Am I expecting too much from slugs?

[mercado]

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....

You are my hero.. you are the only one who could speak the absolute truth n you post don't get deleted.. if I ever purchase a FX gun will be because of you ..I'm not joking.. o n there is absolutely no body that dare to say the contrary...because the only reason a fourum like this should exist is to help others in the hobby to make decisions based on the truth.. I have tried but I imagine it sounded pretty bad I almost got banned..

 

[thomasair]

Here is what a good 39 gr .22 slug and barrel (and maybe shooter) combo can do at 100y at 850fps. The 10 5 shot groups averaged .66 moa.

Airgun at 100y Rimfire BR Match

I got invited to shoot with the Orchard Mesa Gun Club guys at their monthly 100y Rimfire match. Everyone there was really nice and very inquisitive about my slug gun. Great group of guys. They shoot 2 cards at 100y. The first is the IBS Hunter 200y target, and the second is the IBS 100y...

www.airgunnation.com

 

[Centercut]

You are my hero.. you are the only one who could speak the absolute truth n you post don't get deleted.. if I ever purchase a FX gun will be because of you ..I'm not joking.. o n there is absolutely no body that dare to say the contrary...because the only reason a fourum like this should exist is to help others in the hobby to make decisions based on the truth.. I have tried but I imagine it sounded pretty bad I almost got banned..

Ha! I’d hope I wouldn’t get banned speaking truth to power, but you never know. Nothing I ever say on here is made up. If I’d didn’t experience it first hand I say so.
The slug guns I’m working to perfect aren’t 20 pound bull barrel bench guns, they are PRS type guns used in practical shooting. Nothing wrong with those guns, and the Thomas guns are at the top of the heap. I’ve seen them shoot first hand and they are amazing - for their intended purpose - which is not the direction I want to go or intend to go.
Yes, I shoot 100Y or 75Y BR at RMAC or EBR but those are pellet guns, and although I’ve done ok, not my primary focus. I like the newest form of FT, the Extreme Field Target, regular FT to a lesser extent, and am starting down the PRS rabbit hole. I’m also a sucker for the Speed events.

 

[Vidwize]

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.

The new gen 2 hollow points are just what I don’t want for hunting. No meat left . Unless you want shredded squirrel meat. I tested and hunted with Green mountain barrels for black powder for years savored pistol bullets would not shoot out of factory twists so we found 1/18 twist for shorter barrels or a 1/32 for longer barrels worked great so looking at air gun slugs .. the same math works with these air guns. It’s all about the velocity and twist and length of your barrels. Simple. It’s not rocket science. Lol

 

[N2 Shooter]

The new gen 2 hollow points are just what I don’t want for hunting. No meat left . Unless you want shredded squirrel meat. I tested and hunted with Green mountain barrels for black powder for years savored pistol bullets would not shoot out of factory twists so we found 1/18 twist for shorter barrels or a 1/32 for longer barrels worked great so looking at air gun slugs .. the same math works with these air guns. It’s all about the velocity and twist and length of your barrels. Simple. It’s not rocket science. Lol

I have no problem with meat loss with these slugs. I also have no issues with Hades or Exact pellets.

I guess if your acceptable accuracy limits are not so tight, then you may be okay with traditional barrels, especially if you shoot game under 50 yards. But there are significant advantages to using polygonal barrels for long range accuracy. Sub MOA accuracy at 100 yards is achievable.

But optimal twist rates are determined by the length of the ammo, not the barrel.

 

[Vidwize]

I have no problem with meat loss with these slugs. I also have no issues with Hades or Exact pellets.

I guess if your acceptable accuracy limits are not so tight, then you may be okay with traditional barrels, especially if you shoot game under 50 yards. But there are significant advantages to using polygonal barrels for long range accuracy. Sub MOA accuracy at 100 yards is achievable.

But optimal twist rates are determined by the length of the ammo, not the barrel.

Lol ……. Now I’ve heard it all ….. it’s always a combo issue. I like the guys reinventing the air gun itself …. My Brocock commander XR magnum shoots as good as I need …… sub moa at 100 yards is just fine for my small game hunting for now

Picture is My hundred yard target. Using knock out in 25.38gr. 217cal

My future needs may change Who knows.

 

[sonnysan]

Slugs are no mystery. I've been shooting them for years out of old AA and Daystate guns. In fact, that's all I've shot except for Korean guns that shoot pellets.
Slug your barrel and find the twist rate:

How to Slug an Airgun Barrel

This process is designed to educate the user to minimize wasting money on slugs where the probability of randomly purchasing slugs that shoot inaccura...

airgunwarriors.com

https://airgunwarriors.com/community/airgun-talk/air-arms-410e-velocity-and-spread-checked-mine-and-wonder-if-problem/#post-56694

Try NSA first, H&N second, and ZAN third. I follow a standard formula. If I can group slugs the same or better than pellets at a given distance, then I'm using slugs in that gun. The projectile is in another league when it comes to wind drift and hold over. Tagging a squirrel at 50 yards with a AA S400 (26FPE) .22 when the gun is sighted in at 30 yards with one mil holdover using a .217 23gr. NSA slug at 3x? It's not that hard to do in the right hands.