Stars and Stripes 12ga Rifled Slug 1 oz – Proven 10 Round Box

Description

Stars and Stripes 12ga Rifled Slug is a straightforward one ounce Foster type slug in a 2 3/4 inch hull, leaving the muzzle at 1400 fps. Cheddite of Italy loads it under the Stars and Stripes label, ten rounds to the box. It is the kind of ammunition people buy for slug season, for a truck gun, or because a shotgun needs to reach further than buckshot will take it.

• What a Rifled Slug Actually Does
• Stars and Stripes 12ga Rifled Slug Specifications
• Honest Notes on Slug Ammunition

What a Rifled Slug Actually Does

The angled grooves on a Foster slug are not there to spin it the way rifling spins a bullet. They exist so the soft lead can swage down safely through a choke, and the slug is actually stabilised by having most of its weight forward, like a badminton shuttlecock. That is why this is smoothbore slug ammunition and why it works in a plain cylinder or improved cylinder barrel without needing a rifled tube.

One ounce of lead is 437 grains, and at 1400 fps that is roughly 1900 ft-lbs of muzzle energy. Inside seventy five yards it is a decisive hit on deer or hogs, which is exactly why slug only counties exist and why the cartridge has survived so long. The tradeoff is trajectory. A blunt lead slug sheds velocity quickly and drops steeply, so a hundred yard shot needs a real hold over rather than a guess.

Accuracy expectations should be realistic. Out of a smoothbore with a bead sight, two to four inches at fifty yards is normal and perfectly adequate for the job. A rifled barrel with a sabot slug will do better, but sabots cost several times as much and will not shoot well through a smoothbore. Match the ammunition to the barrel you actually own.

Stars and Stripes 12ga Rifled Slug Specifications

Stars and Stripes shells are loaded by Cheddite, an Italian maker that has produced hulls, primers, powder and loaded shotshells since 1901. This shell is loaded to standard 12 gauge pressures in a 2 3/4 inch hull that works in any 12 gauge chambered 2 3/4 inch or longer.

• Line: Stars and Stripes
• Gauge: 12 gauge
• Shell length: 2 3/4 inches
• Projectile: 1 ounce rifled lead slug, Foster type
• Muzzle velocity: 1400 fps
• Approximate muzzle energy: 1900 ft-lbs
• Barrel requirement: smoothbore, cylinder to modified choke
• Quantity: 10 rounds per box
• UPC: 8033343363756
• Manufacturer: Cheddite, Italy

Honest Notes on Slug Ammunition

Do not shoot slugs through a full choke. A one ounce lead slug swaging down through a tight constriction raises pressure at the muzzle and, in an older or thin walled barrel, can bulge it. Cylinder, improved cylinder or modified is the safe range, and improved cylinder is usually where Stars and Stripes 12ga Rifled Slug patterns best. If your gun has fixed full choke, do not use it for slugs.

Sights matter more than the ammunition. A bead is workable to fifty yards and increasingly optimistic beyond that. If you hunt with slugs regularly, rifle sights or a low power optic on a receiver mount will do more for your hit rate than any change of shell, because the limiting factor is almost never the slug.

Know the trajectory. Zeroed at fifty yards, a Foster slug at 1400 fps is roughly four to five inches low at a hundred and drops away steeply after that. Treat one hundred yards as the practical maximum on game and be honest about your own ability at that distance from field positions.

Finally, recoil. One ounce at 1400 fps out of a light pump gun is a sharp push, considerably more than a game load. Fire enough of them to know your zero and confirm function, then stop. Nobody benefits from a fifty round slug session, and a flinch developed at the bench costs you the shot that matters.

If you want a shorter range defensive option we stock 00 buckshot in 9 pellet loads, and for practice the All American target shells are far easier on the shoulder. The manufacturer publishes its background on the Stripes and Stars Shells website.

Stars and Stripes 12ga Rifled Slug suits deer hunters in slug only areas, home defense shotguns that may need reach, and anyone who wants an affordable slug for a smoothbore. MAG5 Firearms is a family owned FFL in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. Boxes ship where state and local law allows.