Effective Range for Slugs

[Jeff82]

I've been mulling over the idea of getting a double barrel coach gun, similar to what people use for Cowboy Action Shooting. 18-inch barrel with cylinder bore and bead sights.

I was wondering if such a set up could hit 12-inch targets 100-yards when using slugs. My guess is that with bead sights and an 18-inch barrel this might be about 30-yards too far out.

Can anybody give me some advice on this?

Thanks,

--Jeff

[ovendoctor]

might be a stretch sense side by side shot guns tend to cross paths of travel
my over under shoots 1 barrel on the money and the other 2' to the left at 50 yards
don't know why it does but it does

Doc.

[longbow]

As ovendoctor points out, it is likely that barrels will shoot to different points of impact. That can be adjusted some by filing the muzzles at a bit of an angle... not something you want to do with a prized gun I don't think. I have not tried this myself but have been told it works and read posts on the subject. Maybe worth looking into if there is a problem.

As for accuracy. that depends on gun and slug. I can get some pretty nice groups at 100 yards with plain old round balls but there tends to be a high percentage of fliers due to random spin from air drag.

Brenneke, Gualandi and other attached wad slugs should give tighter than 12" groups at 100 yards and some say they have gotten considerably smaller groups with Lee and Lyman sabot slugs shot from smoothbores.

I have had several factory slugs produce groups of 6" +/- a bit at 100 yards from my Browning BPS with smoothbore slug barrel. I have not had such success using home cast and loaded slugs so far. Still working on it!

I think the 12" or smaller group is doable from a single barrel but maybe not from both barrels of a side by.

Longbow

[1Shirt]

If your intent is to shoot slugs at 100, get a slug gun with rifle sights and forget a short bbl double!
1Shirt!

[longbow]

Yeah, 1Shirt makes a valid point as well. Even if both barrels shoot to the same point and even if you get slugs that will group 12" or better from a good gun, chances are that with just bead sights you will not get very good long range accuracy. Good rifle sights do make a big difference.

Longbow

[dverna]

I have a gun like that (Baikal) with shortened barrels and it is a great Cowboy Action gun. The triggers are awful but the gun is easy to handle. It would be my last choice as a slug gun. Not saying it will not work, but there are better choices. Actually - far better choices. A gun made for close encounters will not be the best for what you want to do.

Be aware that a light fast handling gun will have the draw back of high recoil unless you load the slugs down in velocity.

[junkbug]

I have thought of doing that for years. I just don't like cylinder chokes though. If the offered them with improved cylinder, I might buy one some day. It is the only way to find out if it works.

The baikal is plain enough, you could just make a rear sight out of a bit of epoxy near the end of the rib, and file a notch in it. Still a great buck shot thrower also. If slugs dont do well, try round balls.

Enjoy, if you buy. Realistically, I see a 50 to 70 yard gun, like you say. You also have a very curved trajectory to deal with, not to mention the converging barrels.

[Artful]

I took a LEO shotgun class and with a 870 with dot sight we were hitting man size targets in the vitals every shot at 100 and lobbing them in from 200 with 40+ percent hits in vitals and 70% on target somewhere. I don't think I would choose to use it that far unless I had too but it was a heck of a learning experience.

[Jeff82]

Artful,

That must have been a heck of a class. When I was in the academy we basically trained by shooting skeet with the 870 and were shown how to skip buckshot. Really, not much valuable training. Part of my reason for trying to find a use for a short-barrel shotgun is to make up for my lack of training/experience with combat shotguns, and just because I think CAS coach guns are cool.

[Artful]

Oh, we did about 6-8 boxes of bird shot and 1 box of mixed slugs and buck on day 1, that was enough for me to go after class and purchase a PAST recoil pad at nearest store.
Coolest part was on second day the moving target and driving and shooting section. Some of the best money to be spent is LEO firearms classes - Local community college has one of the
simulators - uses a compressed air powered glock pistol - and the instructor can change the action from the laser disc - cool stuff.

[BoolitBill]

My experience with a short barreled Stoger was that I could not consistently hit a man sized target at 50 yds with slugs. My mossberg with an 18 inch barrel and rifle sights would hit the chest area on a man sized target consistently. The only way I could hit the target every time with the short barreled coach gun at 50 yds was to use buckshot.