For typical HD shootings inside the home, I don't think slugs have much of a place. If they were called for, I'd lean toward the lower-recoil options and leave the magnum loads for hunting and range fun. They're both going to be fight-stoppers if they go where they need to go, so no real advantage there. Overpenetration is theoretically more of a concern with low-velocity slugs, since they stay together better through objects, but thinking realistically, I can't imagine
any situation in which a fragmenting high-velocity slug would be safe to use, but a low-recoil slug wouldn't be.
As for these slugs, they don't seem like
bad loads in the same way that the goofy PDX1 buck & ball loads are, but I'm not sure the little cuts will really make that much of a difference. High-velocity Foster slugs are usually going to break up when they hit something even remotely substantial anyway, they don't need to be scored to do that. They may not break up in exactly the same way as pre-segmented slugs, but given the slug's momentum, hollow structure, and soft material, it'll still tend to happen. Here's
a Tnoutdoors9 video showing the same fragmentation occurring in normal 1oz, 1600 fps Winchester Foster slugs. Simply put, a 1oz. 12ga slug is going to make a large messy hole in the thing it hits due to sheer size and momentum, not fancy projectile design. As for overpenetration, 150 grains is still 2-3 times the mass of a typical 5.56x45 NATO bullet. It may fall apart more reliably when it hits a wall, but it won't magically become harmless.
I might be interested in seeing a
well-designed (not the traditional exotic ammunition "design" process that focuses on inventing a gimmick that sounds cool enough to justify a high price tag), low-recoil segmenting slug. Maybe with more cuts to produce smaller segments, and a revisited projectile construction, it could have something to offer for defensive roles.
Anyway, those are my ramblings, for what they're worth. I will say these look like perfectly fine hunting slugs; I think they'd be an excellent bear round in particular. Adding reliable segmentation and increased wound trauma to a high-velocity 12ga slug could really make a difference in a large body. For social work though, high-velocity slugs are just overkill, segmented or not.
