HORNADY SST SABOT SLUGS

[Chas062]

I have been reading great things about these slugs in magazine advertisements such as sighted in at 3in high at 100 yards dead on at 200. 2000 fps and 1900 foot pounds of energy at 200 yards, Unfortunately I cant find any of these in the stores, has anyone tried these yet and how do you like them.

[jjw]

I have heard of them, but have not seen or shot them. I have a hard time believing dead on at 200 with a shotgun slug. I may be wrong, but I dont buy it.

[Chas062]

News Flash

My son just purchased these bullets in a Gander Mountain store in Newburgh, New York, he is coming home this week and we will test them, let you know more latter

[IndianaHunter]

I have some on order as well. I will test them in My Savage slug gun and report back.

[IndianaHunter]

jjw said:

I have heard of them, but have not seen or shot them. I have a hard time believing dead on at 200 with a shotgun slug. I may be wrong, but I dont buy it.

I know it’s hard to believe from a shotgun but do the ballistics on the 300 grain SST bullet at the listed velocity and it right on. I can get that every time out of my Savage 10ML-II and the same bullet.

[Pocampo]

I first saw a magazine ad for these Hornady SST shotgun slugs today. I don't doubt the ballistics, it's the claimed accuracy i am not sure i believe. They claim sub-2" groups @ 100yards but claims it delivers 200 yard performance??? They also say zero gun 3" high @ 100 yards for optimum performance @ 200 yards.
Their own published ballistics show 2.7" high at 100 yards, zero @ 150yds and 6.7" low @ 200 yds. I can't see where raising the POI only another 0.3" @ 100 yds is going to put it at zero @ 200 yards?

I also cant see how a shotgun slug that starts as far back from the rifling as it does in a shotgun slug barrel could possibly shoot as good as a Savage 10ML-II rifle with an adjustable trigger with same bullet type/sabot combo that starts out already in the rifling. Most target rifles shoot their best group when bullet is seated about .005" from touching the rifling.

They also say capable of performance SURPASSING many centerfire rifles.
We better hang onto our slug guns for awhile and see how this plays out. I'm having a hard time believing that you could take any rifled slug barrel shotgun and achieve this level of performance.... especially accurate @ 200 yds. Time will tell.
Pocampo

[ABinMD]

Pocampo,

I have to agree with you as far as the 200 yd. performance. I have shot sub 1" 100 yd. 3-shot groups with the Rem. Copper Solid, but 200 yds. is another story. I too am very interested in trying these saboted slugs from Hornady. Chas06, IndianaHunter, I would like to hear results after testing, Thanks.

Good Shooting, Al

[Pocampo]

another question I have is what was used to test these slugs? Was it a conventional fully rifled slug barrel, a smooth bore with rifled choke tube, etc or was it a bench mounted rail gun with a custom fully rifled barrel They do say best performance is achieved from a fully rifled barrel. I have doubts about this level of accuracy from any rifled barrel shotgun/slug gun. I applaud Hornady for this new slug which no doubt may be superior to any currently on the market balisticly speaking, but the accuracy claim???...I too am interested in the test results others have.
Pocampo

[Chas062]

Iagree, my 1100 shoots them well at 125 yards consistent 3in groups, expensive to shoot, shooting a leupold 2.5-7 scope. so far I am satisfied, I guess everyonce in a while I have to try something else besides the regular slugs. Here in western New York your shot may be between 25-150 yards either in wooded areas or open fields.

[jims]

I believe the American Rifleman on page 118 had an aritcle on the SST's. The most accurate shotgun was the TarHunt. I have one. They are very accurate. They are built on the Rem 700 long action rifle action with a Shaw barrel. Mine has a jewel trigger. It definitely will shoot. With some extras you can put over $2000 in one however. They are of a limited,custom based. They are built in Penn.

[wilmsmeyer]

In most of my extensive slug testing, the biggest dissappointment has come from apparent lot-to-lot variations in accuracy. I finally ruled out the gun as a culprit a few years back when I tried the 2 3/4 ounce Barnes expander loaded by Federal. I shot a clover leaf 100 yd group and a 1 1/2 inch 160 yd group in succession. I ran back to the gun store and they still had a full (50 rd) and a partial sleeve in that lot. I bought them all. That was 2003.

With many dis-assemblies and re-assemblies, this gun and load will consistently stay well under 2 inches at 100 yds and not throw shots. MV is meager at 1330 fps however variations are within 25 fps.

Problem is that I'm now out of this lot. I will attempt to shoot these again this year. If all goes well I will stick with them. If not I will try the SST loading.

