Can someone point me to a "Slugs for Dummies" or "Slugs 101" write-up?

[whatsapcp]

I've been trying to learn about slugs (through the forum, videos, other sites) and feel like I keep finding very specific information about specific slugs or guns. Does anyone know of any "here are the basics" kind of guides out there?

From what I've read:
Slugs like to be fired faster than pellets.
Slugs DO fire faster than pellets.
Sometimes choked barrels cause problems with slugs.
Slugs penetrate further than pellets.
Slugs seem to be primarily for long range shooting (but I've found plenty of reference to shooting slugs at only 25-50yds, too).

I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff, as I've been reading about them for a week now. Just trying to distill down some Slug Facts so my novice air gunning brain can parse down why/when slugs are a good choice, and any gotchas for when I try them out.

 

[iAMzehTOASTY1]

Oooo the slug topic.
I've got only 1 tin of 40gr in .22
My research told me:
I need a lighter slug
40grains hits like a sledgehammer
They travel much slower but carrying way more energy to dump into the target
I need more sizes to try

Pic is of a thick plastic bucket taking those 40s at 10 yards. Regular pellets usually bounce off of this thing. But the slugs were punching into it and the concussion impact knocked the dirty insides of the bucket to the bottom(the bucket looked.cleaner inside)

 

[starlingassn]

I've been trying to learn about slugs (through the forum, videos, other sites) and feel like I keep finding very specific information about specific slugs or guns. Does anyone know of any "here are the basics" kind of guides out there?

From what I've read:
Slugs like to be fired faster than pellets.
Slugs DO fire faster than pellets.
Sometimes choked barrels cause problems with slugs.
Slugs penetrate further than pellets.
Slugs seem to be primarily for long range shooting (but I've found plenty of reference to shooting slugs at only 25-50yds, too).

I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff, as I've been reading about them for a week now. Just trying to distill down some Slug Facts so my novice air gunning brain can parse down why/when slugs are a good choice, and any gotchas for when I try them out.

slugs ceratinly like to be pushed faster than pellets.

but they do not go faster.
a slug will be slower than a pellet of the same weight due to more of its surface area being in contact with the bore.

a slug generally prefers an unchoked barrel.

personally i dont think a slug will out penetrate a pellet,maybe a solid nose slug,
but all slugs ive seen for airguns are hollow points,
and designed to dump alot of its energy into the target through expansion.

if you can find a slug your gun likes they are certainly very good at all ranges,
and will be less affected by wind than pellets,
but at close range slugs have such a wonderful sound on pests POW!


ive been down the slug road,
it can be long and expensive lol

anymore,if i use them its at shorter ranges,
as accuracy hasnt been nearly as good as pellets for me.

 

[Impact701]

 

[whatsapcp]

slugs ceratinly like to be pushed faster than pellets.

but they do not go faster.
a slug will be slower than a pellet of the same weight due to more of its surface area being in contact with the bore.

a slug generally prefers an unchoked barrel.

personally i dont think a slug will out penetrate a pellet,maybe a solid nose slug,
but all slugs ive seen for airguns are hollow points,
and designed to dump alot of its energy into the target through expansion.

if you can find a slug your gun likes they are certainly very good at all ranges,
and will be less affected by wind than pellets,
but at close range slugs have such a wonderful sound on pests POW!


ive been down the slug road,
it can be long and expensive lol

anymore,if i use them its at shorter ranges,
as accuracy hasnt been nearly as good as pellets for me.

Excellent info! Thank you!

Video was super helpful, by far the best I've seen for my crash course. Thanks!

 

[Ballisticboy]

From what I've read:
Slugs like to be fired faster than pellets.
Slugs DO fire faster than pellets.
Sometimes choked barrels cause problems with slugs.
Slugs penetrate further than pellets.
Slugs seem to be primarily for long range shooting (but I've found plenty of reference to shooting slugs at only 25-50yds, too).

Many of the popular "facts" are driven by the shape of many of the slugs currently in use, which are, to be blunt, much the same. Yes you will get different nose shapes and cylindrical lengths depending on the desired mass, with holes front and rear to change things about a bit, but essentially, they are all similar in design. So, taking each point in turn:-

Slugs can be fired faster than pellets, but it is not necessary. I have tested projectiles which are similar in shape and size to slugs, whose muzzle velocity is 300 ft/sec or less. They all fly perfectly happily, it is all down to barrel twist rate and projectile detail design. Contrary to pellets, which become more gyroscopically stable as they fly faster, slugs become less stable as they approach 1100ft/sec. Many slug designs appear to be over stable if anything at low speeds, so as their speed is increased the reduction in stability is beneficial for group sizes, hence the impression that slugs need higher speeds for stability.

If you mean slugs can be fired faster than pellets, then this is because of what I have said above, provided there is sufficient barrel twist rate for stability at the higher speeds.

