, I'll use anything but rifled slugs to avoid having to deal with that. And I don't see how a rifled slug is able to get any spin out of smooth bore so what's the point of having a rifled slug other than possibly pressure relief/gas check?

[Varangian]

1 hour ago, Sukhoi_fan said:

The M1 Abrams has a 120mm smooth bore and shoots sabots to an effective range of 2 km. A barrel full of lead is a PITA even with a stainless tornado brush on a drill, I'll use anything but rifled slugs to avoid having to deal with that. And I don't see how a rifled slug is able to get any spin out of smooth bore so what's the point of having a rifled slug other than possibly pressure relief/gas check?

https://www.theboxotruth.com/threads/the-box-o-truth-46-shotgun-slugs-sabots-and-smooth-bore-barrels.381/

[StrangerDanger]

My M4 sits ready loaded with Hexolit32's. Its primary role for the past decade has been for bear problems. They'd be great for folding a skinwalker in half if you sprinkle white ash on them.

Kind of a funny story, we have like 28 4K cameras around the property all hard wired into a NVR with a bunch of data storage. One of the cameras is mounted at the public road facing down the street. These are paved roads but just wide enough for a single car to drive and have a mix of Ponderosa pines 120' in height mixed with oaks that enclose the road. It is extremely dark since most of the sky is occluded by the tree cover. Very few have any active porch lights on and there are very few houses out here to begin with. I was sitting at the computer at night, and a secondary laptop runs the camera feeds to my right. I notice some movement on the camera mentioned and double click it to bring that view full screen. On the screen at night in black and white IR is this buck mule deer with an impressive rack right in front of the camera standing on its back legs walking slowly towards the camera. Like it was squared up with the camera. Its front legs were bowed out like the pictures of kangaroo's you see ready to beat some ass. In the IR light, deer eyes reflect light back so its eyes looked like they were glowing. Its fur was all messed up like it had been in a fight, or maybe it had that deer wasting disease. It felt like it was standing there for five seconds squared up but it was probably a lot shorter. I wish I had saved at least a picture of it. For that split second that I thought skinwalkers might be a real thing, I was reaching for the Benelli.

The Hexolit32's are amazingly low recoil full powered slugs. I shot some old 1950's steel car doors and they whistled right on thru into the cab. If you clipped any of the supporting frame, they'd deflect and pool ball their way into the cab.

[John Doe]

7 hours ago, Varangian said:

https://www.theboxotruth.com/threads/the-box-o-truth-46-shotgun-slugs-sabots-and-smooth-bore-barrels.381/

Great article. So what I have learned before reading this is basically being upheld. Sabot slugs are kinda pointless in a smooth bore.

8 hours ago, Sukhoi_fan said:

The M1 Abrams has a 120mm smooth bore and shoots sabots to an effective range of 2 km. A barrel full of lead is a PITA even with a stainless tornado brush on a drill, I'll use anything but rifled slugs to avoid having to deal with that. And I don't see how a rifled slug is able to get any spin out of smooth bore so what's the point of having a rifled slug other than possibly pressure relief/gas check?

You should read this article Sukhoi_fan, it has some really good information on the subject. If not, then here is the conclusion of the evaluation of the sabot slugs in a smooth bore and rifled slugs as well.

 

Lessons learned:
 

1. Sabot slugs in a rifled barrel are very accurate.
2. Shooting sabot slugs through a smooth bore is a waste of money. They will "work" but accuracy suffers and there is no reason to spend the extra money for sabot slugs if you are going to shoot them through a smooth bore. Besides, if they are not flying straight and nose-first, they will not expand as designed.
3. Different shotguns "like" different loads. Just like rifles and pistols. You must try different loads to find what your gun "likes".
4. Shooting a non-sabot rifled slug through a rifled barrel can cause them to shoot into very nice groups.
5. When we got home and cleaned the rifled barrel, the five non-sabot, rifled slugs had not really deposited any lead that we could notice. The barrel cleaned-up sparkling clean very easily.
6. It's fun to shoot stuff.

[John Doe]

11 hours ago, M2_shootr said:

I’ve shot quite a few winchesters over the years. I must say I prefer the Federal from what is shown. 

Yeah the Super X's are nice and seem to be a solid cartridge. My shotgun loves them and they shoot true. They are nowhere as bad as the Remington Sluggers, but they definitely have some heat behind them. 

[John Doe]

6 hours ago, StrangerDanger said:

For that split second that I thought skinwalkers might be a real thing, I was reaching for the Benelli.

What do you mean sir? Skinwalkers are a real thing and a good dose of slugs is the medicine needed to rid yourself of them. Having them sprinkled with a little holy water and a cross etched on the top of the slug does wonders as well. 😛