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Despite heated discussion on other forums about using slugs for leopard, in drillings no less (!), things have been a bit quiet on the shotgun forum for a while so I thought I’d toss the subject up again here. There have been some (very loooong!) threads in the past on using a side-by-side sluggie as a poor-mans double: Yogi and others on related forums have gone to great lengths to justify big game hunting, even dangerous game hunting, with the shotgun slug. Interesting stuff......

It transpires that the Brenneke is probably the best choice for a smooth-bore slug which behaves successfully on big game. Rather than the hollow lead cup Foster-style projectile popular in the US for whitetail, Brennekes are true solids, relying on a permanently-attached base-wad of fibre or plastic to remain stable in flight. Made of hardened lead, they are apparently designed not to deform or mushroom. With emphasis on penetration rather than expansion, the Brenneke slug is well-proven on Northern Territory buffalo over many decades of use, and has successfully taken cape buff.

Brenneke slugs recovered from buffalo.

Some of the Brenneke offerings on the Rottweil website loaded in 3” magnums are simply astounding: 1 3/8 oz at over 1500 fps for over 3,000 ftlbs of knock-down power! Whew!

Unfortunately for us in Australia, our importers appear to have turned their back on the marvellous Brenneke range, and our local gunshops here in Darwin are stocking new slugs by RC4 and PMC, both very similar in design. OK, let’s have a close look at them....

New hybrid slugs from RC4 Italy.

These slugs appear to be a hybrid between the Brenneke-style slug with attached base-wad, and the deep hollow-base Foster-style projectile. The web-site lists their weight at 1 1/8 oz which looks promising, however the lead slug itself is only an ounce, with the remaining 1/8 ounce coming from the base-wad. These all-plastic wad-columns are not attached permanently to the slug, being a firm push-fit into the rear of the slug’s hollow base. They are easily detached and replaced by hand, but my own range tests have proven that they remain integral with the projectile at least until impact. Out of 18 fired during the last session, only one wad detached about 20 metres after passing through the core-flute target, the rest remained fixed right to the butt-stop. Impressive!

RC4 base-wad details.

Even more impressive was the accuracy. At 25 metres, a CBC single-barrel was chopping out 1.75-inch groups with just the front bead sight, and my unchoked 26”-barrelled William Griffiths SxS double with crude open sights was placing four shots (2 rights and 2 lefts) into 2 inches consistently at that distance.

25m group from the Griffiths SxS smoothbore double.

I fired the last pair of the day at a 50-metre ‘pumpkin’: they were also only 2 inches apart on centres!
Gotta be happy with that!

A right and left at 50 metres with crude open sights.

All that remains is to take a handful of these slug-loads out into the hunting field for a proper evaluation on game. The chance will come soon enough: all the hunting reserves in the Top End are designated ‘shotgun only’ for the duration of the goose season, this year gazetted 30 August to 30 December. Unfortunately for rifle shooters, that period encompasses the hotter part of the dry season, when feral pigs and the odd buffalo are drawn in to the diminishing water supplies. For some time now I have been toying with the idea of building a Paradox gun on either the Wm Griffiths action or a Greener ‘Empire’ to take advantage of this situation, but in the meantime I reckon a short handy smooth-bore with these modern hybrid slugs might be worth a shot!

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I should add that the SxS shotgun in my tests has been re-regulated for solid projectiles. Virtually all SxS shotguns will cross-fire with slugs, sometimes by a couple of feet at 50 yds! The Wm Griffiths boxlock mentioned above suffered catastrophic muzzle failure in the hands of the previous owner’s hunting buddy (I’m told he stuck the barrels in the water to shoot a fish!), so I picked up the remains for a song. I have so far shortened it to 26-inches, relayed the bottom rib, and brought it back on the face. The sights are temporary affairs taped on at this stage, but proper sights will be made and tinned onto the re-laid top rib now that I have decided its fate (at least in the short to medium term!).

Bring on the boars and buff!

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Marrakai
When the bull drops, the bullshit stops!
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www.marrakai-adventure.com.au

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