The first test of the day was buckshot from a rifled “slug barrel”. Not having a rifled barrel for the test I had to call on a friend that was more than willing to help me out in this area. Sure buckshot will work and function just fine with the rifled barrel but how will it affect the pattern being thrown?I fired five rounds of #4 buck at a the center of a three foot X two foot wide piece of cardboard from thirty feet. The #4 buck has 24 pellets per round so that's 120 pellets thrown at the target, but how many actually made a hole in the paper and how many went past without effect?
Out of the one hundred twenty pellets only thirty six hit the target. At this distance the shot pattern should have been center of mass, but with the rifled barrel it was allover the target and the bulk of the shot completely missing the target.
Conclusion; the rifled barrel does indeed have a major effect on shot pattern or lack of one.
I had conducted the same test at 25 yards on a silhouette target and came up with the same results.
You need a control sample. Shots with normal choke barrel. Another test is short (but legal) rifled barrel. I have heard this is an effective method to get a shot spread similar to a sawed off shotgun.
MD what is happening is the rifled slug barrel is causing the shot cup to spin. The resulting centripetal force causes the pellets to open up. if you put a big enough piece of paper out there you will find that the pellets are actually forming an expanding ring. This is why when you fired center mass you "missed" the target.
don't know but cabelas has some milsup 00bs and the reviews were great. Of course it was shot from a regular barrel. very nice tight groups at 50ft. More than that,well your taking chances.
Michael
Ken hit it on the head - well almost - he used the word "centripetal" and not "centrifugal." That one often catches folks up. Centripetal would be the force, such as along a string, that keeps a ball swung in a circle from flying off into the air. The centrifugal force takes over when the string breaks and the ball goes in a straight line away from the previous curved path. See, who says you can't learn something useful while talking guns 'n ammo ? :-) --Ted
O did not know this. I am glad I did not buy that rifled shotgun to hunt deer. I could not hunt duck with it. Informative post...thanks.
Can't believe no one posted this yet. Box 'o Truth did this a while ago.... hopefully it can add a few data points to your experiment.
http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot43.htm
7:01 beat me to it. While good for almost point blank work a shotgun with a rifled barrel will not shoot shot in a pattern suitable for defense. I think 7 or 8 yards was the point it really stopped being practical.
Slugs work fine in a 20" 12 ga smooth bore with rifle sights out to 75-100yds. By fine, I mean 6" 3-shot groups at 100 yds. The same barrel will keep buckshot on a silhouette at 20-30 yds depending on load and shot size. A Vang-comped barrel will keep buckshot tight out to 40 yds and foster slugs will still hold 'minute-of-torso' at 100yds. Rifled barrels in a 12 ga are for sport hunters, not for social work.
Anonymous said... September 14, 2009 9:20 PM
slugs work fine from ... smoothbore... I use Winchester rifled slugs in my 20 guage [.75oz 1600fps] and the results are much better, then for plain slugs. Rifling on the slug is almost as good as in the barrel, makes the gun more versatile too. I have yet to find the same load for a 12. Accuracy is not just for sport hunters. Though for 'social work' either would do.
Anonymous said... September 13, 2009 1:09 AM
close centrifugal forces are those which act within the centrifuge [spinnig closed system]an aggragete mass within a spining closed system will seperate with the denser particles moving outward toward the rim. Your analogy of the spining object on a string, replace the string with a rubber band and spin. The force holding the object outwards is centripedal, the force felt on the elastic band pulling inward is centrifugal. The faster you spin the object the further outward the object moves increasing the centrifugal energy 'stored' in the rubber band. This force is present even with a string it just becomes easier to feel with the elastic tether. If this force only worked when the string broke centrifuges would not seperate milk from cream, or centrate from biosolids. When the string breaks that becomes angular momentum.
Some of us don't have a fully rifled barrel, like me. I've got a rifled choke for my 1100 Magnum. I'd love to know how it would perform with 00 Buck . . .
So if I have an interchangeable rifled barrel and an interchangeable smooth bore barrel, which one is best for hunting in thin brush at 40 yds, and with what ammo? I've been a field hunter all my life and am trying out brush hunting this year.