Is it a bad idea to shoot 00 buck through a rifled slug barrel? Will it hurt the gun? will it hurt me? Thanks
I doubt that the softer copper plated or lead 00 buck would damage a steel barrel, but the rifling will impart spin to the shot cup as it moves down your barrel causing the shot pattern to be huge.
As an experiment, we shot some flight control 00 buck through factory smooth bore and rifled barrels a while back. Smooth bore held 9 ring on a B25 target (about 12-14 inches) to 25 yards. The rifled barrel had one pellet on target at 17 yards.
The rifling might cause centrifugal force and make the shot pattern spin outwards. Picture flinging a hoola hoop at the target.
Rifling stabilizes rounds by making them spin on an axis which creates centrifugal force outward making it so it doesn’t tumble, flip, etc. Works great on projectiles that fill the bore but with projectiles that are off center of bore it will have uneven force which will make it fling out and as mentioned you get a faster spreading doughnut pattern.
When it comes to barrel damage, remember the shot is also in a shot cup which will also help mitigate damage and I don’t expect it to be anything more than firing a sabot slug in terms of barrel wear but I am not 100% on this.
In the end I wouldn’t advise it for no other reason than it would suck for anything but close range.
Shouldn’t hurt the barrel but like others have said it will make the shot pattern huge. On a smoothbore we had 14 inch 1187 barrels and with the flitecontrol at 25 yards we had a spread of about 8 inches.
To add to the OPs original thought, kind of reverse, you can shoot rifled slugs out of a smoothbore correct? Not trying to hijack or derail.
Rifled slugs are made for smooth bore, basically they come with their own rifling. If anything I can picture rifled slugs out of rifled barrels being the most damaging and best chance of damage where if the twist rates don’t match up then the lands and grooves will be off and basically be nicking and possibly shearing each other.
My friends 870P is a smoothbore and shoots our duty slugs very accurately.
Will not hurt the barrel - but your pattern will be really really bad
Ok, thanks. I had a feeling that slugs out of a smoothbore would not be a problem.
Exactly, only thing is something like Sabot slugs or smooth sided slugs are not going to be as accurate out a smooth bore as they would be out of one that is rifled or rifled slugs out of a smooth bores.
With respect to the rifled slugs in a rifled barrel question, since the slug is lead and the barrel is steel, wouldn’t the slug just have its rifling destroyed and kill any hope of accuracy, but leave the barrel unharmed yet seriously fouled with lead? Not trying to be a dick, just curious how a piece of lead would hurt a steel barrel.
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It wouldn’t be a one shot destroys all type of deal (though if I had to guess there probably is an increased possibility which varies on the exact scenario to cause some sort of catastrophe) but it will increase ware and tare because of how uneven the impacts will be on the rifling and increased forces and resistance. How much damage will also vary with how hard and aggressive the slugs rifling is, the barrels, velocity of the slug, etc of course that is pretty true with just about any round.