shotgun slug for elk?

[jwroberts]

Anyone ever hunt elk with a slug?  I stumbled upon a local herd in a farmers field where I have permission to hunt deer with my bow.  For the last two nights I have watched about 20 come out of the trees with my binos at about 200 yards.  I haven't been able to count the points yet but there is one big bull in the group.  They come out with about 10 minutes of shooting time left, graze for awhile and then lay down.  Too close to other houses for rifle hunting but I was thinking about buying a barrel for my shotgun to hunt with a slug.  My wife has a rifle tag and this would be a great opportunity for her, especially since we won't have to deal with other people.  Any ideas on good barrels and slugs would be appreciated.

[bigbeamhunter]

they work good

[jwroberts]

any suggestions on slugs?  this will be brand new for me and I have no idea what is available, what is good, etc

[demontang]

You know a slug goes almost as far as a bullet out of a rifle and the ricochet farther.

If you are going to us a slug look toward the Hornady's or Winchesters. They shot great out to a couple hundred yards:twocents:

hornady's around $11.99 for 5


Winchester's are on sale for $11.99 at cabela's

[jwroberts]

Is there a slug that does not travel as far?  I am trying to find something that is safe.  My wife has a rifle tag but we don't want to use a rifle in this area.  I know there are some guys that muzzleload hunt in this unit but I have never done that and don't think I am comfortable trying to get my wife set up with it.  I was going to try to get one of these elk with my bow then I realized the unit is not open in late archery and my wife is not an archery hunter.  Thanks for the help 

[robb92]

I would check out the lightfield slugs: http://www.lightfieldslugs.com/lightfield/ecatalog/index.cfm?id=2
I use them here in Maryland and VA since where I hunt is shotgun only. They work good. They run about 10 bucks for 5 of them.

[tmike]

That's a great question and I was going to ask the same thing. How about shotguns themselves? 200 yards is way beyond what I would need to shoot. The only guns I have are a Rem 1100 with a 28 inch full, and a 26 Mod barrel. This only takes 2 3/4 shells. Then I have a mossberg 22 inch turkey gun with a turkey choke. Can any of these be effective? or do you shotgun slug guys use something else? robb92 what do use for a shotgun?

[demontang]

Buck shot might be an option if you can get a closer shot If you do go with a slug make sure you have a good back stop. They make low recoil slug that move slower but its not by much, if you dont think its safe go with the buck and If you are careful and watch the back ground you will be fine.

[Rick]

Buck shot might be an option if you can get a closer shot

Buckshot isn't legal for Elk.

[taylorpz]

That's a great question and I was going to ask the same thing. How about shotguns themselves? 200 yards is way beyond what I would need to shoot. The only guns I have are a Rem 1100 with a 28 inch full, and a 26 Mod barrel. This only takes 2 3/4 shells. Then I have a mossberg 22 inch turkey gun with a turkey choke. Can any of these be effective? or do you shotgun slug guys use something else? robb92 what do use for a shotgun?

Depends on how much you want to spend.  I think your Mossberg would be the better bet (depending on brand).  You can get a rifled barrel for it:

http://www.mossberg.com/products/access.asp?type=barrels&section=access

and then use smooth slugs (like the Winchester Supreme Elite in the above message).  That would also give you the advantage of a barrel with integral rifle sights, rather than trying to rely on a bead sight, which would probably be the greatest limit on your effective range, not ballistics.  Or you can get a barrel with a scope base and then throw a scope on there, with the advantages that offers.

If you want to keep the cost down, you can back the turkey choke out of your existing barrel (I would be concerned about the constriction of a super choke like that) and putting in just a plain vanilla cylinder choke.  Plenty of ammo makers have slugs that have integral rifling in order to impart a bit of stablilizing spin.  You'll still have to decide how you're going to handle the sighting issue.

Plenty of good slugs available in 2 3/4" shells.

