remington accutip bonded sabot slug

[MichiganHunter]

Was wondering if anyone has used these? I know the stats of them and have watched the videos but was wondering if anyone has shot these at the range, or has taken a deer with them. Thanks for the help.

[Iowa Cornfed]

Accutips

OK, I know this thread is a little dated by now, but I have a problem that I'd like some input on.

I had been using Hornady SST's but didn't think the on-game performance was all that, so I bought into the hype on the Remington Accutips. The whole thing about a 385 gr slug and the air holes in the tip that made for just awesome accuracy, yada, yada.

So I set up at the bench, shoot at 50 yards and just get a ragged hole. I was happy as can be! So far, so good. Nice accuracy, and kicked like a mule. I just know these things are going to be killers.

Then I touch off at the 100 yard target. A tad high and left, with a 2 7/8" group. Not happy, but I guess I should have been.... Today I took 5 shots, 3 at 50 yards - again ragged hole dead center. 2 at 100 yards....., low and right 4" apart!

So..., if the thing shoots lights out at 50 it can't be the gun or scope right? And if the things won't group at 100 it about has to be the ammo doesn't it?

I don't know, I think I'll use these this year and try something else next. Just frustrated a little. Most deer I kill are under 50 yards anyway, but it'd be nice to have confidence in 100+ shots just in case. You just kinda think when they get over $2.00 a shell you should be able to expect a little better accuracy.

Edited November 16, 2009 by Iowa Cornfed

[otdrzmn04]

i started shooting them last year. my groups at 100yds touch with a 4x simmons. remington claims 3" high at 100yds and zeroed at 150yds and i think it was 6" low at 200yds. ive deleted my email and cant remember the 200yd drop. i dont shoot high shoulder shots i just hit the lungs and both bucks i have shot with them had good trails and one went down within 40yds the other within 10yds. i wouldnt shoot anything else.

[Iowa Cornfed]

"Touching at 100" that's what I've been seeing a lot of in various posts, and I'd be sold too if my gun would do that. That's been my hope all along, just because of all the glowing reports.

Now I'm beginning to wonder if it has to do with whatever the twist is that my barrel has. I'm shooting a Traditions ALS 2100, which they don't make anymore. (I bought it at Bass Pro Shops on a close-out 2-3 years ago. It's a gas operated auto that's a Baretta knock off, supposed to even be able to interchange parts, etc.) I've sent an email to Traditions to see if they can tell me what twist my gun would have.

Anyway, if it has some rate of twist that just won't stabilize a 385 gr projectile out at 100+ yards, then I'm OK with that. I'll just need to get the right combo, one that gives me the accuracy and on game performance I'm looking for.

The gun/scope combo (Leupold VX-1 2x7) is accurate out to 100 yards with the SST's, but they're 300 gr, so maybe that's it - Maybe this gun just won't handle 385 gr stuff.

But boy did I want them to perform!!! I could hardly wait to pile up Mr. Big (And I still might, just that it'll probably be at 50 yards or so...)

My boy has bought 6 boxes of the Accutips in 20 ga to use in his Mossberg 500 combo set-up. Hope they work in his gun.

Thanks for the reply!

[stcif]

Curious as to how you hold the shotgun for long range accuracy.

[Iowa Cornfed]

Well, I've been doing some research on this some, and it may actually have something to do with how I'm holding the gun. I've been shooting off a bench with sandbags and pulling the stock tight to my shoulder, but no real pressure on the forend. When the gun goes boom, it jumps off the front sandbag to the left (I'm left handed BTW). Some of the reading I've been doing seems to point to that as maybe being the problem, saying that a guy should have pressure on the forend, in fact actually pulling back on the forearm as well as the pistol-grip. That may be it right there. I never had the problem with sighting in for the SST's, but these Accutips have more felt recoil. That big hunk of metal I'm guessing. Anyway, I'll have to see how pulling rearward on the forearm effects the 100 yard groups.

[stcif]

Well, I've been doing some research on this some, and it may actually have something to do with how I'm holding the gun. I've been shooting off a bench with sandbags and pulling the stock tight to my shoulder, but no real pressure on the forend. When the gun goes boom, it jumps off the front sandbag to the left (I'm left handed BTW). Some of the reading I've been doing seems to point to that as maybe being the problem, saying that a guy should have pressure on the forend, in fact actually pulling back on the forearm as well as the pistol-grip. That may be it right there. I never had the problem with sighting in for the SST's, but these Accutips have more felt recoil. That big hunk of metal I'm guessing. Anyway, I'll have to see how pulling rearward on the forearm effects the 100 yard groups.

This is why I asked how you were holding the gun. I used to hold my shotgun at the range sighting it in the same way I held and shot my .308. I used to sight it in just fine but noticed how I would hit deer high and sometimes miss high.

I then purchased a book written by Dave Henderson titled "Shotgunning for Deer". Great book by the way and Dave Henderson is a true authority on the subject of hunting deer with a shotgun. Dave explains that since a shotgun slug is considerably slower than a rifle bullet, the gun is recoiling and the barrel is jumping up while the slug is still in the barrel. This is why if you hold a shotgun like a rifle (tight cheek weld, gun pulled in tight to your shoulder, but not holding down the fore end) you will end up having a gun sighted in to shoot high.

I recommend you hold the fore end of the shotgun down and at a 45 degree angle back towards you while sighting in. This will help tame the recoil some and replicate how you are most likely shooting it at a deer.

