In the "bad old days" I used to shoot slugs at rafts of canvasbacks hundreds of yards out in the lakes to get them moving a bit. This from a lightweight Sauer 16 ga made in 1911. I could see no damage to the gun. I currently use a SxS Janeck (Saxony) percussion .58 x 24 ga (buscheflinte)for deer, with a lubed Lee R.E.A.L. in the rifled barrel and a patched .58 roundball in the smooth barrel.