Eastern European Slugs, part 1

[Scorzy]

Hello everyone!

I want to share info about some slugs we use to shoot moose in the Eastern Europe. There we had a developing market and culture up until the latest years due to the fact you had to own a shotgun for a 2-5 years before getting a rifle licence. This led to invention of the new slugs and revisiting the old ones (poleva sabots etc) as people had to somehow spare the time waiting.

The first bullet I'd like to cover is Kontarev bullet. This one is one of my favourites - below you may see a close-up:

loaded state

and deformation results (muzzle velocity of ~420m/s):

I've shot hundreds of them from my vepr, it showed "shotgun miracles". From a rifled bore choke (paradox). I used to make 10cm tight groups @100m using a stand and 4x optics, 3 round series. Of course, this distance is unreasonable for real world shotgun hunt (the drop is significant and time to target is challenging for a guaranteed kill) but close-up (~50m) performance is outstanding - I was glad to have them at my first battue hunt for moose back in 2018.

Another good thing is that it likes both crimping and rolling so you may play with the cartridge length whenever you need it (70/76mm shells will fit). For me it became obvious that the original piston-like design has flaws: inconsitent contration levels and cracks in the obturator skirt won't shrink your groups. This made me cut the leg and use cork wads (2*2mm) to tweak the overall height. Thats how I used to shoot them by the moment.

Share your thoughts and impressions, more slugs on the way

 

[Smellydog]

I just wish the UK was not so backwards thinking when it comes to owning and using slugs.
The times I could of used one when out with a shotgun is numerous!

 

[Scorzy]

Yepp, I knew the UK is quite strict on guns, but this seems a bit over the top Probably this has something to do with public safety - slugs bleed energy tremedously compared to any rifle bullet and thus pose hardly any bigger threat in usual hunting conditions.

 

[Smellydog]

Yepp, I knew the UK is quite strict on guns, but this seems a bit over the top Probably this has something to do with public safety - slugs bleed energy tremedously compared to any rifle bullet and thus pose hardly any bigger threat in usual hunting conditions.

It's more to do with our two tier licensing.
The law says " the applicant shall be granted a shotgun license".
Almost a right but them in power got frightened that the masses could start a civil war if they could access slugs!
Britain is run by backwards thinking short sighted fools and thus dysfunctional .

 

[Dalua]

There's certainly no rule here that you need to have a shotgun only for 2-3 years before getting a rifle.
That might be one reason why shotgun slugs are not much in demand here - as those who have good reason to have a rifle ought to be able to get one without too much trouble.

 

[Scorzy]

those who have good reason to have a rifle ought to be able to get one without too much trouble.

Yes, looks like that. Though to my mind there's always a room for both slugs and rifled bullets in a big game and sporting. Having a hog approaching me I'd rather prefer a semi-auto shogun than a bolt

 

[reiver]

I have slugs on my fac now just for target purposes. But used to have them for deer control with my 5 shot semi auto shotgun.
As I didn’t have anything bigger than the 22 hornet back then. They took the slugs off for deer when I got a .308 again .
I regularly get 5 slugs in the size of a beer mat at 50 m with a 1/4 choke or less .

 

[Jon P]

I have often wondered, can they be used in a full choked shot gun?

 

[Scorzy]

I have often wondered, can they be used in a full choked shot gun?

From my experience it depends on the main hull diameter and the width of bands. I used to shoot Kontarev slugs from 0.75mm choke (can't remember if I tried any tighter tbh), while the best results were still obtained on paradox only. Though I would avoid full chokes with something like Tusker slug:

as the bands are something twice as wide, moreover you can't keep an eye on each piece hardness. Another things to consider are some antique guns that cannot handle at least something around 700 kg/cm2 - I'd leave them for shot altogether.

All in all I stick to a set of empirical rules I've found for the lead ones (DO NOT read this as direct recommendation of course - it's up to your discretion):

• if it sits in a wad or has a set of <3mm bands - any choke would do, including rifled choke.
• if its bands are wide (3mm+) - it's suited for cylinder or rifled choke.
• if it's a bandless solid caliber without any internal cavity to accomodate deformation - cylinder only.
• "brennekoids" work fine with 0.75mm choke and wider, but then again - best groups are achieved by adding some spin.

*For clarity - I tested all that on thick 90MPa Vepr 12 barrel, no plays with exceeding powder charges. My target speed for any slug is usually 420m/s or 1378fps.

 

[Smellydog]

Yes you can shoot lead slugs through full chokes except on very thin barreled guns like you may find on an old English sxs.

However, they may not prove to be accurate after passing a full choke!

 

[Smellydog]

I once shot someone's Browning GTi with cylinder and 1/4 choke at a 2" stick on target at 50 yds.
We could only see one hole on the stick on target and initially thought one of the slugs had flown wild!
On closer examination the slugs had gone through the same hole!!
S&B foster style.
I had that target on the wall for years!