Will Wrong Slugs Work?

[BulletFactory]

I have a rifled 12 gauge, and I want to know if it;s safe to shoot the cheaper, NON sabot slugs out of it.

[tomme boy]

Yep its fine. It will lead the barrel, and is a pain to clean. But if it shoots them OK, go ahead.

[Blammer]

I've had no ill effects doing that.

[Heavy lead]

I've got a Remington 11-87 with a rifled barrel that shoots Brenneke KO's better than sabot's, way better than it ought too, and it smacks the &^%$ out of deer too.

[mac1911]

should be fine, leading may or may not be a issue. I reload with lee slugs and the wad covers the slug. I get more plastic fouling with sabot style than lead fouling

[grendelbane]

The notion that rifled barrels should use sabot slugs and smooth bores should only shoot Foster style slugs is a relatively recent one. I am not sure when it actually became popular.

It is not correct, as a general rule. Some individual barrels may not shoot some slugs well, but the only way to know that is to actually try them.

I don't have a lot of experience with sabot slugs, but the ones I fired through my smooth bore M1super90 were reasonably accurate, though at 50 yards they were leaving elliptical holes in the target. That didn't make any difference to the paper target, and I am sure it wouldn't to a deer, either.

Try it and see what results you get. If they are good, then it's good. If not, try some thing else.

[TRG3]

In my slug loads, whether it's the Lee, Lyman, or .690 roundball, all are within a Federal S4 or S3 wad and therefore the projectile never touches the inside of the barrel, so leading is not a problem. I do, however, get plastic fouling that comes out with a little solvent and limited scrubbing. Try several different slugs and see what your shotgun likes and go with that.