Low Recoil Slugs

[Dlbasinger]

Is there really a noticeable difference between Federal low recoil and regular slugs. I will only be shooting about 30 per day.

[maxx03]

Yes, low recoil slugs do make a difference in felt recoil 1200 to 1800 fps.
I shot a lot of different brand slugs before I started casting my own, I wanted to find a balance of moderate recoil and good accuracy.

[sargenv]

yes, there is a significant recoil difference between the two..

Fed low recoil muzzle energy is about 1400 ft/lbs of energy. Basically similar to a one ounce target load at 1200 fps.

Regular recoil slugs have a muzzle energy of about 2487 ft/lbs. 1 oz slug at 1600 fps.. If my gun runs the low recoil stuff, I'd use that.. 30 rounds of full power slugs is on the abusive side for most people.. In a semi-auto you won't notice as much as if you were running a pump gun.. but it's still significant.

[maxx03]

Softest shooting slugs I chronoed have been the Winchester Ranger 1oz slugs, coming out of my rifled barrel at 1190 FPS.

[Thefeeder]

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Get yourself a box of shells loaded with 1 1/8 oz of shot going 1200 @ your local store....about 6 bucks for 25

They will be very close or exactly the same recoil as low recoil Slug or Buck

Shoot off that box for a good estimate of what it would be like to shoot that many of the Slug without the expense of buying Slug loads

[G-forceJunkie]

YES.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Ditto on Yes!

Randy

[Dlbasinger]

Thanks,Thefeeder, this is now my saturday morning plan.

[gforce357]

I run the Fiocchi low recoil slugs (1150 fps) through my Mossberg 590 for range days...and I can literally shoot for hours with no discomfort.

I found that anything in the 1500 fps range is painful after a while...

[W.R.Buchanan]

Here's the deal guys, you don't need to shoot hi-velocity slugs for anything but big animals or stopping cars and such.

A Low Recoil Slug < 1300 fps will knock down anything in N/A and most of the world. That includes men with body armor. The impact is serious!

There is a measure of relative knock down power Called the "Taylor Knockout Factor." It compares different cartridges and how fast they dump their energy.

The Formula is,,, Bullet weight in grains x velocity x diameter / 7000

For example a .45-70 with a 400 gr bullet at 1600 fps which is a pretty potent load has a TKO of 42. A .458 Win Mag with a 500 gr bullet at 2150 fps has a TKO of 70. Same diameter bullet, just longer and faster.

A 12 ga. Low Recoil 1oz. slug (437 gr) at 1300 fps has a TKO of 60 and a Fed Maximum Slug 1 1/8 oz. (490 gr.) at 1610 fps has a TKO of 83 !

A .458 Win Mag has twice the ftlb muzzle energy but due to it's diameter it doesn't transfer it's energy to a target as fast as the larger diameter slug, and the ability to "Knock down" a target is where it is at when it comes to stopping a threat.

You've got a large Bear charging you. Do you want the bullet to go clean thru him, dumping it's energy in the dirt behind, or do you want to stop the charge?
This is what TKO is all about and it has been around for over 100 years, and the guy who developed it shot everything in Africa with every gun known to man at the time. He was a professional Ivory Hunter in the early 1900's when it was still cool to shoot elephants and such.

If you really need to get serious, like if you have to shoot a pickup truck or a Dinosaur,,, a 3" Magnum Slug, 1 1/4 oz (550 gr) at 1800 fps has a TKO of 104! If you can hold onto it? Note: In "Jurassic Park" the pro hunter used a pump shotgun.

This is why unless you are shooting something that is big and can kill you, you don't need anything above a Low Recoil Slug or Buckshot, and even those will have an effect on you if you shoot enough of them.

Hope this helps understanding of this subject.

Randy

[Thefeeder]

&gt;&lt;

Taylor KO facto, never heard of it so I looked it up and found an interesting read, especially the Criticism section.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_KO_Factor

[Dlbasinger]

Thanks, Randy. Good read!

[W.R.Buchanan]

The difference between a smaller rifle round and a larger rifle round is "Frontal Area"

Here' a pic of a Lyman Sabot Slug weighing 490 gr. and a 450 gr Bullet for my .45-70.

Pretty easy to see which one is going to dump it's energy faster.

The TKO formula does in fact favor large calibers over small calibers. And smaller bullets do expand better now than they did over 100 years ago. But it all comes down to Frontal Area when looking at the ability to "knock down" a target.

Most people can't shoot a large caliber rifle very well due to the heavy recoil of the gun. However most people can shoot a 12 ga shotgun even if they have to suffer thru a couple of Hi-Base slugs which will knock down anything on this continent.

The .45-70 slug shown has a TKO of 47 when loaded to 1600 fps and it will go clean thru any animal in N/A Bison included. It has exceptional penetration. That means it is NOT dumping all it's energy on the target. However it will leave a big hole and if vital organs are punctured death by hemorrhaging (bleed out) will occur shortly.

The Shotgun Slug at 1500 fps TKO of 77 on the other hand will dump all it's energy within about 12-18" of travel into the animal. Or if the animal is lighter, like a 150 lb deer it will dump while moving the animal backwards. It probably won't penetrate completely. Still I probably won't shoot a Buffalo with a shotgun just because the rifle is a better choice. A Black Bear is another story and I wouldn't hesitate if confronted.

If the target is a Man with body armor the slug will not penetrate at all which is kind of the reason for the body armor in the first place. However it will still dump all it energy instantaneously and not many people can take a 2500 ftlb hit to the chest and survive.

Even with a Low Recoil Slug with an impact velocity of around 1200 fps at conversational distances hitting the body armor, the impact will still be above 1500 ft lbs and even with body armor nobody can live thru that.

Without body armor they are done.

These are the reasons why shotguns are such effective weapons. Granted you are limited in range to below, say 125 yards, but the power that you are wielding is enormous.

Nobody lives thru a COM hit with a slug! And TKO is a large factor in why this is true. Once again a 124 gr 9mm bullet at 1100 fps has a TKO of 7.5!

That's why those guns have such large magazines.

What's in your magazine?

Randy

[billped]

According to Taylor, his approach is only for large thick-skinned animals shot at close ranges, like elephants, and that more scientific approaches are better for everything else.

So, if we're talking about elephants, fine, otherwise ... no.

[W.R.Buchanan]

NO? We are actually talking about people here and the correct answer is yes.
Every single one falls.

Randy