y'all school me on hunting with slugs.....

place nearby I've thought about trying to kill a deer, but they only allow bow, muzzleloader or shotgun with slugs. I don't really want to buy another gun right now, but my shotguns all have smooth barrels, I don't have a rifled slug barrel.

What is a realistic range of a 12ga slug out of a smooth barrel, and is there a specific type of slug I'd need to shoot?

Let me rephrase the question a little bit....

In a perfect world, I'd like to use my old turkey gun...it's a Winchester 1300 with a 24" barrel and fiberoptic rifle sights (Williams Fire Sights). The places where I'd be hunting would offer shots probably no more than 50-75yds.

Could I reasonably expect to be able to hit vitals on a deer at that range, with open sights, out of a smooth barrel...................or is that gonna be a stretch?

Need improved cylinder for slugs. At least a screw in rifled choke,better still a dedicated rifled barrel. Yes I love spending your money. You can hit a deer with smoothbore at your ranges just not as accurately as a rifled barrel.

A rifles choke will help a little. If you invested in a rifled barrel, it’d make a world of difference. I have an 870 with rifled barrel. That plus Remington accutip slugs and I’m confident to about 150yds. After that it’s iffy. Without any rifling on the choke or barrel your basically chunking lead like a knuckle ball and it will be all over the place.

The old school foster rifled slug out of IC choke may get you there. Most of the modern slugs are specific to rifled barrels or chokes and don't do diddly in a smoothbore. The Foster slugs were designed a 100 years ago (+or- 10 business days) for smoothbore.

For what a rifled barrel for my gun would cost, I could probably just buy an 870 slug gun.

Gomer, just get to within 30 yards & pop 'em in the head with a Longbeard

Gomer, I do t remember where I got the slug barrel for my Winchester but it was $125. It’s a 24” rifles barrel and it shoots great. I haven’t shot it in years. Let me ponder on it a few days. I may hook you up with it.
It also has the iron sights on it.

Ive got 3, all 870's but one needs to be drilled an tapped. I shoot remingtons and hornadys and they both shoot inside a half dollar at 150yrds. All mine have fully riflled barrels.

It's always amazed me how a 3-inch rifled choke tube screwed into the muzzle can so radically and greatly alter the flight of a 1-ounce (or greater) hunk of lead after it's whizzed through 24 or more inches of a pipe.

I've shot slugs out of a smooth bore improved cylinder. They would group somewhere on an old refrigerator at 40-50 yards.

Win 1300 Black Shadow was my Turkey gun for many years. Bought a rifled barrel for it, was good for 125 yards for me. I think you can get a rifled barrel for n o more than $165 and well worth it. Is your gun scoped?

Cheapest I've found a barrel is $250ish (not counting shipping). And no, not scoped, and prefer to keep it with rifle sights so not really interested in shooting beyond 100yds. There are other things I want/need to spend money on so this won't be one of them. Just trying to figure out if I could realistically make it work with what I've got.

My family has a small (11 acres) property that i can legally hunt with a rifle, but I choose to hunt with a slug gun.

I use an old beat around 870, with a barrel cut off to 18.5" and a cylinder bore and a red dot. I am consistently getting 3" groups at 50 yards with any slugs tested, but it actually likes the cheap Herters (Cabela's) slugs best for accuracy (around 2" groups at 50) the next best is the old classic Remington sluggers. pick up a few different boxes of slugs, take them to the range and see what your gun likes best and use the most open choke you've got. Most slugs are designed to give the best accuracy out of an IC choke, but will still give good accuracy all the way up to Modified.

Edit to add, for smooth bore don't try to go with any of the sabot style slugs. they are all designed for rifled bores and will give very disappointing accuracy from a smooth bore, as well as being considerably more expensive. just stick with a traditional Foster or Brenneke style.

Gomer ive bought whole slug guns for that...most rifle barrels ive bought were from pawn shops for around $50-75..alot of people buy guns an they have rifled barrels so they pawn them to getem some money...and in reality they are bout useless unless you have a gun set up for the barrel...like me..i got abarrel to put on my spare 20ga 870...not drilled..so no way to put a scope on it and an sights as it meant to be a dedicated scoped slug gun ..so..its usless as anything but a slug gun. Most folks like to double their gun as a dove/turkey an cant do that with the slug set tup especially..like mine.

Get a box of shells and rattle a few down the barrel.

Prob so but it’s worth it. I bout an 870 slug gun completely set up for $275. Looked kinda rough till I got Gundoc to cerakote it.

CVA single shot, rifled barrel.

Thank me later.

i bought a slug barrel with the cantilver mount on it. The scope stays mounted onto the barrel. Just swap out the barrel and your good to go. I feel confident out to 100 with mine, but forums say good to 150 or so.