Am I expecting too much from slugs?

[madeintheuk]

I wasn’t originally going to post this, as the slug game is a long and drawn out process in finding a slug that works with the gun and speed you want. However, lately it seems like there’s been more offerings in the slug market, and those offerings seem to be less “fussy” with speed and twist rate.
For the majority of my airgun journey, I’ve never needed to use slugs, but they’ve always intrigued me, and I’ve always wanted to be able to shoot them. Last week I had the opportunity to get some range time in with a good friend, and while I overwhelmed myself by taking too many of my guns, I did try a variety of slugs out of 2 of them, and while they grouped great at 25yds (im sure they all do), at 50 and up, they were all over the place. Now I didn’t adjust speed, or play with anything on the guns. I literally loaded up a few, and shot them. I was disappointed (obviously) with the results, but at the same time, got to thinking. Am I expecting too much from slugs? Without having a “dedicated” slug shooter, and shooting primarily pellets from my guns, am I expecting too much out of a slug, or out of the gun I’m shouting?

There’s a lot of talk lately about slugs replacing pellets, but in my book, pellets will always be my primary ammo, unless I can buy a slug for a similar price, and shoot them at the same speeds I am with pellets and getting similar accuracy.

Am I asking too much?

 

[beerthief]

no your not asking to much . IMHO a slug should be designed for common barrels yes maybe more power or FPS because of weight but i would not change barrels just to shoot slugs

 

[Deleted member 45749]

I have tried lots of slugs and none would group better than 1 inch at 25 y , I tried so many speeds and weights , I have 2 guns and just could not get any nice groups out of any of them

 

[Jlowe]

Depends on which airgun you're shooting them out of. My Maverick Snipers, 22 and 25cal shoot just about any slug accurately that I have tried. It has been really easy to get them to shoot accurately. I had a Taipan VL 22cal once that was the total opposite.

 

[dizzums]

i dont know .. sometimes it a game to wring maximum performance out of anything and throw your wallet the kitchen sink and everthing else at it for no real reason lol .. im into guns, always have been, ive shot a wide variety of things out of pellet guns including catfood lol .. nothing expressly against slugs other than its a waste of money in a 'pellet' gun your plinking with .. the barrel isnt right for them, its not ported and set up for them, but hey, you can buy a 3k$ gun specifically for them and go act like you know what your doing at a public range .. if thats your thing then by all means, knock yourself out .. around the house though under 100 really, walmart ammo is the way to go for me .. 6-7bucks a tin and im all set ..

 

[madeintheuk]

i dont know .. sometimes it a game to wring maximum performance out of anything and throw your wallet the kitchen sink and everthing else at it for no real reason lol .. im into guns, always have been, ive shot a wide variety of things out of pellet guns including catfood lol .. nothing expressly against slugs other than its a waste of money in a 'pellet' gun your plinking with .. the barrel isnt right for them, its not ported and set up for them, but hey, you can buy a 3k$ gun specifically for them and go act like you know what your doing at a public range .. if thats your thing then by all means, knock yourself out .. around the house though under 100 really, walmart ammo is the way to go for me .. 6-7bucks a tin and im all set ..

While I totally agree with you, slugs have their place in our sport. I think what I’m trying to say in my thread is, when you look at all these YouTubers shooting sub moa at 100+ yards with slugs, and then you go to the range thinking you can do the same, but don’t get anywhere close to those groups, even though the gun you’re shooting is “supposed” to be designed fo shoot slugs. It’s a little disheartening to find that you cannot seem to shoot them accurately, but there is constant talk about them being a replacement For pellets in the near future. Not to mention, with the cost of pellets going up, and slugs staying pretty much stagnant, there’s a genuine possibility that in the near future, slugs will be cheaper than pellets.

 

[Keith2324]

It takes a reasonable amount research with "your" particular gun to find the correct slug. I have a number of rifles and they all shoot slugs very well. But it took some time to nail down which each gun loved. They may have "liked" a certain slug, and those I use for target practice and plinking. But the ones it loves, I keep those for when I really want to get serious. You must get a handle on the FPS and twist rates of your guns. And don't worry about what those YouTubers do in their videos. They are putting in hours upon hours to get the results they are. Keep in mind some people just want to hit the gnat, while others want to hit the gnat's whiskers. Good luck and happy shootin'!