BTW, the gun is a stock Mossberg 9200, mossberg cantilever fully rifled barrel and Leupold Vari-X II 3 X 9. I tighten the cap screw with channel locks. I would love to get the barrel tang drilled and tapped and attach to the receiver. A friend of mine had this done to his 1100 and it works very well. Anyone else ever done that?

[Rifleman]

wilmsmeyer- Funny you should mention that Federal/Barnes slug. It shot very well from my sons Rem 870 with a Mossberg fully rifled barrel ( for those of you that don't know, Mossberg makes a fully rifled cantilever barrel for the Rem 870, go figure) It had a cheap scope on it, Bushnell I think, but it would do just under 2 inchs at 100 yds. The only other slug that has shot that well for me was the Winchester-BRI sabot 2 3/4.

[bubba]

I refuse to pay $2/shot for anything but the best bourbon!

[DW]

You think thats bad, Win. Part. golds went up to $17 a box

[KS]

I can't say that I know anything about the sst ballistics, but they are quite available here in central New York. Gander, Bass Pro, Dicks, even Walmart carries them. As far as accuracy, my brother in law is holding a 1.5" at a 100 out of his benelli with rilfed barrel, off a table and cheap rest. Don't know about accuracy between packages, but if a five round package can hold that I doubt the rest will be far off. ks

[wilmsmeyer]

I finally picked up 4 boxes of SST slugs and shot them. First group was about 7 inches...not good and felt no need to shoot the rest of them. The chrony did not give me a reading so couldn't verify speed.

I had also bought 2 boxes of my favorite (my guns favorite) slugs as described above in the previous posting. Since I had 3 slugs from the old batch left I shot them first to verify my gun was in order. It shot a 2 inch group. I then threw in a new slug and put it right in the group. So, I ran back to the gun shop and bought 4 more boxes of the same lot.

I now have 3 boxes of the SST's which I'll donate to the others (or trade something) at camp that want to try this slug. Apparenlty some guns seem to shoot them. Not mine.

[DW]

wilmsmeyer said:

I finally picked up 4 boxes of SST slugs and shot them. First group was about 7 inches...not good and felt no need to shoot the rest of them. The chrony did not give me a reading so couldn't verify speed.

I had also bought 2 boxes of my favorite (my guns favorite) slugs as described above in the previous posting. Since I had 3 slugs from the old batch left I shot them first to verify my gun was in order. It shot a 2 inch group. I then threw in a new slug and put it right in the group. So, I ran back to the gun shop and bought 4 more boxes of the same lot.

I now have 3 boxes of the SST's which I'll donate to the others (or trade something) at camp that want to try this slug. Apparenlty some guns seem to shoot them. Not mine.

My H&R Ultraslug didn't care for them either.

[wilmsmeyer]

I too have an Ultra slug hunter. The only slug that it has liked year after year is the 2 3/4" Rem copper solid 1 OZ. Some years it liked the lightfields and some years not. Don't know why. What does yours like?

Funny how each gun is unique. I can not think of one 12 gauge slug that would not be perfect for deer. They are all so big and heavy. It boils down to the accuracy of what the gun likes.

[DW]

wilmsmeyer said:

I too have an Ultra slug hunter. The only slug that it has liked year after year is the 2 3/4" Rem copper solid 1 OZ. Some years it liked the lightfields and some years not. Don't know why. What does yours like?

Funny how each gun is unique. I can not think of one 12 gauge slug that would not be perfect for deer. They are all so big and heavy. It boils down to the accuracy of what the gun likes.

Totally agree, mine likes the expensive kind, Win. Part. Golds, mine wouldn't shoot the Lightfields,or the Copper solids, haven't tried the new Rem. Core Lokts yet. My buddys Ithaca Deerslayer 3 with the bull barrel likes the new Core Lokts real well, it also shoots the Win. Golds just as well, his wouldn't group with the Lightfields either.

[a45gunslinger]

5 Rnds @ 100 yds. w/Ultra slug hunter 4 round group measures 1.25" the first round went high..it was a fouler- Kevin

[Blue-Dot-37.5]

I tried them yesterday in my Tar-Hunt DSG 870. At 100 Yds, the 4 shot group was 1 3/8" high by 2 1/2" wide. If I were to throw out the one shot that I blew by not looking at the wind flags, the 3 shot group would be 1 3/8" high by 3/8" wide. (c-c) ;D That includes the slug from a cold, clean barrel.

Just for fun, I tried at the 200 Yd target. 3 shot group was 3" x 4".

