I bought Hornady SSTs to try in my Mossberg slug gun.

Anyone have any experience with them or other brands?

Delaware only allowed shotguns for Deer until a few years ago . Hornady sabots are one of the better ones . They are hard to find around now , but and some friends like them . We tested a bunch of different slugs in various shotguns and liked Hornady sabots the most . Shoot a few before going hunting and get them sighted in , you will drop Deer .

I have about 60 or so that came with a Mossberg I have.  Gonna test em out.  My primary deer gun is still my X-Bolt Browning.

My Savage 220 doesn't really like SSTs but the Federal Trophy Coppers shoot well and are devastating on deer. It's a great set up for places, like down in MA, where you can't use rifles. Attached File
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Nice deer!


We have WMAs here in FL that are shotgun only.  Also may take a trip to OH one of these days (distant family farm)

Thanks! Once you find a slug that shoots well in your gun buy a bunch. They tend to be out of stock a lot. You never know what combination works best until you try them. That's not cheap with slugs. I had a 12g 1100 smooth bore that shot great with Remington rifled slugs but not so good with others.

My smoothbore 870 shoots plain old 2 3/4 Winchester 1 oz slugs the best.  My friends use SST's in their rifled slug gun.
Trust me. you hit ANY deer with a slug, it's going to whap the snot out of them.  I shot a deer at 35 feet with a slug and I saw it hit.
It was devastating.  Actually knocked all the air out of him and his balls touched the ground as he took 6 steps and fell over dead.

I used to use a lot of the Brenneke KO slugs.  They were excellent.

I forgot to mention that for years I hunted with an 1100 LT20 that had a Hastings rifled barrel (2-3/4" chamber). It was very accurate with Lightfield Hybrid slugs. Those slugs were not nearly as effective on deer though. To the best of my recollection not one deer has made it out of sight when shot with the Federal trophy Copper slugs. Most drop in their tracks. That was not the case with the Lightfields.

SSTs can be very accurate.  Not that they won't get the job done, but they aren't my first choice - due to their light construction, and seeing multiple deer hit with them go unrecovered.

Check out Winchester Partition Gold and Remington Accutip slugs.  Both are very accurate, maybe slightly less than SST, but are stronger designs.

My state was a "shotgun only state" for many years.  When rifled slug barrels came out I switched and used sabots for a while.  I ended up switching back to a smooth-bore with foster (rifled) slugs because I didn't see any performance difference within 50 yards, and the fosters were about 25% of the cost of a sabot.   Granted, I am sure I could have squeezed more distance out of the sabots, but I didn't invest the time or money to get there.  I've deer hunted with a Browning A5, Mossberg 500, Remington 870, Remington 11-87, Benelli M1, and probably some others I'm forgetting.

I imagine that has all changed with people using quality optics on shotguns now.   I tried a "slug sun low power variable" and ended up with "scope eye" shooting it in low light.  I went back to open sights quickly.

I can still place five 1oz foster rifled slugs in about 6" off hand at 50 yards.  That's good enough for shotgun hunting now that my state allows rifles.

Remington copper solids or Brenneke K.O. both get it done.

Federal Trophy Copper here for years. And before that it was Federal loaded with Barnes Expander. Pretty much an identical load, and always devastating.

I think generally speaking, rifled slugs are designed for smooth bore and sabots for rifled barrels.
A sabot in a smooth bore doesn't spin since neither has rifling.
There could be outliers, different designs that don't follow this.
It pays to read the fine print for the slugs you intend to use before buying.
I use a Beretta 1301 Comp, my old 3-gun shotgun, with a mag plug. Smooth bore and plain Buckhammers, distance here is 75 yds max.
Good luck hunting!
Which slugs

Brenneke are super accurate oit of my win 121 with a longer barrel.

I run SSTs in my Mossberg 20G. Runs good up to 100 yards, I have not ever had any issues with them. I have tried to pattern them to 125 and IMO the pattern opens up a bit more than I would trust.

After trying multiple types of expensive sabots, the most accurate slug for my Mossberg 500 rifled barrel is the cheap Winchester foster slugs.

