Just a note I posted about before. I don't really have a lot to use them for in KY, but when I got an early Scott (1872) Jones underlever hammer single, it had a non-choke barrel which is not unusual in that period. The chamber was a perfect fit for unsized industrial shells. I found that an .810 roundball was a tight push through fit in the barrel when placed in a Gualandi wad. I cut the shotcup back so it reached just past the center of the ball and loaded some of the 2 oz balls in the shotcup with a 7 gauge over powder wad below. I lubed the ball and stuffed some lube in the front of the ball just over the centerline. The hulls were cut so the length could be partially star crimped or roll crimped down against the ball (similar to a Paradox load). They were scary accurate at 30 yards. I didn't do any further work because I had no real use for them and didn't want to waste a lot of 8 gauge components.
That made me believe that unchoked big bore barrels may be preferable for slug/ball loads. Just maybe pushing sub-bore projectiles through a choke is a compromise. Either a tight naked slug with a seal wad behind or a tight encased ball or wad though the same unchoked barrel may be a better combo. These of course would require a slug or ball tailored to the bore. I was lucky to be able to buy them from a supplier.
If any one has an 8 or 10 gauge with no choke, it would be an interesting avenue to address. A lot of the slugs mentioned in this thread are very close to the bore diameter of the 9 gauge barrels which seems to be the dominant size used on early 10's. Many of these guns had no choke. I own a couple. That would be an easier and cheaper platform to experiment with.
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