New product for 2013

[hornet22savage]

Hornady is releasing a new sabot slug for 2013. Its a 300 gr. MonoFlex 95% copper 5% zinc and being propelled by their new superformance powder susposed to be 1950 at the muzzle. The bullet looks a lot better than the old SST and is still has the flex tip. I can't wait to try these.

[Deleted]

But the Hornady website says they will cost almost $4 more per box than the old SST's.

[hornet22savage]

First off thats MSRP which you almost never pay in the stores and secondly I'm willing to bet the MonoFlex is a way better bullet that the old SST ever though of being. I have seen so many of those bullets fail its not funny.

[Deleted]

I'll definitely be giving them a try when they hit the shelves.

[wilmsmeyer]

Now we can kill anything from chipmuncks to charging grizzly bears, with confidence, using the old 12 gauge. Kind of amazing when I think about it....maybe the best all round cartridge ever made.

I think if I lived somewhere like Alaska I would be carrying a 12 gauge if I had to spend longs times in the woods. Bird shot of various sizes for small game. Buckshot and fosters for medium game and personal defense. And incredible solid slugs like this to shoot a moose or griz and maybe smash both shoulders and get an exit!

[Deleted]

I agree. It's amazing to see how far they have come in the last 10 years even. I used to be petrified when I pulled the trigger on a deer with the 12 ga for fear of how far it would run and if I'd be able to get off a follow up shot. Now we can just flatten them in their tracks and even at distances that we thought were impossible back then. Hats off to slug manufacturers and technology!

[wilmsmeyer]

BAM!

[artjr338wm]

Did a search none in stock, but found them for $14.99 at Midway USA and for $15.99 a box at GM. I have enjoyed superb terminal performance and excellent accuracy using Partition Gold's and Federal's Barnes Tipped Expanders, so they will have to be superformance performers for me to change.
Made a 198yrd shot on a nice 10pt with the Winchester P/G's. Broad side shot complete pass through and the deer's lungs were a grizzly mess with a good entrance hole, but a golf ball sized exit hole, buck was DRT. Near exact same performance with the Federal/Barnes.

[tar12]

The problem with these super fast slugs is the most common barrel twists will not stabilize them very well. I remember shooting the SSTs out of my Tar-Hunt. They were ALL over the place.I wish the gun manufactures would step it up in this regard.

[mrbuck]

tar12...
Do you think the super fast slugs might need a faster twist than the now more common 1 in 28 twist ?

[Deleted]

Tar & 10, faster twist barrels does sound like the logical fix to get slug guns to shoot these new fast sabot slugs better, what I don't understand is my Ithaca DS3 is a 1/35 twist barrel, and it shoots the Accutips and XP3's lights out. Why? Is it the 26" length? Or is it the fact that it is permanently attached to the receiver? Could it be that it is such a heavy walled barrel?
Doesn't make sense, but it shoots one hole groups at 100 with almost all the fast sabot slugs if I do my part. Whatever the reason, either Ithaca knew something I don't, or I got lucky and got a winner.
It also shot the Win partition golds and Rem ultra core locts just as well...

[Deleted]

Maybe it's in the rifling? Deeper, shallower, smoother??? Something must be different? Any ideas?

[wilmsmeyer]

With a slower twist barrel, faster velocity should only help stabilization, not hurt

[mrbuck]

TarHunt thinks the 21" barrel length is correct . I think Ithaca did everything correct right out of the starting gate . Permanently attached to the receiver , a super heavy thick walled barrel that is not touching or connected to the magazine tube ( like the newer Remington 760's that also shoot well ) . I think a smooth barrel with deep rifling that may help with the variations in sabot diameters . I would also think a very short ( or none at all ) forcing cone would help start the sabot with out a lot of "free bore " .

[tar12]

What I know for fact is that the SSTs were not stabilizing in my Tar-Hunt. The reason? I assumed that the fast SSTs were to blame.The slower offerings shot SO much better with the Light-Fields hands down the winners.I do not know if a faster twist is the answer but would like to know....

[Deleted]

I am curious as well. The new Ithaca's are 1-28", I believe. Of course this is under new ownership compared to when the older ones like mine were built, but they had a reasoning for speeding up the twist over the original DSIII's.
tar, the Hornady slugs have shot the worst for me personally out of every slug gun I've tried them from, when compared to all the other saboted "fast" slugs. This dates back to the first Hornady sabot slugs, whatever they were, I still have some I use for foulers. Guns I've tried them out of: DSIII(12ga), Ultra Slug Heavy Barrel(12ga), Savage 220, Remington 870 Super Slug(12ga).
Whether it's a good opinion or not, Hornady slugs are at the bottom of my list.

