Rifled choke tubes?

[360hunt]

What is people experience with rifled choke tubes for slugs? Waste of money? Or do they improve accuracy?
Thanks 360hunt

[Seige]

I know nothing...

Yet I will add my two cents worth... I had thought about them before I bought a fully rifled barrel for my scattergun. And my younger brother may be, but im not an Engineer, so please if one may view this, correct me if I am wrong.
They may be a great idea but I can't help but think about the slightest "retardation" as in slowing down of.. the projectile, either a sabot and or mores a solid slug of lead hitting those threads/grooves/rifling at the end of the barrel (muzzle) creating an awful lot of extremely instant load of kinetic energy placed onto the threads of the choke and barrel.(the ones that connect the choke tube to the barrel this time)

Simply.. BOOM.. extremely high velocity(in the everyday scenario) then very quickly hitting the stationary rifling after travelling a couple of feet in the least, and being forced into its twist.
it just doesn't sit with me very well, and felt a fully rifled barrel a much more safe and energy efficient method of sending the projectile down range.

I understand its not unlike a projectile "jumping" to the lands in the space between the loaded rifle cartridge and the rifling in a rifles barrel. but I felt it to be awkward due too the distance, perhaps. And I do reload, I also utilize my Hornady OAL(over all length) gauge tool for minimizing the jump to the lands.
I am aware that I may be contradicting myself in my thoughts of the subject, but that's where I am lol, and just went fully rifled slug barrel.
I hope somebody who chimes in may make sense of this, and of course most certainly give you clearance.

Jon

PS- I do realize that im sure they wouldn't sell them if they are dangerous. (then again they do sell cigarettes, don't they)(oh man I contradict myself again, stop thinking so much Jon)

[Dean2]

Originally Posted by 360hunt

What is people experience with rifled choke tubes for slugs? Waste of money? Or do they improve accuracy?
Thanks 360hunt

Have used rifled slugs barrels but never rifled choke. I too would be interested to hear what those have used them doing.

[Ithaca Dog]

I grew up hunting with shotgun slugs. We had good success with rifled chokes with foster style slugs. We had better groups with a fully rifled barrel, but we were consistently accurate, 6-8 inch groups with a rifled choke out to 120 yards. This shrunk to 2-3 inch groups with a fully rifled barrel. This was done with young eyes and open sights. We killed a lot of deer

[cleanbore]

I have done some experimentation with rifle slug chokes the techniques you may find useful. Not scientific but they make sense to me. I bought several brands of factory slugs, all around the same fps and weight in 2,3/4". Then get a multi target paper (5 targets on each) and fire one of each slug at increasing ranges. This should tell you when the slug loses rotational stability by both the tumbling paper imprint and accuracy decrease , also try one shot at each range from an improved or cylinder bore as a benchmark. The chokes I have had have mostly specified traditional foster type slugs, it seems sabots are designed more for fully rifled barrels,
If you are concerned about high pressure spikes or rifling resistance, (which I'm not, I'm sure the manufacturers take this into account and wouldn't sell a choke with the same intent to produce as much rotation as a fully rifled 20" bbl. All you need to do is remove the unfired slugs from the cartridge and push them through the choke on a wooden bench with a dowel. This will tell you which are loose and which are tighter. There is a difference between diameters and brands both in accuracy and range. Good luck 👍