Choked barrels will mainly be a problem with cylindrical bodies with no driving bands. A slug with well-designed driving bands should be no worse than a pellet at coping with a choked barrel.

Many slugs have hollow points to stop them penetrating a large distance. A well-designed hollow point slug will stop very quickly, a poorly designed one won't.

Slugs have advantages over pellets at all ranges, particularly in less than perfect conditions. Having said that though, it assumes that the slug and the pellet are both launched with the same degree of yaw rate (wobble rate). Again it is down to the detail design and how big something called the aerodynamic overturning moment (Cma) is and how well it is matched to the barrel twist rate. Unfortunately, the basic common current slug design is not very good in its value of Cma (on some designs it is barely different to the value for a pellet, just positive instead of negative) and hence the full benefits of slugs compared to pellets are not being gained.

Some of the points in the video above are good, but some are down to the slugs mostly being the same basic design.

 

[TDK]

The primary advantage of slugs comes at ranges of ~60+ yards. Past this point the lower BC of pellets starts to really affect their performance both trajectory and wind drift (even a 5mph wind). Slugs will let you shoot at longer distances in 'real world' conditions. They also hit harder at distance because their higher BC results in more retained velocity. If you wanted to shoot a lot at 100yds and beyond, that is definitely slug territory.

The primary disadvantage of slugs is that getting them to work requires a TON of trial and error. Pellets on the other hand are usually almost turn-key accurate and forgiving.

The easiest way to try your hand at slugs, is to try light to mid weight slugs in your stock barrel, whatever gun you have. No slug barrels, no power kits. 900-950fps is a decent window for slug speed, but things can still work out in the 800's. I think the biggest factor is whether your gun/barrel likes the slug, and I think that matters far more than fiinding a magic FPS window where everything comes together. I've only seen where my gun likes the slug and accuracy is about the same across a wide range of velocity. At a minimum, you should be prepared to buy at least 20 tins of slugs to try out (multiple brands, multiple weights, multiple diameters of each weight). 'Great' slug accuracy is about 1MOA if everything is working in perfect harmony and the shooter is not making any mistakes. I think I'm at 1.25 MOA real world average for 10 shot groups with a slug that can shoot 1MOA if everything is perfect. My personal threshold when I'm initially testing slugs is about 1.5MOA. If groups are larger than that I usually move on to the next slug.

If you have an accurate slug combo it will likely shoot well at closer ranges, its just that zone is not where they offer big advantages over pellets.

 

[whatsapcp]

This is all excellent info. Thanks all for taking the time to share!

 

[davhowrd]

When it comes to slugs, there's a thousand answers to your question. I normally as a person what is their end goal; huntng, paper punching, short or long range. There is a LARGE area of variables that need to be narrowed down. Twist rate of the barrel, ID of the barrel, and size of the choke also need to be considered. I advise shooters that shoot under 80 yrds to focus on medium to heavy pellet and avoid the headache of slugs. But for those of us looking for long range and carried energy, the rabbit hole is DEEP! If you choose to run slugs, find out what the id of your rifling is along with the choke. Find a basic slug that matches the ID with a similar weight to the pellets that you're currently using; this is just a starting point. Slug design DOES have a direct impact on how your rig will respond depending on whether you have a soft choke, heavy choke, or no choke. There are calculators available that will aid you with an "ideal" fps for a given twist rate, slug length, and weight. These are just starting points. You'll find that there are a large number of well-informed shooters here with TONS of valuable information, just remember that there is "NO" one size fits all in making a rig perform the way you want it to. The path to success is different for each of us and the "Rabbit Hole is DEEP!"

 

[Rawroots]

My experiences with slugs has been with lower end priced rifles, the speed doesn't make a rifle shoot and not shoot slugs, they seem a little more accurate at what the barrel likes, it seems that one in five rifles will shoot slugs good enough to hunt with and one in ten will shoot slugs better than pellets, you may be better off buying a already known to shoot slug rifle from someone that has already spent the $ on different weights and diameters. Example i have two benjamin marrauders, one hates slugs and the other shoots them awesome.

 

[MongooseV8]

Slugs DO fire faster than pellets.
Slugs penetrate further than pellets.

I think both of these can be semantics. Pellets cannot be shot as fast with accuracy when compared to slugs. So in practice slugs can be shot faster than pellets, the trade off is it takes more power to get them going faster.

Slugs have the potential to penetrate much further than pellets, and in fact many do. Weight for weight, and speed for speed the slugs will have a much higher BC, meaning more speed and energy at your target distance. And as we know that means more potential for penetration. There are plenty of slugs that have a little harder lead alloy and a shallow HP or none at all that will penetrate even more. Not no mention pellets have a strong tendency to tumble in flight or after they hit something, which slows them down dramatically.

