[GoodOlBoy]

Yup I think that is what it really boils down to. If you are going to shoot buckshot with a shotgun you HAVE to know the gun. This ain't a grab it off a wal-mart shelf and run out and pop a deer with it game. You HAVE to know that gun, and alot of people simply don't. (Present company excluded)

Slugs in smoothbores. Yet again I think familiarity and ignorance have alot to do with the horrid reputation of the accuracy of slugs. Last night I spotted a guy at Wal-Mart buying a box of sabot slugs because his buddy highly recommends them. After bullshitting with him for half an hour I find out he has had cronic accuracy problems with slugs in his shotgun. It winds up boiling down to the following list.

He has a smoothbore shotgun.
His buddy has a rifled bore sluggun.

His buddy is very accurate with sabot slugs (designed for rifled bores), and cant get accuracy with rifled lead slugs (Designed for smooth bores) Therefor the chain of logic was that rifled lead slugs suck and sabots rock, therefore he was advised to buy yet another brand of sabots to try because sabots weren't grouping at all in his smoothbore. I finally talked him into paying $1.97 for a box of 5 rifled lead slugs and get him to try them in HIS smoothbore, not his buddies rifled bore slug gun.

This is a prime example of the problem. So many shooters assume that a slug is a slug is a slug, and if a rifled lead slug sucks in a rifled bore then it sucks in a smooth bore, and if a sabot slug rocks in a rifled bore then it rocks in a smooth bore. Both assumptions of which are false (And we have not even taken the finiky diet problems of various guns into consideration).

Take my home security shotgun example from before. With my 12 guage mossy cylinder choked persuader buckshot has a 3 foot pattern at 15-20 yards! Not what you want to use on a deer (But great for home security). But rifled lead slugs I can nail a 4 inch swinging pan at 75 yards EVERY shot. A buddy of mine bought slugs to shoot it one time and what did he buy? Sabot slugs. He couldn't hit a 10 inch pan at 35 yards with it, much less the 4 inch pan at 75 yards. A smooth bore just does NOT work well with sabot slugs they were not designed for that. For smoothbores rifled lead slugs are decent to great depending on the gun and the range, and smooth lead slugs are piss poor to decent depending on the gun and the range.

IE You HAVE to know your gun, and you HAVE to accept the shotcommings of the shot/slug type that you are shooting in THAT gun in the current enviroment (Be it the shooting range or the deer camp)

Like with all things we cannot assume that what works for one works for another. We can get general ideas! IE buckshot works within its limitations, and very well. Rifled lead slugs work within their limitations and very well. Sabot slugs work within their limitations and very well. And even good old fashioned smooth lead slugs can work decent within their limitations. But none of them is magic medicine. They are only as good as the person using them.

I grew up on shotguns, and am a natural born shotgunner. I prefere them to rifles and pistols (yes even over my 45s!) for everything from hunting to security. Heck I would put my old single shot H&R 20 guage that is 27 years old this year against anybodies anything! Why? Not that it is better than some of the works of art that guys on here have. Not that I am better than they are. But instead because I am familiar with that old gun, I grew up with it, and I accept it just like it accepts me. We know each others shortcommings, and we know each others long shots. Does that mean I am going to win every shot against some of the great shooters we have on here? No. But it means that even if I loose I will do so knowing that I did my best, my old shotgun did its best, the ammo did what it was supposed to, and there is no shame in the lose, and no excuses to be made.

“know thy enemy and know thyself; in a hundred battles you will never
be in peril. When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your
chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy
and of yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril.”

-- The Art of War. Sun Tzu

"Know thy shotgun and know thyself, and in a hundred hunts you will never go hungry. When you are ignorant of the shotgun but know yourself, your chances of eating or starving are equal. If ignorant of both your shotgun and yourself you are certain to starve"
- East Texas GoodOlBoy shotgunner's take on what Sun Tzu said.


GoodOlBoy