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What size should a deer slug be?

Author

James Craig

Published Jan 15, 2026

A look at the gun rack in the average deer camp shows that 12-gauge slugs dominate the hunting community, but in many ways 20-gauge slugs are a better choice.

What is the best slug for deer hunting?

10 Best New Deer Hunting Cartridges and Slugs for 2019

  • 1 | Winchester Deer Season XP in 350 Legend. ...
  • 10 | Browning Buckshot. ...
  • 9 | Winchester Deer Season Slug. ...
  • 8 | Browning Rifled Slug. ...
  • 7 | Federal Premium Berger Hybrid Hunter. ...
  • 6 | Federal Premium Barnes TSX. ...
  • 5 | Hornady Outfitter Ammunition.

Does slug length matter?

Keep Your Slugs Short

They also help search engines comprehend the content. Experts recommend an ideal URL slug length of between three and five words. Readers and search engines respond best to short, direct slugs, and this length is also incorporated into search engine results pages.

What is a 20-gauge slug good for?

Deer and bear hunters alike should seriously consider the 20-gauge. In the case of the Trophy Copper slug I shot in Manitoba, it carries 1,300 fps and 1,136 foot-pounds of energy out to 200 yards, well above the 1,000 foot-pounds generally held as the effective minimum for deer-sized game.

What is a 12 gauge slug good for?

A modern shotgun slug is a heavy projectile made of lead, copper, or other material and fired from a shotgun. Slugs are designed for hunting large game, self-defense, and other uses. The first effective modern shotgun slug was introduced by Wilhelm Brenneke in 1898, and his design remains in use today.

24 related questions found

Why would a hunter choose to use a shotgun with slugs instead of a rifle?

The most common reason to use a slug gun, a shotgun equipped for shooting solid projectiles, is because you are hunting in an area where high-powered rifles are not allowed.

What is the most powerful 12 gauge slug?

Hornady 12 Gauge 2-3/4 Inch Shell, Slug, 1575 Velocity, Shot At 25 Feet. “Slug” is essentially the term used to describe a shotgun bullet. These are one solid piece of lead, making them the most powerful ammunition for 12-gauge shotguns, but also the most difficult to place properly, as there is no spread.

Which is better for deer hunting 12-gauge or 20-gauge?

Go with 12-Gauge or Larger for Deer

This means most hunters will be best served by a 12-gauge. 16-gauges gauges can get the job done, and 20-gauge shotguns are easier for smaller hunters, but almost every deer hunter during shotgun season is toting a 12-gauge shotgun, while some will go even larger with a 10-gauge.

How far can you shoot a deer with a 20-gauge slug?

Designed to be shot from a rifled barrel, the sabot slug is accurate out to about 200 yards from a gun that's built to promote accuracy: with a scope, a tight action, and a bedded stock.

Can you hunt deer with a 20-gauge slug?

If the recoil from a 12-gauge is too much, 20-gauge slug guns are a fantastic and highly ethical option. A great aspect of hunting deer with a slug shotgun is barrels tend to be shorter (between 18 and 26 inches).

What is SEO slug?

A slug is the part of a URL that identifies a particular page on a website in an easy-to-read form. In other words, it's the part of the URL that explains the page's content. For this article, for example, the URL is and the slug simply is 'slug'.

What is slug size in Heroku?

Slug size. Your slug size is displayed at the end of a successful compile after the Compressing message. The maximum allowed slug size (after compression) is 500 MB. You can inspect the extracted contents of your slug with heroku run bash and by using commands such as ls and du .

What is slug format?

A slug is the part of the URL that uniquely identifies a page and it's in a format that is easily readable by both users and search engines.

Is a slug good for deer hunting?

In recent years, many ammo makers have made drastic improvements to sabot type slugs, making them the best slugs for deer and other big game. Many of the new slugs are more like large rifle bullets than just a slug of lead. Remington, Winchester, and Hornady all make some of the best slugs for hunting.

How accurate is a 12 gauge slug?

The average slug sighted-in approximately 2¼ inches high at 50 yards will hit dead-on at 100. Sighting-in at 50yards negates the effects of the wind. If you are not using a scope, sighting-in past 50 can be a waste of ammunition, but it is good practice to shoot at your maximum effective range.

Are slugs good for deer?

Slugs that shoot sub-two-inch groups are more than accurate enough for most whitetail hunting, and they're lethal. I'm not going to get bogged down in energy comparisons with straight wall cartridges, because on paper, slugs will likely lose. In the woods, they do fine.

What caliber is a 12ga slug?

Today, a 12 gauge slug in a sabot is basically a . 72 caliber rifle bullet (. 61 caliber if you run a 20 gauge) when fired from a rifled slug barrel.

What caliber is a 16 gauge slug?

recently homologated a 16 gauge “Magnum” shell, calibre 16 / 76, which should be better suited to tungsten and steel-shot, rather than lead.

What caliber would a 20-gauge slug be?

Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. The 20-gauge shotgun, also known as "20-bore", is a type of smooth-bore shotgun that fires a shell that is smaller in caliber (. 615 in (15.6 mm)) than a 12-gauge shotgun (. 729 in (18.5 mm)).

Is a 20 gauge slug more accurate than a 12 gauge?

There's not a lot of difference between the two, and both have more than enough power to humanely take deer size game out to about 200 yards. And thanks to the differences in slug diameter, both offer comparable trajectories.

Is a 12 gauge slug good for deer hunting?

Slugs are perfect for larger game, like deer. You can also hunt larger game with a 20-gauge shotgun, but the 12-gauge provides more power with honestly only a little bit more kick. Many hunters regularly kill deer and other large game with a 20-gauge, but I'd suggest a 12-gauge over a 20-gauge.

How powerful is a 20 gauge slug?

The Federal 20-gauge shotshell was loaded with the Barnes Tipped Expander slug. Federal lists the muzzle velocity at an impressive 1,900 fps from a 30-inch test barrel.

Which is better buckshot or slug?

The big advantage of using a slug is that it has a much longer effective range than buckshot. A 50-75-yard shot on a deer is usually well within the performance capability of a shotgun shooting slugs.

What shotgun shells do police use?

Buckshot remains the most commonly utilized police shotgun ammunition. The typical round of 2-3/4 inch 12 gauge buckshot contains 9 pellets approximately . 32 caliber in diameter. Today, all of the major manufacturers are turning out reduced recoil or tactical loads optimized for law enforcement.

What is the most powerful shotgun shell?

According to TAOFLEDERMAUS these are the most powerful slugs he has ever tested. The named “BIONIC BRASS” by their creator and they have about as much energy leaving the barrel as a . 308 Winchester round.