WHAT IS A DESIGNATED SLUG GUN (DSG)?


A “Designated Slug Gun”  (DSG) is any make or model of shot gun fitted with a fully rifled barrel.  It is a shot gun with a rifled barrel, usually fitted with a telescope sight,  that you have designated just to hunt big game with slugs. You are no longer going to remove the rifled barrel at the end of deer season and replace the rifled barrel with a smooth bore for some other hunting or target purpose.

That is the definition of a Designated Slug Gun --  the “DSG”.

A simple DSG can be generated  by using pump action or semi-auto shot guns made by various manufacturers. Sometimes it is as simple as drilling thru the side wall of the receiver, drilling and tapping a hole thru the barrel bayonet lug area and pulling the barrel up against only the receiver with a button head screw. This style of DSG can be done while using any type of scope mount. One of the factory slug guns now has tried this simple fix but have done nothing with the magazine tube nut pressure. 

The second level in making a DSG is to have a gunsmith professionally pin the barrel and remove the slop buy various methods and add a solid receiver mounted telescope mounting system. Maybe even going as far as to time the magazine tube nut so it does not stress the barrel when sighting in the gun.

The third level is the TarHunt DSG-12 conversion where a block of steel is precisely fitted into the action and then the barrel is threaded into that block of steel. This literally makes a big bore pump action rifle out of a shot gun.  www.tarhunt.com

The trick is to limit the rifled barrel from having any movement inside the receiver. Some methods are just better than others!

Some of the more popular FIXED BARREL level of a DSG currently in production are listed as examples.

There also are a number of other DSG bolt action guns that are no longer being produced.

Bolt Action DSGs
   TarHunt RSG  (12, 16, 20ga.) rifled slug gun
   Savage model 210 (12ga) 

Break open DSG
   TC Encore with a rifled barrel  (12 & 20ga)
   H&R model 980 (12ga)
   H&R model 960 (20ga)

Pump action DSG
   TarHunt DSG  (16 & 12 ga.)
   Ithaca DeerSlayer II  (12 & 20ga.)

Final Note:  If they could have gotten smooth bore barrels to shoot accurately, ”They would not have invented rifling well over 250 years ago.”