Which slugs to use

[shaman]

I looked it up, and you're right.  What was stuck in my head was those striations are called "rifling."

The Foster slug's fins are there to reduce the bearing surface and therefore reduce friction on the barrel, and secondarily allow a certain amount of fire-forming if they encounter a choke.  The Foster slug was built to work like a badminton shuttlecock with the center of gravity in the nose.

I've shot a bunch of slugs  in a rifled barrel that weren't sabotted, and never had any leading.  However, I always made sure they were meant for rifled barrels.

[B3N1706]

I use Hornady's 2000fps sabot slugs out of my mossberg 500 slugster w/ a rifled barrel. I bought a few brands and tried them all. The rest wouldn't hold a 10 inch group at 100 yds (federal, remington, winchester) but the hornady sabot made about a 1-2 in. group at 100. That's good enough for me, plus they have plenty of power to make the rare long shot. Last year I dropped a nice 7pt buck in his tracks at 150 yds. Only had to aim about 3 inches high and he just flopped. Whats important though is experimentation, different rifled barrels like different rounds. I am sure the hornady won't work in other barrels like it does mine and vis versa.