How to tell what rifled slugs are best and safe

[Rem1100]

Hi,

I am new to this forum and fairly new to shotguns in general. Suffice it to say that I got a late start.

Anyway, I bought a 40 year old Remington 1100 (not a Magnum) Semi-Automatic full time Imp. Cyl. 12 gauge smooth bore shotgun with a scope mounted on it to shoot rifled slugs for hunting. I have had some difficulty getting a tight group and Remington suggested I try various brands of rifled slugs to see if it's the barrel or the ammo.

Then it gets a bit over my head. I bought and tried some Brenneke K.O. slugs as well as some Winchester and Federal slugs.

When I went to shoot the Federals I noticed the box said Magnum. Although the gun shop owner told me they would shoot fine in my gun, Remington warned against it. Remington said the gun is not designed to withstand the recycle pressures and the action was not designed for that much power either. Then they said the gun is designed for a maximum of 1 1/8 oz. payload and 3 1/4 drams.

That's where I got lost. I can't find any ammo that expresses their loads in drams.

One chart I found seems to equate the 3 1/4 drams and 1/18 oz. bullet at 1255 FPS MV.

Is there an easy way I can find all the different rifled slugs that I can use and test?

Any help in understanding this ballistics formulation would be great. I'm not dumb but please remember that I am a relative novice.

Thanks, Rem1100 Rich

[GOANRA]

I'd stick with the 1.0 oz slug or shot since the Dram Equiv will correspond. I prefer the 1.0 oz slug for deer & 6 shot for rabbit when using the IC barrel.

If you can't get a 6 inch group at 100 yards using 3 quality brand names, the problem is either something you're doing or the equipment. Try without the scope?

[Rem1100]

OK, I have no problem finding the "shot weight". I will be using weights of ~1 oz.

My issue is trying to find what 3 1/4 drams is? This is not listed on any of the ammo boxes I checked.

A chart I looked at shows 3 1/4 drams at 1 1/8 oz. as 1255 FPS MV and your recommendation of 1 oz. at 3 1/4 drams says 1290 FPS MV.

So my question is, if Remington says I should stay under 1 1/8 oz. and 3 1/4 drams and since the rifled slug manufacturers DON'T LIST DRAM WEIGHT, then should I just keep the shot weight under 1 1/8 oz. and assume the drams are 3 1/4 or less as long as the MV FPS is under 1300?

I hope my question is clearer now. It's very hard to word it properly.

Thanks. Rem1100 Rich

[GOANRA]

Here is some info I found about the Apothacary Dram Equivalent [of black powder] and why it isn't listed on slugs.

In your situation, it seems the 1 oz slug should solve its own powder charge.



"...There are a number of issues, velocity is a big one since most people don't realize a slug be it Foster, Brenneke or sabot looses velocity quickly. The test guns used to obtain ballistics for factory loaded ammo are not the same as your gun; the barrels are considerably longer and the tolerances are tightly controlled making for a combination that present data with a considerable amount of fudge-factor to make the numbers on paper look impressive for sales hype. Thus is why most ammo mfg's have eliminated the "Dram. Eqv." from their packaging because "MAX" or "MAG" looks impressive. Truth be known, in some cases your great-great grandpa's flintlock fowler load may have far better performance than the ultra-modern mega-magnum loads in the designer box.



Thing is, over 100yds with any typical slug/sabot load, you're looking at a typical velocity loss of somewhere between 450fps and 850fps. Another thing is the deception in the weight of the actual projectile; if you pull open any variety of "1 ounce" slugs, you'll find that the actual lead slug normally weighs in somewhere between 375gr and 415gr and not the full 437gr (1oz). The typical reason for the weight loss is because companies cut back the weight in order to fudge the trajectory data which, like the velocity data, is already fudged the point of being about useless anyway..."

[Rem1100]

OK, thanks.

I think I will jump to a conclusion from your description and "assume" all the ammo manufacturers are cheating the numbers approximately the same way.

I see that the "MAX" and "MAG" (and the Brenneke K.O.'s) ammo for my gun all have MV FPS between 1500 and 1600.

I think it seems my gun would more likely be designed to shoot the lighter loads without extra pressure on the mechanics. The lighter loads all seem to report MV FPS of 1150 to 1300 which just happens to coincide with the drams equivalency chart I found on the web and the recommendations from Remington for my gun.

Thanks again but let me know if I missed the point here or not.

Rem1100 Rich

[GOANRA]

I've always used the 1 oz brand name slugs on sale at Walmart & still do in my 26 yr old Mossberg pump, which has had 30,000+ rounds through it.



If my shotgun won't handle a 1 0z slug, I really don't need it anyway. For some reason, I always seemed to have a lot of

Brenneke sabots & Federals.

When I lived up north, I took dozens of deer with 'em.