28 gauge slugs

[charlie cleveland]

seen a ad that listed 28 ga slugs for sale..they are made by brennke..i probably did not spell this right but it s close...i thought of you dean when i seen the ad...charlie

[Dean Romig]

Thanks Charlie - I'll have to look at those.





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[Tom Flanigan]

What would one use a 28 gauge slug on?

[Southpaw]

Originally Posted by Tom Flanigan

What would one use a 28 gauge slug on?

I was going to ask the same thing. My only thought would be home defense. Light easy gun with light recoil and it would be deadly at close range. I think they say 28 gauge is equal to a 54 calibre in muzzle loading so I guess it could be a hot enough round for hunting if gun is accurate enough. For home defense would think it more powerful than a 45 and maybe a 44 magnum. I know there are limitations in some states that nothing less than 20 gauge for large game hunting and I can't think of any small game that I would hunt with a 28 ga slug.

I guess 28 gauge slug would be good if up close hog hunting. Ya'll got a hog problem up there. Btw if your using it for Bear hunting then you are way more man than me. Let go with both barrels and get ready to pull your Bowie knife.

[Dean Romig]

Oddly, .410 slug cartridges are far easier to find on the shelves of places like KTP and other larger sporting goids stores - I wonder what those would be good for??





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[Southpaw]

Dean I can only think of home defense or last resort for bear protection. I think there are even some revolvers that are designed to shoot a 410 slug that I think has more umph than say a 45 or 44 magnum. I don't know the ballistics between all that but obviously someone has thought about it.

[Dean Romig]

A .410 for “last resort for bear protection” is probably the last choice on my list to carry in bear country.

As far as the 28 gauge slug discussion, I have always toyed with the idea of a 28 gauge Repro as a close range (certainly not for bean field applications) deer gun for still hunting or sitting on the ground or a tree stand.

It would certainly need to be target tested for accuracy at ranges out to say, effective bow ranges and not much more.






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[Southpaw]

Yep I agree the 410 slug for bear protection would be for you right before that bear put you into the combined spin cycle/ meat grinder mode. I just did a quick look up of 44 mag vs a 410 slug, its not good for the anemic 410 slug application. I think a 410 slug puts out about 700 foot pounds and 44 mag is about 1100 at the muzzle. 410 would put a hurting on a normal man but may not stop an adrenalized 300 lbs defensive lineman. Now a 410 rifle round would be something different, that would put a whoopin on something.

Check you state regs on gauges for large game. All I know is that deer are dang tough sometimes. Shot one with a 20 gauge slug at 20 yards when hunting on an Army base and it ran off. Blood trailed it for an hour but lost it in some impenetrable thick cover. Went back to truck to grab some quick lunch and then drive over to other side of thicket to see if we could pick up any sign and found where someone had cleaned a deer. We heard no other close shots but was actually glad someone got it since we were not around immediately to claim it. After that always thought 20 gauge slug did not have enough knock down power on deer and never hunted deer with a 20 gauge again.

Maybe got proven wrong on that one many years later as well. Was hunting with a .30-06 with 180 grain bullet and shot a doe underneath my tree stand at 15 yards at dusk. As soon as I shot saw an explosion on the ground behind that deer and she spun 180 degrees where she came from but ran unphased looking 200 yards out of sight down a logging road. I thought I had missed it entirely but got down checked for sign and did not see a drop of blood anywhere close and trailed her path 25 yards with no sign but tore up ground cover and a few tracks but made my way to logging road which was easier walking to get where I had seen her last before it got to dark. Went to where thought had heard some faint sticks breaking and there she was.

Later when cleaning that deer the damage that 180 grain bullet did at that range was terrifying and I was just amazed at how far that deer ran looking completely unphased. Not to be grotesque but that bullet had completely disintegrated the heart. For the record before that I had harvested probably 20 deer with that same rifle and round and out to some good distances with the scope and those deer dropped like a bag of hammers. So to see one run off like after an up close shot had me startled and questioning if I hit it. Goes to show you, followup intensely after every shot.

[Dean Romig]

I shot 20 gauge slugs from a Parker DH with Titanic barrels choked IC/Lt.Mod at a target set at 15 yards. It was no surprise that the right barrel punched holes about 9” to the left of the bull and 8” low. The left barrel placed them almost a foot to the right and 10” low.

This gun patterned very nicely with RST 2 1/2” ammo with 7/8 oz. of #8 shot.

I have seen deer hit with 20 gauge slugs that went down like they were poleaxed....






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[Tom Flanigan]

My first deer, at fourteen years old, was taken at around 50 yards with my grandfathers DHE 28" bored modified and full. I did a lot of target work on paper with that gun before I used it on deer. It held a decent group with both barrels to 60 yards. I was surprised at how well that gun shot with slugs. I killed many other deer with that gun before I bought a Remington 870 with a slug barrel. My experience with the many deer I have killed with slugs is that unless you hit them in the chest straight on so the slug travels most of the length of the body, hit the spine or neck, most will run about 50 yards before piling up, assuming a lung or heart hit. Actually they travel a bit further with a heart hit for some reason. I have used many different guns with slugs including 12 bore, 16 bore and 20 bore. I find the results from all gauges to be about the same.