Hunting with shotgun slugs ??

[Ds J]

Hi Folks,

How often are slugs used for hunting in SA? Is it even legal?

In the US it seems to be common practice but I have not heard of a local hunter using slugs, except sometimes for bush pig.

[Againstthegrains]

You are correct as far as I know. I think its popular in countries like Greece that prohibit center fire rifles, but allow shotguns.

[Treeman]

Slugs, first think comes to mind  .. ?    accuracy- what ya wanting ? Golf ball grouping- gonna battle mate past 2o meter, a big orange sized group at 50 m is really good to go when it comes to hunting bushbuck, warthog,duiker, pretty much same range and animal as you would hunt with # 1 or AAA   shot you can hunt with slugs. ONCE U FOUND A SLUG THAT WORKS FOR YOU
This kind of bush bushpig/buck duiker hunt is still prevailent in the EastCape coastal forest. Usually with dogs.

[Ds J]

How about slugs in choked barrels? Can it be done, or should one rather use a dedicated slug barrel?

Some slugs obtain close to 1MOA over 100m.

And how much do they penetrate under field conditions?

I realised how little I know about it.

[oafpatroll]

I have a 6 different slug molds and went deep down the rabbit hole of load development for them.

The best is from a Russian company called Svarog. It's a prefragmented hollow point of 560ish grains that you screw to the base of a wad to provide drag stabilization. They drag stabilise and are accurate enough out of my Mossberg 18.5 inch semi auto that I use a 1.75-5 WA scope on it when playing at the range.

I can easily hold a side plate sized group at 80m shooting offhand with them. At 50m with a rest they are around golf ball sized. My mate does even better than that with them out of a dedicated 24 inch slug barrel on his 870 Wingmaster

Re chokes, whether you can or should shoot slugs through them depends on a few things. They include

• the alloy with pure lead being more forgiving than harder stuff
• the construction of the slug with full bore thick walled being unforgiving by comparison to sub bore with driving bands
• effect on accuracy, with an increase in constriction not directly correlating with an improvement

Svarog Sveroboy slug on Jannock wad base. This is the version cast with the fragmenting base pin. There is also a non fragmenting base pin that throws a plain hollow point of approx 590gr. Note the 'driving bands' which are near full bore and would swage relatively easily.





Powder coated which eliminates leading in the gas system



The launcher with an ancient Tasco WA



Before roll crimping



Svarog on left with a sub bore Lee 1oz on the right for comparison.

[Ds J]

Brandewyn en buskruit mieks mos nie

Thanks a lot!

It simply means that it is doable, and that it will work.

How much damage does it do to meat?

[oafpatroll]

Brandewyn en buskruit mieks mos nie

Thanks a lot!

It simply means that it is doable, and that it will work.

How much damage does it do to meat?

Indeed! I have a 30+ year old rule that I can do anything reloading related as long as it doesn't include powder, primers or molten lead.

While there are 5 wound track with the segmented version of the sveroboy slug damage on pigs was not excessive. Friends who I have supplied both types to prefer the non-segmented version which when cast from range scrap stays in one piece at 1400-1500fps but opens up like an ashtray.

My rule of thumb for slugs and chokes is that if I can't tap it through the choke with a dowel and a panel pin hammer I don't want to shoot it. Probably unnecessarily conservative but I'm not in the movie of buggering up my bird gun so that i can take a potshot at a piggy. 

[223]

I have only hear good thing about the Svarog prefragmentated slug in terms of accuracy.  Whether you want the expansion or fragmentation depends on the job at hand.  For edible game, a non-expanding slug might be preferable.

In my limited experience with lead slugs that contact the barrel, they tend to smear a lot of lead in a barrel.  Powder coating should sort that out beautifully.

My personal preference is for the Lee slugs, 7/8oz first and 1oz second.  They group better than I can shoot off-hand with a normal front bead sight.

With fixed chokes, slugs that can fit through with moderate resistance should be fine.
I would not try that with a screw-in choke tube.  They could possibly expand and weld themselves to the barrel threads.  Just remove a screw-in choke tube when shooting slugs.

[Tripodmvr]

Have a look the damage.

[Treeman]

I have only hear good thing about the Svarog prefragmentated slug in terms of accuracy.  Whether you want the expansion or fragmentation depends on the job at hand.  For edible game, a non-expanding slug might be preferable.