There are some many variables though so we can discuss these topics forever

 

[davhowrd]

My experiences with slugs has been with lower end priced rifles, the speed doesn't make a rifle shoot and not shoot slugs, they seem a little more accurate at what the barrel likes, it seems that one in five rifles will shoot slugs good enough to hunt with and one in ten will shoot slugs better than pellets, you may be better off buying a already known to shoot slug rifle from someone that has already spent the $ on different weights and diameters. Example i have two benjamin marrauders, one hates slugs and the other shoots them awesome.

The marauder is a GREAT platform. I also have a few that I've tune and mod-ed, they all perform well with both slugs or pellets; It did take some experimenting to find the correct slug size and design that was perfect. I have no complaints, it was a educational trip down the rabbit hole.

 

[AlabamaLarry]

I am fairly new to this slug thing however what I have found for my pesting up to 30-50 yards, is the .218 NSA 23gr way over penetrates will little expansion. this leaves many pests to run off and expire elsewhere. Were as a pellet with the H&N Baracuda Huner Extreme 18.52gr shooting the best in my BRK Comm 22 thumps them so hard and loud it knocks the piss out of them literally in their tracks. For me my slug shooting will be limited as I believe they are great for longer rage shooting and in more open vegetation areas however up to 75yds I will stick to pellets and in Alabama that abouts the max in the woods anyways.

 

[MongooseV8]

I am fairly new to this slug thing however what I have found for my pesting up to 30-50 yards, is the .218 NSA 23gr way over penetrates will little expansion. this leaves many pests to run off and expire elsewhere. Were as a pellet with the H&N Baracuda Huner Extreme 18.52gr shooting the best in my BRK Comm 22 thumps them so hard and loud it knocks the piss out of them literally in their tracks. For me my slug shooting will be limited as I believe they are great for longer rage shooting and in more open vegetation areas however up to 75yds I will stick to pellets and in Alabama that abouts the max in the woods anyways.

Depends on how fast you are using them and what they hit ime. I got a 5lb skunk about 8 yards away with some 17.5gr Nielsens leaving 940fps and neither made it all the way through. Have used several 25 cal Nielsens on ground squirrels with no pass throughs. They are certainly a harder alloy than other more pure lead ammos and they dont expand the same. I really like them for things you want some expansion with a mix of penetration. And in some cases a soft pellet that will tumble on impact will work better.

What are you using them on and how fast are they going?

 

[AlabamaLarry]

Depends on how fast you are using them and what they hit ime. I got a 5lb skunk about 8 yards away with some 17.5gr Nielsens leaving 940fps and neither made it all the way through. Have used several 25 cal Nielsens on ground squirrels with no pass throughs. They are certainly a harder alloy than other more pure lead ammos and they dont expand the same. I really like them for things you want some expansion with a mix of penetration. And in some cases a soft pellet that will tumble on impact will work better.

What are you using them on and how fast are they going?

Squirrels mostly I dont know how fast I need to get me a Chrono.

 

[Chukar60]

My experience with slugs is that they can be shot at lower velocities and produce good accuracy. In my view if you want accuracy and have no need for terminal performance, ie. shooting paper or really small game stay with pellets. Pretty much a no muss no fuss endeavor.
My interest in slugs is hunting. They provide a number of advantages once you have left the comforts of a controlled environment behind. They wind drift far less and when shot at higher speeds will flatten trajectory. Most of the time I do not carry a range finder and do not dial my scope. With my setup hold overs are pretty basic because I rarely shoot beyond 125-130 yards on living targets. Where slugs really shine is terminal performance. However, I have found they need to be pushed fairly hard to really expand, Hybrids excluded.
I find my best tunes for slugs in 22 are between 970 & 985 fps. This is where my M3 seems to want to shoot every slug I have tried. Coincidentally this speed seems to provide enough energy to readily expand slugs up to 28 grains even the NSA’s .
Slugs are not just for longer ranges. On small game inside 60 or so yards the terminal performance is such that I would not use them for any animal you may want for dinner.

 

[TheRealHearkensSaltLake]

I have found that if you match the right slug to your barrel, it will usually out shoot pellets. As a few others here have mentioned, you do not have to shoot slugs fast. With the exception of some of the FX guns... I’ve founds slugs tend to be extremely accurate all through the 800’s.

Slug expansion is hugely different. Zans and knocouts tend to expand extremely well … even at slower speeds.

My biggest concern with shooting slugs, and the reason I don’t shoot them almost all the time is due to their carrying too far in urban areas and sometimes over penetrating.

I don’t think it’s particularly hard to find a slug that shoots well. All you have to do is ask others.

 

[MEC17670]

I'm moving upward with the weight of the slug I'm shooting out of my Crown mk2 600mm in .25 caliber. Normally I shooting a 29gr Neilson at 975 fps with very good results. The impact on up to 10lb varmints is exceptional. Looking to try thier 33.5 gr slugs. Hoping for 900 fps.