The wind was changing directions anywhere from dead on towards me to 90* from my right, around 10 mph.

At 200 Yds, I could hear the slug hit the paper.
"BANG.................Thwap"

2.5" high @ 100 Yds was 6" low @ 200.

Blue-Dot-37.5

[jims]

My TarHunt will shoot generally about 1 1/2 inches for a 3 shot group at one hundred yards with the SST's. Mine is the bolt action 12 gauge model.

[art338wm]

I know its a real PIA to have to pay out the hazmat fee but you can get them at www.natchazss.com.

I have shot the fallowing sabot slugs:

<>Remington Core-lokt Ultra
<>Winchester Partition Gold
<>Lightfield Commander IDS
<>Lightfield Hybrid
<>Hornady SST

The best performance out of all of them is a dead even tie between the Core-Lockts and the Partition Golds, with the Lightfield IDS as a close second.

I am quite fortunate that I have two extremely accurate slug guns.
#1-Is a Browning A-Bolt shot gun with a FRB
#2-Is a Marlin 512 Slugmaster. The Marlin had a trigger job and the barrel crowned. As a matter of fact the Marlin shoots both the near exact same POI.

The first time I shot the Core-Lockts out of my A-Bolt was a 100yrd three shot group. I looked at it through my 15-47x60mm Nikon and saw what appeared to be two touching with one completely off the back board. When ever I shoot anything for the first time at 100yrds, (especially slugs or MLs) I always cover the 4x8 sheet of plywood that serves as the target holder with a cheep white picnic table cloth.

As I was walking the 100yrds down range to dbl check my target I am swearing and muttering quietly to my self about how I spent well over $150 buying Core-Lockts while on sale at $8.99 per box, and now they wont even stay on a 4x8 sheet of plywood let alone on paper.

BUT, once I took a closer look what appeared to be a two shot group with a wild flier, was actually a three shot group!! I was so sure this could not be so, I took the target down, went back to the table by the shooting bench so I could more closely examine it. Sure enough, after careful examination it was indeed a three shot group with two touching and the third nearly in the same hole as the first. I later measured that group when I got home and it was an astonishing 100yrd three shot group of .612".

But I can here it being said as this is read, one three shot 100yrd group an average does not make. True enough. So I proceeded to shoot three more 100yrd three shot groups out of my A-Bolt and did the same with my Marlin. Both of which never shot agroup over two inches. I my self would have not thought accuracy like this possible with sabot slugs unless I did not see it myself. Feather more I, or more accurately my shooting results were attracting quite a crowd at the range. Other shooters were looking at my targets both with their spotters and at the ones I was saving, and they all were as in awe of the groups as I was. The partitions performed as well.

Now for the bad news. I am inclined to agree with wimsmeyer's statement about the lot to lot consistency. I say this because I have since bought more of both the Core-Lokts and the P/Golds and have shot both sabots with different lot#s then the ones I had such stellar success with and my groups opened up from and a 1.10" 100yrd 3shot group to a ( still quite respectable for sabot slugs) 2.77" 100yrd 3shot group average. But what bothered me most was not the increase in group size, but that I had several fliers with both sabot slug types, where as during my last outing I did not suffer a single flier once. Has anyone else experienced anyhting similar while shooting Core-Lokts or P/Golds?

When this happened I instantly shot one each a 100yrd 3shot group using slugs with the lot#s from the ones that shot so superbly. Sure enough right back to sub 2.0" MOA.
The range conditions for both sessions were over 95% near perfect, so that was not a factor. The real kick in the 'MommyDaddySpot" is the fact that my $247 Marlin 512 shoots just as good as my $600 A-bolt that I spent two years searching for till I found one NIB.

Both my slug guns will shoot the Lightfield IDS commander slugs into groups averaging around 2.0" for a 3shot 100yrd group. The reason I use the other two instead of the IDS is they drop allot less out to 200yrds because they both weigh 385 grains were as the IDS weighs 465 grains and suffers from a poor BC as compared to the other two.

I hope this was helpful to some one. If anyone wishes to discuss slugs more in depth, I would be happy to share what I know.

Regards, Arthur.

OOOpps, forgot to post how the SSTs did. I shot 5-100yrd three shot groups each out of both my slug rifles and that averaged around 2.75". The Core-Lokts, P/Golds and IDS all shot better. But the SSTs are by far the cheapest at around $9.99 a box of five. But when all is said and done with the level of accuracy I am getting with all the above sabot slugs, thay all are more than accurate enough to hunt with.