slug velocity question....

[Mr. 16 gauge]

I bought a 12 gauge Lyman sabot slug mold this past spring, and have loaded up a bunch of slugs and spent this past weekend shooting groups (ouch!).....I have velocities ranging from approximately 1250 fps to 1550 fps (published in the data....I haven't had a chance to run them through a chrony yet). I thought the 1250 fps loads might be too slow, but I always thought that the old 'foster' type slugs from Remington, Federal, and Winchester moved about this fast. I based this on what I remember () the old brochures from the 1970's saying. Anyway, a quick check of current catalogs shows fosters moving at 1700 fps!

No wonder they hurt more than I remember!

Anyway, a couple of the slower numbers were quite a bit more accurate than the faster ones, so my question is: how fast does a 12 gauge slug need to be in order to accomplish it's mission?