Do slugs wear out your barrel
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Not mine, no.
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ALL ROUNDS DOWN THE TUBE WEAR OUT BARRELS.
There is an infinite number of tests to determine which slugs are more destructive than others.
Unless you are throwing 10K rounds down range per year, don't generate ulcers about the wear. Barrels are cheap and if you toss that much lead, get a sponsor!
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Why won't you shoot them? Are you unsure your loading practices were sound? Why would you want someone else to risk their gun and face when you are unwilling to do so?
A slug is lead. A barrel is steel. How much wear can their be?
A slug is lead. A barrel is steel. How much wear can their be?
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Many orginal Brown Bess Musket over 250 years old are in shootable condition. These guns have fired tons of lead balls and are not worn
out. These were not patched rounds.
out. These were not patched rounds.
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A Shooting Forum Moderator should not challange any member to "Blow his face off. That is way over the top.
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Durango, your comparison is ill-fitting, play on words intended.Many orginal Brown Bess Musket over 250 years old are in shootable condition. These guns have fired tons of lead balls and are not worn
out. These were not patched rounds.
A shotgun slug is designed to obturate, to seal off, the gas pushing it from being wasted and passing around it. The metal slug itself, or parts thereof, uniformly engage the barrel especially at the choke which, if there is any, swage the always softer-than-steel lead alloy. With me so far? Rifled slugs are actually big minie-balls of a sort, and the rifling lands are actually more there to reduce friction and optimize swaging.
A Brown Bess (let's call it a Short Land Pattern or even 2nd Model) on the other hand had a bore considerably wider than the diameter of the ball. All smooth bore military muskets used this feature. Why? Blackpowder guns foul. Fact. With a tight fit the ball would have to be rammed and soon the gun would be unfireable, the gun inoperable, and the soldier less useful. A loose ball could fall down even a somewhat dirty barrel and be pushed gently the rest of the way to safely fire, cleaning some of the fouling out on the way, and the soldier stay in the shooting-match all the live-long day. Benefit. In theory. And practical it was for its time.
Of course it made the Bess less accurate as the bullet was going in different directions depending on the last part of the barrel it happened to rattle off of last on its way down the tube towards the enemy. That's why you could pretty safely stand 100 yards away from a single Redcoat. If they bothered to take carefual aim at you (which was not part of their doctrine and hard to do without a rear sight anyway) they were not going to hit you. No wear to speak of in any case.
A shotgun, on the otherhand, will always have a microscopic amount of wholly insignificant wear with a slug. My guess is the OP's friends are concerned the powder charge is really nitro-glycerine and the slug is a solid billet of industrial diamond 'cause it didn't come out of a factory. I am not justifying their decision but I might understand it...
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I shoot Brown Bess muskets. Many different ball sizes are and were used. The balls are often very tight in carbon filled bores. And yes a BB can take out a man sized target at over 100 yds. with aimed shots. You should visit a Smooth Gun match and see some real world musket shooting. The stories you are refering to are interesting but are short on facts.
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No...........Lead is to soft to wear down steel. It is not the bullet that wears on your bore as much as it is the BURN of propellant.
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I suppose if his dad is talking fixed full chokes and rifled slugs he "might" have a tiny,tiny rightious point,but on an unchoked gun,its going to do nothing to the gun...people usually exclusivley shoot sabot slugs in rifled barrels anyways so that's another point,rifled slugs are designed for smoothbores.
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I have a mossberg 500 and shoot buck slugs birds all the time never does anything at all to my weapon including the barrel idk were your dad got that info but he'd wrong
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Durango, you should take your unique insight and unbelievable expertise to the blackpowder forum...I shoot Brown Bess muskets. Many different ball sizes are and were used. The balls are often very tight in carbon filled bores. And yes a BB can take out a man sized target at over 100 yds. with aimed shots. You should visit a Smooth Gun match and see some real world musket shooting. The stories you are refering to are interesting but are short on facts.
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Hey Durango, that reminded me, if you get down here to the rendezvous, we should plan to get together, again.
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Bill I hope to make it down your way. As you know I follow the winter shoots across the South West. I really need to do some Kansas shoots. I will have to check out the Kansas State shoot also. I hope you are "Judge" Bill very soon. Hotch I post regular on Muzzleloader.com under a different name.
Hotch I post regular on Muzzleloader.com under a different name.
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We are runnin and gunnin,,,its gonna be tight
I'll see if I can get any straight answers out of the Kansas Rifle Association or the Kansas Muzzleloaders Association, since I'm members of both,,,,they ought to have a list of fall shoots,,,its just to dam hot now to go out. It has run over 100 degrees for almost a month now. I am not going to go out and end up sick in that stuff.
We'll make some plans later.
I'll see if I can get any straight answers out of the Kansas Rifle Association or the Kansas Muzzleloaders Association, since I'm members of both,,,,they ought to have a list of fall shoots,,,its just to dam hot now to go out. It has run over 100 degrees for almost a month now. I am not going to go out and end up sick in that stuff.
We'll make some plans later.
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