 

[Deleted member 45749]

Depends on which airgun you're shooting them out of. My Maverick Snipers, 22 and 25cal shoot just about any slug accurately that I have tried. It has been really easy to get them to shoot accurately. I had a Taipan VL 22cal once that was the total opposite.

airforce condor .22 and delta wolf .22

 

[Gerry52]

I gave up the fascination with slugs after I learned that Original Smooth Twist barrels WILL NOT shoot them consistently or accurately. I try to not let all the 200+ yard shot claims & videos pull me into the "I wants". What's the dif if I schwack a squirrel head at 135 yards with a pellet or a slug? There IS a very satisfying "pop" when slugs hit their intended target but is it worth the large investment of time & money to hear it? Not to me! Don't buy into the hype & be happy with what you've got

 

[oneshot61]

In the smaller calibers it’s hard to beat pellets for quantity for price. As the bore gets bigger there a bullet vendors that match or beat pellet price. But for me, I shoot both, depending on where and what i am shooting. Pellets slow down faster and for some that’s a benefit If your target shooting and neighbors are close or taking out a marauding invader into the chicken coop. Those who have longer ranges to shoot definitely benefit from the bc of bullets. I see a place for both in the sport.

 

[davhowrd]

I understand the headache and some of the confusion with slugs. As I learned, everything has a place and purpose. Pellets, IMO, is GREAT for anything within 100 yards. With a FPS accuracy cap of around 920fps max without spiraling; distance is cut short. Not saying that longer shots can's be made. After a 100 yards the energy level is falling like a brick. If you really want to go down this rabbit hole, know your needed projectile size. 22's range from .215 up to .2185, knowing what your barrel truly is just one step. Then comes the tuning, slugs like speed, FPS. Unlike pellet which can fly straight super slow (sub 400 fps) and group well. Slugs are Great for high speed, long range, power tunes. The energy needed to move the same grain pellet is higher for a slug. Be ready to use a little more air. What I've seen is that with enough ingenuity and tuning, you can create a powerful, high shot count, efficient, tack driver, and still have fun trying.

 

[rigbymauser]

The airgun industry still have lot to learn. If one wanted to shoot 20grain .177cal slugs or 60grain .25cal slugs, one ought to be able to call the manufacture to hear if their guns are set up for this. Don`t tell me the manufactures don`t test with every possibly pellet/slug out there!.
To this day its still the consumer who has to experiment whether what works or not. Its still guesswork whether you won the lottery or not.
Slugs works wonders if they are accurate.

 

[N2 Shooter]

The reason people are having poor results with slugs are simple. Many slugs aren't engineered to be shot out of airgun barrels at airgun velocities. Right now there are a boatload of slugs from different manufacturers that jumped on the bandwagon, but how many of them were specifically engineered to perform?

My FX Maverick VP .30cal shoots 44.5gr FX Hybrid Slugs wonderfully out to 125+ yards (the farthest tested) at 930fps for 85fpe, using the stock Superior STX Liner with a twist rate of 1:26. FX states that the gun can do 107fpe using 65.5gr at 859fps. But in the next breath, FX will sell you the Superior Heavy Liner with a 1:18 twist rate to deal with the heavy slugs.

I also recommend anyone that can get the FX Hybrid Slugs of your caliber of choice, and compare its surface finish to every other slug you have, just to see that the FX slugs are of elevated manufacturing quality to the competition.

 

[L.Leon]

You hear comments from users... "My gun shoots slugs accurately", or, "it shoots slugs well". These statements offer no metrics, groups at what distance? Do the slugs group as good as your best pellets from 25-75 yards?... What is the average size of these slug groups? How about day to day accuracy and consistency? My pellet shooters (1/2"-3/4" @ 50 yards) in good conditions with JSB Exact Jumbos. My PCPs may someday try slugs for fun. But I'm sticking with pellets, have been very accurate on a daily basis over the years...

