12 ga 3 1/2 inch slug
 

is anybody shooting this big slug i read some where that the recoil was bad... i ve only seen one box of these slugs i would like some ones opinion of this shell...charlie

Why would anyone shoot a 3-1/2” slug? The recoil from a 3-1/2” duck load is bad enough I can’t imagine what a slug would feel like. The ballistics have to be crazy. Is the idea to use them for dangerous game? Seems like a lot of overkill for deer.

The test of any slug load is how it groups. In my experience, the more moderate speed loads provided the closest groups, by far. I never used maximum speed slug loads after doing some testing at the bench, which eliminated all manufactured slug loads. I've killed an awful lot of deer with the moderate loads and the sabot loads through a rifled barrel was accurate to a full 100 yards. I've never tested the 3 1/2 inch loads but I imagine they would be lacking at the bench.

A few years back Hastings came out with a 20 gauge 3 1/2" slug load and they worked out a deal with NEF/H&R to make some 20 gauge Slug Hunter Deluxe models with 3 1/2" chambers .

The factory loading had a 410 grain slug if my memory serves . They weren't expensive I think I bought one of the guns for about $350 and a box of 5 slugs was a I think about $10 .

Thing shot well but that 410 grainer would thump you pretty well even in the HEAVY H&R/Hastings Slug Hunter Deluxe . Think I took that one to the Blackwater NWR for the gun hunt one year but that was the only time I used it . Very shortly there after like many others down the road it went .

As to a 12 gauge 3 1/2" slug load I can't say as I want any parts of that . My Browning A-5 12 Mag with the slug barrel shooting factory 3" Foster slugs is plenty recoil for me .

If you want to shoot a 12 gauge, shoot a 12 gauge, is my philosophy. Less is more and I get plenty of killing power out of lower power shells.