???? In two posts I mentioned sabot slugs in a 220 (rifled barrel) and rifled slugs in a smoothbore as examples of what worked. The latter combination worked surprisingly well for a smoothbore. I've been hunting with one type of slug or another for 30 years.

My wife and I have been drawn for a quota hunt that is shotguns only. We have 2 of the Savage slug guns. Hers the 20ga, I'm shooting the 12.  (Walmart clearance and that is why the difference I would have preferred to get 2-20s.) I picked up 10 boxes of AccuTips back in the summer when I found some in stock in a GS we visited while on vacation. We've been shooting the slug guns getting ready for the hunt. She doesn't shoot a whole lot, so we've been focusing mostly on her shooting.

The gun I'm using hasn't been all that impressive lately. I had never had any problems with it in the past but really hadn't shot it much in the last 4 years. The quota hunt usually takes about 4 to 5 years to be drawn on average. I had gotten low on slugs and ordered 10 more boxes of AccuTips. Previously the rifle was shooting about 2.5"-3" at 100. This new lot is shooting around an 1" consistently at 100.


So not only buy a bunch when you can find them, make sure they are all the same lot as well. Seems to be a lot more variance lot to lot with these slugs compared to your normal centerfire rifle ammo.

Hornady 250 gr SST sabots are extremely accurate in my old Remington 700 ML. I load them with 100 gr of BH209 and they are usually touching at 50 yards. I’ve also taken several deer with them and never had an issue.

If you're using SST's, I presume your Mossberg is rifled.  If it's smoothbore, they probably won't shoot worth a shit.

Back in the WI slug-only days I went through a bunch of slug guns and slugs trying to get enough accuracy for 150 yards.  I never quite got there.  Where I ended up was with one of the H&R or NEF 20 gauge heavy barreled, rifled single shots with Lightfields for stand hunting in more open areas, and a 12 gauge Pardner pump with Brenneke KO's for drives, brush, etc.  The Lightfields would kill deer, but I don't think I ever had one drop to the shot, they always ran 50-75 yards with a good heart or lung shot.  The Brennekes just hammered them.  They pretty much always went straight down.  Occasionally they'd get back up, but they weren't going far.

That Pardner pump was just a $150 18" smooth bore, bead sighted POS Chinese 870 knock-off, but for whatever reason the stars aligned with that gun.  It shot Brennekes to point of aim for me and piled them into shockingly small groups.  I killed a lot of deer with that gun, so of course I sold it once WI started allowing rifles for deer hunting.  I kind of wish i had it back but I no longer have any use for it.

For a smoothbore, I'd absolutely recommend the Brenneke KO's if they shoot in your gun.  I never tried them out of a rifled barrel; not sure if that's a good idea or not.  I'm not really up on the latest in sabot slugs.  Most of the ones I tried back in those days probably aren't even on the market anymore.

Just went through extensive testing of slugs in three 12 gauge guns. Two smoothbores ane one rifled. The rifled shotgun, an 870 shoots the SST Hornady load like a rifle. 2 1/2 inch groups with iron sights at 100 yards. The other is a GForce 12 gauge semi auto. smoothbore. 3 shots touching with Winchester foster type rifled slugs at 50 yards. 6 inch groups at 75 yards. I scoped it and tried to get 3 on a paper plate at 100 yards and couldn't do it. Tried some Brenneke KO slugs and they leaded the barrel too quickly. But 75 yards is plenty where I will hunt this gun. Last is a Remington 870 smoothbore , cilinder barrel with a bead. It shoots every shot into a milk jug at 75 yards using Remington sluggers.

https://www.ar15.com/forums/armory/Has-there-ever-been-copper-buckshot-Not-copper-plated-but-full-copper-/1-548601/

Yayyy I got linked

I have them cause my rem 870 rifled slug barrel shoots touching groups @ 100yds.

I have not shot a deer with them.

I did shoot a 275# black bear while running dogs @ 15yds.  It was a ground game not a treed bear.   I put 3 slugs in it before the bear was not a threat and the last one to the noggin.

All the slugs were barely into the vital cavity and in many pieces.

So, I wouldn't use them on a bear and damn sure not in a defensive maneuver like I was in (after 1st shot she charged me).

Don't know I would use them on a deer now either.

But, they were accurate.