 

[Centercut]

While I totally agree with you, slugs have their place in our sport. I think what I’m trying to say in my thread is, when you look at all these YouTubers shooting sub moa at 100+ yards with slugs, and then you go to the range thinking you can do the same, but don’t get anywhere close to those groups, even though the gun you’re shooting is “supposed” to be designed to shoot slugs. It’s a little disheartening to find that you cannot seem to shoot them accurately, but there is constant talk about them being a replacement For pellets in the near future. Not to mention, with the cost of pellets going up, and slugs staying pretty much stagnant, there’s a genuine possibility that in the near future, slugs will be cheaper than pellets.

And therein lies the rub.... Watching all those videos you would "think" that those guns are straight off the shelf, air them up, load the magazine, and shoot. Unfortunately, that's rarely the case.

Speaking from experience, you can set up your gun EXACTLY the same as the 'tubers, same barrel (liner), same speed, same tune, same slug, and you will RARELY get the same results. Why? Please, you don't think those liners aren't cherry picked? Now, by luck of the draw, you MAY get one that actually does shoot like that. Maybe....

But it takes time, experimentation with liners and slugs, plus experimenting with the tune as far as reg pressure, HST, slug speed, etc. I've gone through this TWICE in the past year, once with a .22 Maverick 600mm Superior Heavy NSA 31.2 at 960 FPS, and Meh performance at best. Then again with a .25 Impact 700mm Superior Heavy, ZAN 41 at 945 FPS, and again, Meh performance. In both cases these exact settings had been used by champion FX factory shooters to do extremely well in recent competitions.

Sometimes you get lucky and win the liner lottery. And contrary to what you see in very popular 'tuber FX videos, all liners are NOT exactly the same as they would have you believe, just as all regular barrels aren't the same...

Maybe I'm a sucker, but I'm going to do it one more time. I had a chance this past Saturday to shoot Justin Welch's NRL-22 National Champion and RMAC 3rd place PRS Impact, and its AMAZING! He's shooting 700mm Slug A liner with .2165 NSA 31.2 grain slugs at 1050 FPS. I shot a couple 5 shot groups at 100 yards and none were much larger than 1/2 inch. Then I shot again at 146 yards (that's as far as his home range goes) and it hit 2 inch spinners regularly in tricky winds. But the most impressive thing about his gun is the TUNE. It shoots those 31.2 grain very fast, and yet off the bench the gun has ZERO recoil, zero movement, and it felt like I was shooting a 20 FPE .177 FT gun. And I'm not exaggerating! So here I go down that rabbit hole one more time. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, fool me thrice...? We'll see....

 

[tibor]

learned a lot from this post..wondered myself.

 

[SpiralGroove]

Hey UK Made,
In my limited experience, I have not found a slug that can outperform pellets at 50 yards.
I was lucky enough to get a few 5 shot (slug) groups below 1" at 100 yards with ZAN slugs. So far pellets can't give me 1 MOA at 100 yards.
Since I don't compete ..... I don't know why I keep trying, but I do.

 

[LDP]

Pay close attention to the big youtubers videos shooting slugs. You will see scope cam evidence that shows and proves they are not as consistent as they claim or would like them to be. Its all marketing hype to get people to buy a product. I have seen shot after shot where the slug hits a good distance off the mark and the video shows the wind to not be the factor. Slugs have better ballistics over pellets but until they are spot on group after group or shot after shot and not just one or two groups or shots cherry picked they are not a pellet replacement. I still like my pellet rifles shooting pellets even if I could get consistent tight groups from slugs. I would only have use for slugs in very special situations and I have rimfires or centerfire rifles that cover anything I cant get done with a pellet. Everyone has their own needs and wants so its ok if people think slugs are the way to go and its ok if pellet shooters never use slugs. I do think they have a ways to go with slug performance in order to get consistent results across the board rifle to rifle.

 

[thumper]

......it's almost like the entire gun and system must have been designed to shoot.......pellets.

 

[cahil_2]

I got caught up in the slug game because I am a hunter and a pester. All I care is that I can hit a starling or pigeon out to 100 yards and beyond and my .22 cal mk2 can do it with 25 grain JSB Knockouts at 930 fps. The knockdown power is so much more than pellets. I also have an A liner in mine. All I have to do is turn the power wheel down to 1 and I can shoot 18.1 grain pellets. It will also shoot 25 grain redesigns at almost the same poi as the slugs. The redesigns poi is about 1 inch lower. I didn’t find tuning to be that difficult and I am glad my gun shoots slugs well. No regrets.