Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Purchasing very first shotgun... What should it be?

Well here's what we're looking at. I'm in the market for a shotgun that's primary purpose will be deer hunting in my home state of Ohio which consists of mostly open fields and plenty of densely wooded areas with small scattered clearings through out them. As I understand here in Ohio, when hunting deer, we're limited in our choice of fire arms weapons (No rifles); only shotguns and muzzle loaders. I've decided to go with a shotgun. I'm not much into primitive weapons just yet.

I'd like to hear from some of the more experienced hunters as to what shotgun would you purchase for hunting deer if you were limited to any new shotgun on the market today? I say new simply because I don't know enough about them to trust my judgement on purchasing a used one so I've decided to simply purchase new. You must pick something practical and ready to go right out of the box in order for it to best suit my purposes.

It can be pump, semi-auto, overunder...any make or model... what ever.


I'm looking forward to checking back on this thread to see what you've all recommended.

Roach

Hard to go wrong with a Remington 870 pump 12 guage,great shotgun

I knew that one was coming... Not surprised it was the first response either...lol... I've heard many good things about them.

I've heard of guys giving them up for other more accurate guns though... Can anybody recommend an Ithica? I hear they're accurate to within a 3-4" group @ 100 yrds all day long.

Roach

The Benelli's have always been favorites of mine. I don't own a slug barrel for any of my guns as I hunt with a rifle, but I love their shotguns.

Roach-

Don't know what the spending threshold is, and, not sure how you define "practical", but a Benelli SBE with a rifled tube is about as sweet as you can go. A Remington 11-87 w/cantilever scope mount would be next in my line, then likely the Remington 870 w/cantilever. The auto's surely help tame recoil.

I wouldn't rule out the muzzle loaders because of their "primitive" nature. Today's inline ML's are anything but primitive. Easy to use/clean, and, for practical purposes, more effective at distances to 140 yards and beyond.

Three choices and all of them are good.All should have rifle sighted barrels.
Remington 870
Mossberg 500
Ithaca 37

Look into Tar-Hunt slug guns. They are spendy as all get out, but then they are the best you can find. This is the only slug gun I know of that will deliver true MOA accuracy at 100 yards.
link to Tar-Hunt

I was wondering when someone would list the Tar-Hunt....

I think you have some good shot gun suggestions..

How about a muzzleloader? Legal in the shotgun season right? More range than the shotgun for those fields, Your choice of fun to shoot (100g or max range 150g) a fraction of the cost of slugs.. you might even shot it enough to be good with it.

I am TC fellow my self.. but the savage you could go smokeless

For a first shotgun, in general?

No doubt, go with a Rem 870. Dependable, affordable, will work forever, a huge aftermarket parts selection (barrels, scope mounts, cantilevered mount barrels, choke tubes, etc). Pick up a combo package with a rifled barrel and a bird barrel, and you could literally hunt forever with one shotgun.

For a more specialized deer hunting shotgun, an Ithaca Deerslayer is hard to beat. I've been carrying one for over 30 years. Killed a truckload of deer with it too.

Depending on the versatility you'd like, I'd pick between these two. Go to a shop, handle both, and make your choice. Either way you're gonna be happy.

For semi- autos::

Here it is from guides in Argentina, where it is common to put a thousand shells down the tube in a day. They keep shotguns on hand for their clientell: In this order Benelli, Berreta 390 and not the newer models. and finally the Browning any of them.

I have a browning Gold and love it. Pm me and I'll tell you a store in Minnesota who can ship you one, I didn't have to pay taxes and got a killer deal. I also have 2 Browning pumps. They can take whatever you can dish out, that is my go to shotgun, it is a tank. I would say its as tough as the 870 express. However, People I know with that gun never clean them. I think you'd have problems not cleaning a browning, not sure how those 870's stand up to some of the crap I've seen them go through.

I agree with most of the choices on here, except 1.

I have 3 12 gauge shotguns:

Remington 870
Remington 1100
Mossberg 500.

I clean my guns after every outing. Probably the only thing in life I am really anal about.

The Mossberg jams up on me some many times that when I take it out in the field, I carry an old arrow to push the spent shell out of the action. I would hate to see a nice buck walk away as I was *&(@&#$ing my gun! lol

How much do you want to spend?

