A friend of mine asked me to help sight in his slug gun. He took it to the range and was not able to get a group going let alone even hitting paper. Not sure yet if he started at 25, 50 or 100 yards.
Anyway, I don’t have any slug gun experience, but can’t imagine it to be much different than a rifle which I have done on many occasions. With rifles I have always “bore sighted” a new scope for a starting point. Is the process the same for a slug gun?
Do you know if it is a “slug barrel” or not?
Need to know more about the gun. Open sights or scope. Rifled or smoothbore. The barrel determines the type of slugs to be used.
Yes, a rifled barrel.
Yes, a rifled barrel and has a scope.
Saboted slugs then. No rifled foster slugs. Get close to the target and have the spotter determine impact point. Start adjusting. Do it fast though because slugging will slug the hell out of your shoulder.
Saboted slugs then. No rifled foster slugs.
+1
Seen many times people use saboted slugs in smooth barrels and the bullet just tumbles leaving the barrel; also no rifled full size slugs in rifled barrels just terrible accuracy.
If you are using the right ammo. Make sure everything is tight, scope, etc. If the scope is a piece of junk and not made for a shotgun, then it’s time for a new scope. Can’t put just any scope on a shotgun.
A roll of butcher paper or a big sheet of cardboard from a fridge box at 20-25 yards has solved many head scratchers for me. If you’re not on paper, move closer until you are. I’ve also had to resort to shooting at a pop can in an open field so a spotter could see the dirt fly and give me a rough idea of where the POI was.
Bore sighting does work with slug guns, but the larger diamater of the barrel leaves more of a margin for error. So while bore sighting a rifle will usually get you on paper at 50, bore sighting a slug gun may still leave you well off the paper at 25 if it isn’t a good bore sight. It’s worth a try, but just being bore-sighted may not translate to much at 50.
Make sure the scope was returned to the center settings before mounting if it was moved from another gun.
Grouse
Biggest thing I have seen over the years is the wrong slugs with the current barrell. Being a rifled barrell make sure he isnt shooting rifled slugs.
Thanks for the help, All
Do yourself a favor If you can get your hands on a “LEAD SLED” to use. You will never want to sighting-in another gun without one.! After The 1st time I used a SLED to sight in my slug guns and rifles I went out and bought one. …rrr
A laser chamber bore sighter will save you a lot of ammo. Cabelas or maybe Fleet Farm sells them. They look like a shell that goes in chamber.
First shot should be at 20 yards get it on target and move out from there. 3 inch grouping at 75 yards is acceptable. If the grouping isn’t to your liking try a different brand of sabots.
I am going to black sheep here a bit.
For years I have shot a mosberg 12ga rifled barrel with rifled slugs and will group with Breneke 2″ @75 yds and Federal truball 3″ @75 on a rest.
Try different brands too. But i sounds like your buddys scope is not zeroed and is just throwing wide. Start closer with a BIG target or paper to locate placement or use a dirt bank. then start moving the scope one you establish current placement.
once your get close and want to tighten the group then clean the gun often. For final sight it let it cool then re sight in.
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