About the max range issue between a rifle and slug gun, here's an interesting article with actual data (it comes down to angle and surface):  http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BQY/is_11_53/ai_n20512665

[robb92]

I have a mossberg 500 slugster, it shoots 2 3/4 to 3 inch. I also have another 500 that also shoots 2 3/4 and 3 inch with a smooth bore and I take the choke out and shoot rifled slugs through it. I have a scope on the slugster and the scope mounts to the side if the reciever with the actual scope sitting about an inch above the top of the reciever so that if the scope is knocked out of allignment I can still use the sites on the barrell, its nice because I can change the barrels out without having to take the scope off. The rifled slugs I use are made by breaneke they run about 2 dollars for a box of 5 but they work really really good, when I was on the deer team here on base we were shooting out to 150 yards with the rifled slugs and out past 200 yards with the lightfields, in 6 months we took over 50 deer out of the area between the runways. 

Your turkey gun with the choke removed will work just fine for shooting rifled slugs.


This is a pic of the breaneke slugs I use:
http://images.wholesalehunter.com/prodpics/brenpicsl-122sus-1210822.jpg

This is the scope mount I use:

http://images.outdoorinteractive.net/mgen/295865_d.jpg
It was really easy to install and wasn't really spendy.

I have about 20 boxes of breaneke slugs out on the metal box in my truck, wish I lived closer I could give you a couple of them to try out. i will have to find some pics of the impact shots from the slugs.

[tmike]

For about $200 I could get a slug barrel. My Mossberg 535 Ultra Mag has a 24 inch barrel not 22 like I said before. It says right on it "not for use with slugs" Now I'll have to get an attorney to interpret the game regs. to see what I can put on it and when and where exactly I can use it. One would think in a firearm restricted area you could, but sometimes the cities have ordinances that restrict it beyond just no center fire. A scoped, rifled shotgun would be very nice option to have.

[robb92]

Walmart had the 500 slugster for 170 bucks. I would look into it, also NEF also has a single shot 12 gauge that has a rifled barrell for around the same price.

[BULLBLASTER]

i think muzzle load would be the way to go, since your hunting the rifle season you can use a scope and a sealed primer rifle that uses the 209 primer and jacketed bullets almost as good as rifle, but the reload time is longer.

[tmike]

"i think muzzle load would be the way to go"     That's probably the way I will go, but was thinking having multiple shots would be nice if needed. I can put a scope on the ML too. I'm just exploring my options.

[CP]

There has been a lot of discussion on ML board on the legality of scopes, 209 primers, etc on muzzleloaders during modern season.  I don’t know what legal and what’s not but don’t make any assumptions.

Personally I’d go with this:

http://www.ithacagun.com/deerslayer3.html

[Curly]

i think muzzle load would be the way to go, since your hunting the rifle season you can use a scope and a sealed primer rifle that uses the 209 primer and jacketed bullets almost as good as rifle, but the reload time is longer.

Can't use 209 primer and jacketed bullets legally in WA, even during modern.

CP is right......there has been lots of discussion re: what is legal with ML.  Basically, the RCW says if you use ML it must follow all the same rules as set for ML during ML season.  It stinks.

[BULLBLASTER]

i think muzzle load would be the way to go, since your hunting the rifle season you can use a scope and a sealed primer rifle that uses the 209 primer and jacketed bullets almost as good as rifle, but the reload time is longer.

Can't use 209 primer and jacketed bullets legally in WA, even during modern.

CP is right......there has been lots of discussion re: what is legal with ML.  Basically, the RCW says if you use ML it must follow all the same rules as set for ML during ML season.  It stinks.

i stand corrected... that has to be the stupidest thing i have read this week. GREAT JOB WDFW AS USUAL!!!!!!! in that case i would have to get out the trusty 45-70 or other gun that lobs a slow big heavy bullet.

[demontang]

brain fart I was thinking about deer . I would buy a new slug barrel for my shot gun and use the low recoil rounds if it was me.