In the world of gunpowder-powered projectiles, slugs fall just behind towed artillery. They are massive; pack one hell of a wallop on both ends of a shotgun; and until recently, were just big, gnarly hunks of lead.

The chemical bonding of jacket and core is evident by the way the lead sticks to the slug petals instead of peeling off into the gelatin.

Foster slugs came along in the early 1930s and represented a moderate improvement over round balls. Though the marketing term "rifled" managed to stick over the years, the Foster slug's improved performance had more to do with the hollow base and a forward-weighted design that was inherently more stable when slung down a smooth bore and out across hill and dale. The "rifling" cast into the slug's sides might have helped impart a little spin on the projectile, but any positive effect they had other than making the slug look cool was slight at best.

The poor fellows in shotgun-only hunting areas--by some estimates upwards of 4 million whitetail hunters are limited to shotguns or muzzleloaders--knew there had to be a better way, and they begged for it. The answer was the combination of a rifled barrel and a sabot-clad slug, and that took big-game shotgun hunting to the next level. Their performance is simply astounding when compared to round balls and smooth bores. A hunter equipped with a factory shotgun and standard ammunition could reasonably expect to extend his range from 50 or 75 yards out to 150 yards. Custom guns and competent shots could make a big Midwestern whitetail nervous even beyond 200 yards.

The AccuTip and standard Remington 11-87 proved an accurate combination. Three-shot groups averaged 3.32 inches at 100 yards.

Growing up in Georgia, I never had much use for slugs and slug guns, other than as a bull-in-the-china-shop, self-defense load for my Model 870. The serious players hunted whitetails with bolt rifles chambered for something that had "____ MAG" on the headstamp, and the old-timers toted lever rifles on opening day. But to chase monster whitetails, a fellow has to expand his horizons as well as the number of states he hunts.

Last fall, I found myself sneaking down the brushy edge of a Wyoming hay field contemplating some long-distance shooting with an autoloading shotgun stoked with slugs. The state's hunters usually carry rifles, and the guides raised some eyebrows when the shotgun was uncased at the sight-in bench, but the odd equipment had a definitive purpose: serious slug testing.

REMINGTON ACCU-TIP SLUG
Gauge	12
Length	2 3/4 inches
Slug Weight	385 grains
Velocity	1,850 fps (muzzle); 1,611 fps (50 yards); 1,401 (100 yards)
Energy	2,925 ft-lbs (muzzle); 2,218 ft-lbs (50 yards); 1,677 ft-lbs (100 yards)
Trajectory	+2.7 inches (50 yards); +3.6 inches (100 yards); 0.0 inch (150 yards)
Gauge	12
Length	3 inches
Slug Weight	385 grains
Velocity	1,900 fps (muzzle); 1,656 fps (50 yards); 1,439 (100 yards)
Energy	3,086 ft-lbs (muzzle); 2,344 ft-lbs (50 yards); 1,771 ft-lbs (100 yards)
Trajectory	+2.5 inches (50 yards); +3.4 inches (100 yards); 0.0 inch (150 yards)

Later in the field, I had closed to within 120 yards of a big doe feeding, and my companion, Remington's Eddie Stevenson, nodded that we had crawled far enough. The Model 11-87, equipped with a fully rifled barrel and cantilever-mounted, variable Kahles KX scope, was loaded with the then-experimental Premier AccuTip bonded, sabot-clad slug.

A few weeks before the hunt, I received about 50 rounds to zero the gun and figure out a flight path at extended ranges. That long title on the box did not intrigue me nearly as much as the tip. I called Stevenson and asked if the engineers had been hanging out with the boys down at NASA again.

"I don't know exactly how they do it, but they make the slugs more accurate--a lot more accurate," Stevenson told me over the phone. "You'll have to talk with the engineer for an explanation. It's really cool."