If price is not really an issue, I'd run a Benelli M2 with a slug barrel and do it with a smile on my face.

If price is an issue, I'd run an 870 of whatever flavor you like. There are several train loads of deer that have been shot with each of them.

I am not a slug hunter, but worked in that area in western MN and here is what I observed. Most slug hunters are not real picky and many buy what ever bird/deer combinations are sold so remmy, mossberg, and Winchesters were very popular. The high end over & under toting phesant hunters seemed to like winchesters and it was the popular brand among the poor bird & deer hunters.
My opinion - I have had 2 remmy's misfeed under the carrier and a couple bad mossberg experiences. I really like my browning BPS pump shotguns and that is what I would get. BPS's don't hold high dollars on the used rack and I think it is the japanese made mentality. Lots of mossbergs on the used racks for a reason.
Another reason I don't like remmy's is the fit. They hit my cheek and give me headaches and none of my other shotguns do that (fox double, benelli auto, bps 12 & 20, and winchester 1300 home defense).
Buy what fits and the best quality you can afford.
H

Ithaca 37 (Deerslayer) is no longer made but used ones abound. They are good deals especially if they don't show much wear. It's a nice design with all milled steel internals and about 27 less parts than an 870. John Browning designed it so you know it has military quality. Most are smoothbore....

My Ithaca 37 is an old riot model which I fitted with a red dot scope.....I have killed many many whitetails with it including my largest gun kill.

I forgot to add, the Ithaca 37 has absolutely stone cracking recoil....a good pad is a must. Mine has the hard buttplate and let me tell you it will set you free.

Itacaa Mod. 37 is being made again in Ohio,google itI've heard nothing but good things and they make one to compete with Tar-Hunt

Go with a modern ML, they are anything but primitive, just about all they are missing is the brass case for the projectile. Otherwise, no advice on SGs from me, I have a few but only for birding.

I would recommend a NEF/H and R, dedicated slug gun with rifled barrel, single shot, 20 gauge, not very expensive. The 20 gauge slugs are pretty good stuff these days. You did list this as a deer gun and one shot should do you fine (practice fast reloading). They have an optics rail installed. On the heavy side. Just my two cents.

Ithaca 37 are my favorite slug guns, I have 3 of them in 12, 16, and 20. All of them shoot the cheap foster style slugs pretty darn good. That and i really like the bottom ejection.

I'm a Buckeye, although I do most of my deer hunting south of the Ohio now in KY. I have two slug guns: a Rem 1100 12 GA smoothbore and a Mossberg 500 with a rifled barrel. Both have performed adequately as switch hitters-- the 500 doubles as my turkey gun. The 1100 is also my bird gun. If I was to do it all over again and I had the cash for a dedicated slug gun, I would probably look at a bolt-action 12 GA with a rifled barrel.

I like the 1100 for close-in stalking. It comes up quickly. If I am going to be hunting from a stand, I go with the Mossberg. It has a 1.5-4.5X scope. I would not need it, except my eyes have really started to go.

Neither of these firearms have been tested out to 100 yards. The venues I hunted never required that sort of distance. I think that all of my shots were within 65 yards. Even now, widening out to include my rifle hunting in KY, the majority of my shots in 26 seasons have been within 50 yards.

I'll throw out another possibility here that has not been mentioned. My buddy has a dedicated slug gun that always attracts attention. He has a Stoeger SXS coach gun. The barrels shoot to pretty much the same spot at 50 yards. He calls it "Guido." He shoots the 2.75 smoothbore Brennekes through it. It is an awesome slug gun that really makes a statement.

My overall advice is this: a rifled deer barrel on any of the shotguns mentioned will get you out to 50 yards. Beyond that, you will have to work with what you're putting into it. With the Rem 1100, I fed it cheap Remmie Sluggers, and got a cloverleaf at 50 yards and stopped right there. With the Mossberg, I had to try several loads, but finally found a couple that went through the same hole on the pie plate at 50 yards. Again, I stopped right there. I was happy.

Pick your budget, pick your yardage and start practicing. It may cost you $100 in ammo to find a load that shoots a consistent 100 yard group, but it probably is out there. I'm not saying you can't get 100 yards out of a slug gun or even 200. It's just that, when I was hunting with slugs in Ohio, I was primarily a bow hunter. 50 yards was all I really felt I needed.