Several years ago, my neighbor bought a Tar-Hunt slug gun(not sure of model number, but it was the high dollar bolt action one), he went thru hundreds of dollars of ammo and never could get it to shoot to satisfaction, I know he sent the gun back at least once and maybe twice, end result, he had to shoot Lightfields out of it to get any accuracy at all, and even with Lightfields, it wasn't up to par. Not sure what the problem was, but he ended up getting rid of it. Maybe the short barrel is to blame?? IDK

[jims]

The widest deer and at the longest yardage was with my TarHunt with SSTs. I however have not used it in about 10 years I think. It shot a bit over 1.5 inches at 100 yards but since I started shooting the Savage muzzleloader I never returned to the slug gun because the ML was more accurate and faster.
Before everyone gets concerned the shot under 160 yards and even today a long shot with the ML would be under 200 but none of those have been taken yet.
Since that was about 10 years ago I do not know what changes they have made in the slugs. My TarHunt did not shoot the Lightfields quite as well but still under 2 inches.

[Deleted]

Anybody shot these slugs yet? Results?
Just got some, hoping to try them out soon.

[Deleted]

I haven't even ran across any yet but at the same time I haven't been looking. Watching and waiting with anticipation on how they shoot for you Josh. What gun will you be shooting them from? Plz share your results with us after you shoot them. Always willing to try something new.
Thanks in advance.

[Deleted]

I'll be shooting them out of my SX3.
I've had great luck with the SST's, so I figured I'd try out a few of the new Hornady's.
It might be a few weeks before I get a chance to shoot.

[Deleted]

Hornady SSTs $9
Hornady Superformance $12

The Superformance bullets shot a 2" 3-shot group and then the next 2 shots opened up to 8" or so.

The SSTs the first 2 bullets were almost touching and the 5 shot group was 4" or so, with a very warm barrel.

The Superformance slugs shot decent, but they don't expand at all. A couple of the petals actually pushed inward. They look like a Remington copper solid bullet when I pulled them out of the sand pile.

The SST slug expanded to 1.15"

I'm going to stick with the SST's...

[Deleted]

Thanks for the update, I was wondering if you had been shooting the slug gun yet.
Have you ever tried the Winchester Partition Golds or the Remington Core Locts?
Those both always shot exceptional groups for me, but expansion on deer was poor... so I made the switch to the accutips.. My gun doesnt care for Hornady slugs....
Thanks again..

[mrbuck]

ohioguy ,
Your Ithaca would shoot police RUBBER crowd control slugs great !

[Deleted]

Oct 3, 2014 16:40:01 GMT -5 mrbuck said:

ohioguy ,
Your Ithaca would shoot police RUBBER crowd control slugs great !

IDK about that, but I've never shot anything out of it that I would be totally uncomfortable with in the deer woods, some slugs are just better than others, as in any gun/bullet combo. Luckily for me the two slugs I shoot the most Accutips and XP3's impact the same at 50 and 100 yards, so I can throw either in it and go hunting with no worries.

[hornet22savage]

The poor expansion of the new Hornady Slug in due to it being a Monoflex and not a lead core bullet. I don't know what your media was but try some water filled milk jugs backed by some wet phone books. My bass pro had them on sale around this time last year never saw them on the shelf. Sold out before I got there and were never there again.

[Deleted]

Oct 4, 2014 7:21:54 GMT -5 hornet22savage said:

The poor expansion of the new Hornady Slug in due to it being a Monoflex and not a lead core bullet. I don't know what your media was but try some water filled milk jugs backed by some wet phone books. My bass pro had them on sale around this time last year never saw them on the shelf. Sold out before I got there and were never there again.

But what if the slug goes straight through the ribs?
Won't it do the same thing? No expansion.

It was shot through a 3/4" sheet of plywood, then part of a wood pallet, then into the sand pile.

You guys are correct.
All slug barrels/guns are different when it comes to what the gun likes.
5 of us in our hunting party have Browning Gold, Silver or Winchester SX3 slug guns.
Those barrels shoot SSTs the best.

Your gun/barrel might shoot another brand better.

I've never had much luck with the Partition Golds or Core-Lokts.
One of my friends has a 870 slug gun and it shoots the Core-Lokts great.

[esshup]

Tar-12, in my TarHunt I found that the 2 3/4" SST's were all over the place too, that is until I tried a different lot number. Roughly 1" group at 100 yds from the bench and a lead sled. I went back and bought 20 boxes of that same lot number. Now if I'm going to use that gun, I'll shoot one to verify POI hasn't changed and I'm good to go. I went thru 3 different lot numbers before I hit the magic one.

Back then, I heard that they had one set of dies that was from the R&D shop for production, and the others were made strictly for the production shop. The R&D dies got used less frequently and they seemed to consistently group better. I have nothing to substantiate that story tho.....