Good luck and if you are looking for a good book, check out "Shotgunning for Deer".

[Iowa Cornfed]

Thanks for the info stcif, I haven't gotten back out to shoot yet, (been working on a toy box for a grandchild) but I'm real hopeful that the results will be more to my liking once I correct my technique. I was thinking that since these new sabots shoot so fast, they'd act more like a centerfire rifle, so I just had applied zero pressure on the forearm. But there's probably not a lot of centerfire rifles that recoil quite like these Accutips make my 12ga jump! Thanks again for the info!

[AaronS]

Let us know what you find out Iowa Cornfed. I might have to try these next year in my 870.

[Iowa Cornfed]

Let us know what you find out Iowa Cornfed. I might have to try these next year in my 870.

Well this might not be the definative last word on all this, but I touched off 3 times today at 100 yards being sure to grip the forearm solid and pulling back on both the forearm and the pistol grip. 2 shots looked almost like one hole, perfect left/right windage just below the bullseye and one was to the left of those two by about 2". (I could have pulled that one too) All were about an inch low at 100 yards. But again, the two that looked almost like one hole were just perfectly in line with the vertical target line and just about an inch below the horizontal target line.

I wasn't willing to start toying with my scope settings with only a week until deer season, and only 10 rounds left, just to get it up an inch at 100 yards.

Besides, I was reasonably happy. I know at 50 yards three shots make a ragged hole every time, and I now feel like at 100 yards, if I do my part it should be all good.

On a side note, my brother-in-law was sighting in his 870 using Buck Hammers. His last 3 shots @ 100 yards all connected in a vertical string. He was quick to tell me "If you get tired of spending a lot of money on those expensive sabots, go with Buck Hammers"

If I recall, he paid $6.00 a box at Bass Pro for his ammo...

[stcif]

As far as I'm concerned that is awesome shooting with a shotgun! Here is a couple things I did to my 870 to help even more with accuracy.

I had my trigger pull reduced to about 2-3 pounds. I also had my barrel "pinned". That is when they drill a hold in the receiver and install a small screw that presses against the barrel. This is supposed to reduce harmonics/vibrations in the barrel which reduce accuracy as a shotgun barrel is much thinner walled than a rifle barrel.

This stuff isn't needed but it was just part of my quest to have my 870 shooting as good as it could.

Maybe I'll try those accutips one day. They are just a lot lighter than what I am used to shooting.

[Iowa Cornfed]

Wanted to get back on here and post that I did down a pretty big 8-point with the AccuTips. He was about 100 yards quartering toward me. Hit him just above and behind the shoulder, he humped and ran directly toward me, past me, and I heard him crash as he headed down the ravine behind me. So..., he ran that 100 yards, then another 25 or so in the timber behind me, then down that darn ravine. I wound up having to get my ATV and winching him out of there with the help of my boy.

I found no exit hole, and I hung him up. We've been in the deep freeze ever since and he's froze solid. In other words, I've yet to skin him and cut him up. I'll know more maybe then.

But anyway, I felt confident when I took the shot at 100 yards, I just wish it'd have been a bang-flop thing. Maybe next year I'll hunt down in the hollows so he'll run to the top and into the fields after the shot. It'd sure be easier on me!!!

[AaronS]

Congrats on the buck. I bet if the bullet would have struck in front of the shoulder instead of behind it, you would have seen the bang-flop you wanted. Unfortunately, deer sometimes take steps and bullets/arrows don't hit exactly where we try to put them. The part that matters is that you got your deer.

[stcif]

Great job and congrats. I have yet to fire my shotgun that far at a deer. I've had several Lightfields that didn't exit in a deer. They make nice souveniers.

[Iowa Cornfed]

Yeah I think shot placement may have been the issue too. I probably could have described the set-up better than I originally did. I'm not sure how accurate my saying quartering toward me was now that I think some about it.

Here's the set-up: I was in a ladder stand say at the 6 o'clock position on a clock; He comes out of the opposite timber line about 100 yards across a cut hay field at about the 1 o'clock location veering to my right, or as if he would have intersected the 2 o'clock position on a clock.

So with a slightly over and behind the shoulder impact, and the somewhat downward angled path of the slug, it got lungs and some of the stomach. The liver and heart were unaffected, but the leg was broken and I wonder if that wasn't due to the fall since I hit him just behind the shoulder.

Anyway, I think this 100 yard shot is probably the longest shot I've taken at a deer with a shotgun too. Most of the deer I've taken on my ground end up being between 20 & 50 yards or so.

Our season is set after the rut, so if you're hunting ground that isn't being pushed by drivers, these post-main-rut deer are just kinda starting to get back to more normal feeding and bedding patterns and herding up more.

And it's generally a lot colder, so because of all that most guys group hunt to get 'em pushed out of the timbers. But I never really got into that, so I go solo either in a climber or ladder stand, or still hunting. If you set up right you can get some close in shots at standing deer. (I don't think I'd be very good at shooting running deer being pushed out of a timber... they're pretty fast and I've only used a scope on a gun for the past 3 seasons, I don't think a running deer has anything to fear from me!)

But the other side of that coin is that absent any post-rut activity, or some really hungry deer, and you can go quite awhile without seeing any (or much) deer movement during the first gun season (the 2nd week of December), lots of bone chilling sitting. (Our late ML is on now and runs through Jan 10th. That's chilly too.. but I'll probably go out this evening if the blizzard we're starting to get allows me to)

Anyway, I'm rambling... hey thanks for the replys guys.