In my limited experience with lead slugs that contact the barrel, they tend to smear a lot of lead in a barrel.  Powder coating should sort that out beautifully.

My personal preference is for the Lee slugs, 7/8oz first and 1oz second.  They group better than I can shoot off-hand with a normal front bead sight.

With fixed chokes, slugs that can fit through with moderate resistance should be fine.
I would not try that with a screw-in choke tube.  They could possibly expand and weld themselves to the barrel threads.  Just remove a screw-in choke tube when shooting slugs.

************************
Powder coating slugs may just change my opinion in regard to slugs.
The screw in choke advice is very sound advice.

[Ds J]

Have a look the damage.

The damage is clear  - once off and direct, just as one would prefer.

Which shotgun is that, and at what distance was the shot taken?

[Tripodmvr]

Australian hunter using dogs to bay the pigs. Normal shots would be at 10 to 15 metres.

[Treeman]

Look! - there is no doubt about the effectiveness of a slug if it hits target, elephants have been shot with them. If you have ever shot a slug into any media be it a drum of water or a block of wood, you would be a believer, its just that, "repeatable ability" to put the bullet where you want it every time at any range past throwing rocks ability that rocks the lethal image a bit.

[JamesNotBond]

In Europe, places I have been, you may almost freely use a shotgun as a "shot" dispensing gun. The use of slugs seems either prohibited or just agreed upon as not done. The people seem to accept the challenges of hunting pretty much in people's backyard and all work with a common goal of not messing it up.

[Methos]

In Europe, places I have been, you may almost freely use a shotgun as a "shot" dispensing gun. The use of slugs seems either prohibited or just agreed upon as not done. The people seem to accept the challenges of hunting pretty much in people's backyard and all work with a common goal of not messing it up.

Hi

In our previous village here in France we hunt in a National Park. The areas where we hunt is huge and we sometimes have huge distances between us. Hunting with shotguns is not going to work for every type of terrain. We do sometimes have a "Poste a fusuil" A shotgun spot. It is normally a spot where a animal trail comes out of the bush and quite often they shoot the boars at less than 5m.

Our old village have mostly olive trees and open fields near the village.
In our new village - only 20km from the old one we are in a much more agricultural area - because we are on the north side of the mountain range, leading to much more rain. Apple orchards, pear etc everywhere. Houses are closer to each other and lots of small parcels with road between them.

In the new village we do only 2 or 3 driven hunts per season - when the boars have become a problem. We are standing around a piece of "forest" with brambles and trees. Sometimes less than 100m by 100m and we are 10 people on posts and 2 trackers - dog handlers. We, the post guys are only allowed to shoot with shotguns, with slugs. We can't even use SSG's or something like that. Only 2 departments in France are allowed to use "Bok haal". The trackers are allowed to use rifles to protect the dogs. Shots over 25m are rare for the guys on posts.

I did some tests with my over and under shotgun and slugs. They slugs are quite cheap €10 for 10. At 30m I can place 3 shots in about an orange sized target. The thing to get used to is lead. If you hunt with a 308 one day and a shotgun the next day there is quite a difference. I recently ordered a red dot sight for the shotgun as well.

As I mentioned on Gunsite - the hunting culture is completely different here. I drop of my daughter for school, drive 800m and set up my decoys and shoot crows. In SA the police would be called. Here they wave at you when they drive by. It is not weird driving to and from work and see an old guy with a shotgun walking between the orchards taking shots at rabbits and birds.

Almost none of the fields are fenced off. The owner can ask that there is no hunting on his fields but it quite a process. So you walk over private fields and shoot safely.

Last week a tracker that I hunt with took part in a "Battue Administrative" A driven hunt organised by the local Government. Turns out that a some rich guy bought quite a big farm - with no fences and forbade hunting on his farm. The boars loves it! They have shelter and under the cover of night they wander away from there and cause havoc on the surrounding farms. All damage caused by big animals (boar, roe deer and red deer) gets paid for buy the hunting federation of that department - that is why we pay €205 per year.

So enough people complained, they went to the local government and they got the document to do a hunt. They hunters were called and they all went to the farm, with 3 Police cars with them. The Police served the document to the land owner. They told him that till the hunt is over it is not his farm any more.

They posted the hunters, let the dogs out and in 2 hours shot 22 pigs and then they left. C'est comme ça. It is like that