.410 slugs for upland bird/Expected accuracy of .410 slug

[LRshooter6.5]

Okay…hear me out. Regardless of your stance on shooting grounded birds, this is more of a question of its possibility and to see if anyone has done it.

Could you legally use a .410 rifles slug to shoot a pheasant? I live in WY and the regs only mention you have to use a shotgun, nothing about slugs or not. I'm thinking you could legally put an optic on a .410 and shoot a grounded pheasent. Seems plausible?

Also, what kind of accuracy can you expect from a .410 rifled slug? 25, 50, 75, 100 yards?

 

[David_h]

Bird shot might be good up to 75 yards. Say #2 with full choke.

 

[LRshooter6.5]

Bird shot might be good up to 75 yards. Say #2 with full choke.

Thanks but specifically looking for slugs. I'm a rifle guy and prefer looking through a magnified optic.

 

[amu_shooter]

From what I've learned here lately, the TSS shot combined with the TPS Wad from Ballistic Products is nothing short of amazing.

 

[LRshooter6.5]

From what I've learned here lately, the TSS shot combined with the TPS Wad from Ballistic Products is nothing short of amazing.

Any video or pictures of groups. What is expected at longer ranges?

Unfortunately since I don't reload. I might be out of luck with what Ballistic Products offers

 

[amu_shooter]

Yeah, if you don't reload, you are at the mercy of what's available. I reload most of my shotgun stuff.

If you need slugs I have some Win. commercial stuff you are welcome to.

 

[LRshooter6.5]

Yeah, if you don't reload, you are at the mercy of what's available. I reload most of my shotgun stuff.

If you need slugs I have some Win. commercial stuff you are welcome to.

Thanks for the offer but right now this is just a concept to see if it's possible to get close to 1" at 50 yards

 

[CRJR45]

Seems to me there wouldn't be anything left to eat after you shoot it with a slug ?

 

[Ckgworks]

I've played quite a bit with shotgun slugs, a little with 410, mostly 12 and 20. Here are my observations......sights play a big part in accuracy so with a scope you're covered. However, most shotgun don't have great scope mounting option unless designed for slugs. Most of mine have rifle sights added. You are also at the mercy of the barrel itself......especially 410 single shots. Some almost look curved to hit where pointed. None of the 410s I used showed any potential for extreme accuracy. I have not yet tried them in my over under savage that has rifle sights though. You never mentioned a specific gun which I think is a huge part of your equation. I think if you seriously want 1" groups at 50 yards you're going to need to build or heavily modify a existing 410 shotgun. Another option that may get you there is to buy a Contender pistol/rifle and buy or build a 410 barrel for it. You're still at the mercy of factory slugs though. Always fun to milk the last bit of performance from a gun or cartridge but it can come at a great cost. I can't tell you how small a group you can squeeze out, I have never bothered trying harder that hitting a 6" gong or bottles at 100. Most of the deer are shot much closer than that in shotgun units here. I haven't looked lately, but growing up it was legal to hunt grouse with rimfire, we would use rifles and take head shots, so I never really considered that shooting grounded birds.

 

[dogbuster0006]

I'm not a slug guy so I can't recommend ammo choice/consistency but, with a solid optic I'd say minute of softball at 50yd should be easy enough. We shot grouse and ptarmigan with 22 rifle/pistols in Alaska regularly. With current ammo prices and availability it'll probably be cost prohibitive. The stevens 301 turkey guns have a decent optics base, screw in chokes that would be my choice of starting points. Got one for the kids on sale for around $250 with a red dot already installed. With tss and factory choke I know they'll kill turkey at 40yd.

 

[Fiftydriver]

unless your targeting turkey size birds, i would bet your effective range would be not much more then 40 yards at best. depends on the firearm for sure as some shoot slugs better then others but i have seen some that would not be able to hit a pheasant size target past 20 yards and that would be aiming center body.

 

[LRshooter6.5]

Thanks for the input everyone. The rifle would more than likely be a Rossi single shot Tuffy. Heard good things about them.

 

[RB II]

We shoot slugs in tactical shotgun training exercises. I have a Mossberg semi auto that will shoot good quality slugs to about 2" for three shots at 100 yds. Never actually measured them for MOA!!! Probably not tight enough to consistently take a pheasant at 100 yds. But we aren't training to shoot pheasant.

 

[Coyote Shadow Tracker]

Okay…hear me out. Regardless of your stance on shooting grounded birds, this is more of a question of its possibility and to see if anyone has done it.

Could you legally use a .410 rifles slug to shoot a pheasant? I live in WY and the regs only mention you have to use a shotgun, nothing about slugs or not. I'm thinking you could legally put an optic on a .410 and shoot a grounded pheasent. Seems plausible?

Also, what kind of accuracy can you expect from a .410 rifled slug? 25, 50, 75, 100 yards?

Why would you want to shoot a bird on the ground and take the challenge out of "Wing Shooting"?
I see you reasoning on Pheasants because they can and do run on the ground ahead and past shotgun range before flight. That is where "Flushing Bird Dogs" come in.