Rifled Barrel

[vlt]

Hi,
I have one question.

Can I shoot slug in a Rifled Barrel and is it safe ?

Thanks from Sweden

[Vitaly]

Rifled barrels are good for shooting slugs. They are especially good and accurate with sabot slugs.

[vlt]

Thanks for response, but are the rifled slug barrels made to shoot Sabots & not regular Foster type slugs??

My buddy says that foster slugs will only lead-up my barrel and the accuracy will be very poor after the first shot and can be dangerous to!!??

[BurstBarrel]

Thanks for response, but are the rifled slug barrels made to shoot Sabots & not regular Foster type slugs??

My buddy says that foster slugs will only lead-up my barrel and the accuracy will be very poor after the first shot and can be dangerous to!!??

That is correct. Because your barrel is already rifled there is no need to rifle the slug (Foster type) or it will lead up. Foster type is for smoothbore only.

[Synchronizor]

Thanks for response, but are the rifled slug barrels made to shoot Sabots & not regular Foster type slugs??

Any type of slug can be fired through a rifled barrel. Many types of slugs are designed to self-stabilize in flight without being spun by rifling, so you may not see much improvement in accuracy with them (I'm sure some smoothbore slugs will even show worse performance), but you're not going to hurt anything by trying.

To really get your money's worth out of a rifled barrel though, you will want to use slugs that are intended to be spin-stabilized. Since they don't have to be designed to stabilize themselves (being fat with a hollow base, for example, or having a plastic tail that drags behind to keep them pointing the right way), they can be tuned for far better aerodynamics and terminal performance. These are very commonly called "sabot slugs" - not a completely accurate term since a number of slugs intended for smoothbore barrels also use sabots, but if you hear someone refers to "sabot slugs", 95% of the time they'll be talking about the ones meant for rifled barrels.

My buddy says that foster slugs will only lead-up my barrel and the accuracy will be very poor after the first shot and can be dangerous to!!??

That is correct. Because your barrel is already rifled there is no need to rifle the slug (Foster type) or it will lead up. Foster type is for smoothbore only.

Nah, Foster & other types of smoothbore slugs can be fired in a rifled barrel without a problem. It's pretty obvious why if you stop to think about how rifling in other firearms actually works. It's true that many smoothbore slugs are made from pure or very soft lead, so you may have to clean out some deposits later if you shoot a lot of bare slugs that aren't coated or contained in sabots, but this won't damage anything. These slugs can squeeze through chokes several hundredths of an inch tighter than the barrel bore without causing any unsafe pressures or stresses, so pushing past a little leading won't be an issue. Plus, shotguns run at low pressures that aren't going to be nearly as conducive to leading as something like a .357 Magnum. On top of that, 870 barrels are ridiculiously strong for shotgun barrels.

Also, just to point it out, the "rifling" some slugs have does nothing to spin them during their trip down the barrel. The original intent way back when was for them to impart spin as the slug flew through the air, but this doesn't really work either. The reason we still have "rifled" slugs, is that it helps them squeeze through chokes without becoming overly deformed.

[jkingrph]

Most slug loads that I know of have wads or sabot between the actual slug and the powder/burning gas charge. Which would make any leading strickly a product of friction. Most handgun or rifle lead bullets are subject to much hotter gasses and at a much higher pressure hitting a bare lead bullet base, causing some gas or flame cutting of the lead, vaporizing some lead which will deposit in the barrel. Some bullets have gas checks of copper or brass applied to prevent and help scrape any lead out of the barrel also.

I have a rifled 12 ga barrel and have never noticed any leading, although I do not put that many Fostner slugs through it.