Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Shotgun rifled / slug opinions

I have both and I almost always take the SBE unless the weather is real bad cause the Browning has the synthetic stock.

I like it better during drives, and it is just as accurate for stand hunting. But like i said, if I am in a rifle zone and do not want to use a rifle I use the Browning because the SBE is illegal.

BOTH super-sweet rigs IMO.

Some guys are trying to get into slug hunting...........I'm trying to get out!
Got a little project getting started.

I know what you mean about buying a few of those A-Bolt slug guns back when they were being discontinued...I bought two model 70's during the November and December prior to Winchester closing their plant. Both stainless, and one a RMEF. One nearly tripled above what I paid and one the other doubled.

Anyway, great looking slug guns.

Skane,

Thanks. I'll check them out.

I passed on a Winchester super grade for $700 during that period, It was used/new, never fired. I'm left handed and it was a righty, plus I thought it was too heavy, and I'd rather spend the money on something that won't be just a closet queen. Anyway like you said it probably tripled in value since.

The wood was great and I really like how they inlet the sling studs in the stock. It was one I wish I hadn't let get away.

DeerHunterIA-

Prolly not telling you something you don't already know but there are no flies on the 11-87 or 870 with a rifled tube either.

Skane,

I've gone the 870 route. Not a big fan. Haven't tried a 11-87. 21" barrel seems short to me though. I'm a bolt-action guy that prefers 24 and 26" tubes, so i'm bias. (wonder what Freud would say about that :P )

*LOL*

Could always go the TarHunt route for a truly custom job.
Of course, that price is considerably more than the Browning.

www.tarhunt.com

I forgot to mention the Ithica deerslayer. Mine has the fixed barrel, but the older ones are common with an interchangeable barrel. Just about any Ithica can take an aftermarket barrel like a Hastings. Changing Barrels is a snap and you get a dual use gun, which can be real important for some folks.

I'll use it if I am gonna be doing a lot of deer drives through thick stuff and know I'm gonna be crawling half the time. It's nice and compact with the short barrel.

Don't think I haven't looked there as well! My gf keeps wanting me to buy her some silly clear "rock" though. I tried explaining her desire for this rock is really cramping my hunting plans.

Skane, the Tarhunt websight is where I got hooked on the Lightfield slugs for my A-Bolt, after a lot of testing they patterned the best in that gun. The terminal performance has been devistating. The slug beow took a buck straight on just below the neck center of chest where it plowed through the heart and literally exploded it flat as a pancake. I found the slug loose in the chest cavity cleaning it. I got lucky and found the wad in the snow walking to it. They popped right together.

Lots of fellers running the Lightfields in this neck of the woods as well. Actually, a pard shoots an A-Bolt and Lightfields. Great product and wonderful accuracy. I've sent quite a few down the tube of my 11-87 but settled on the Federal Premium with the Barnes boooolit tucked inside.

My 870 experience is limited. I had an upland version, short barrel and straight stock. Somehow, when kicking through some thick Western NC mountain brush, the slide release button got bumped. I watched the dog make a perfect point, a fat grouse flush and heard only a click when I squeezed the trigger.

I realized what happened and pulled the slide forward to lock, but it was too late.

I have not owned a pump since then.

too bad warren, you might have popped a few more grouse since then. pay attetion to the details, go for the oveer/unders that perform

I am certainly not an expert on this matter but last year I got drawn on a federal lands hunt that you had to use either a shotgun with slugs or a muzzleloader. I got a rifled choke tube for my Browning Gold Hunter .12 ga. and shot Remington Buckhammers.. Long story short..The BB isn't the best sighting device for a slug gun. Missed the nicest set of horns at 100 yards I have ever seeen in the woods. So I went out and bought a nice used Win 1300 12 ga rifled barrel slug gun with a cabelas 2-7 x 32 shotgun scope (4" of eye relief instead of 3" in their rifle scopes). I have got $245 in this rig. I have got several different sabots to try out in it and plan to practice if I get drawn for another of these hunts this year. I am not a big fan of a pump gun, but I think with practice its a 1 shot deal with a scope and within 100 yards anyway. I just didn't want to pay $500-700 for a semi auto slug rig for the little I would use it. Almost all my hunting is with Rifle and I use the Browning Gold Hunter for birds.

A word to the wise,lose the Cabelas scope,replace it with a Leupold and get a good set of bases and rings or you'll not be so happy extolling your $245 find

SKane,

Do you need to run slugs where you live? I turkey hunt in the Tigerton area and they have to use them there. Most guys I know around there run the 800 and 70's for just about everything.

I damn near bought a use Browning Gold wood stocked 20ga with a cantiliver last fall at a shop in Minneapolis for $575 bones. I did not have the cash with me though. I still regret it. It was one sweet rig, and it fit me perfect... damn it!!!

Tom

Read all 12 pages about slugguns/slugs[whew!]. Been using a slug gun, here in Indiana, since 1990. I bought one of the early Rem. 870sp. It had a rifled choke tube, instead of a fully rifled barrel. I've shot a ton of different slugs thru it, and it shoots the old winchester foster slugs as well as anything[plus they are cheap, relatively speaking]. The gun has the cantilevered scope mount[attached to the barrel]. I've killed over 35 deer with the ole girl, even though I could go with a pistol caliber centerfire, I think I will just keep what I got. Here's some pics of some bucks taken the last few years.



1 shot 145 paces



1 shot 65 paces



3 shots 120 yds.



1 shot 25 feet!

All of these bucks were taken with the above mentioned set up on the same property, over the last 8 yrs. Doesn't count the number of does taken on bonus county tags.

maddog

Tom, yeah, in NE WI, it is mainly slug country. But cross a highway here or there and it's rifle. I don't hunt around here during the gun season anyway, opting for my cabin in your neck of the woods. If I have my Kansas archery tag, I oftentimes just skip our gun season altogether.