Hornady SST Sabot Slug 300gr FTX

Hornady SST 300gr FTX is what a shotgun slug becomes when you give it a rifled barrel and a sabot. Unlike a Foster slug, a sabot slug rides inside a plastic sleeve, the sabot, that grips the barrel's rifling and spins the projectile for gyroscopic stability. That is the critical fitment rule: sabot slugs require a rifled barrel. Fire one through a smoothbore and the slug tumbles, accuracy collapses, and you waste an expensive round. From the dedicated rifled slug barrel many deer hunters mount for the season, the SST is in a different accuracy class than any Foster load.

The numbers back it up. The 300-grain FTX projectile leaves the muzzle at 2,000 fps for 2,664 ft-lbs of energy and still carries 1,793 ft-lbs at 100 yards. Hornady's Flex Tip drives reliable expansion, and the load delivers sub-2-inch groups at 100 yards, more than three times tighter than typical Foster slug groups in comparative testing. That accuracy and the flatter trajectory extend the practical range on deer to roughly 200 yards, well beyond where a Foster slug remains viable.

This is the load for the hunter with a rifled-barrel slug gun who wants rifle-like performance in a shotgun-only zone. It costs more, and it demands the right barrel, but within those constraints it is the best-shooting slug in this guide.