Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Ithaca deerslayer sight adjustment

I have an older deerslayer that shoots real well problem is its about three inches low at a hundred. Rear sight is up as far as it will go. Any sugestions, reciever sight perhaps? If so what kind anyone done this?

Older Deerslayers were never made to be 100 yard shotguns.
Is it rifled? If so, you might try a faster, lighter sabot slug.
Otherwise a 2x scope in a weaver top mount will fix your problem.

Its a smooth bore but will shoot into three inches at a hundred with the open sights. I am not interested in putting a scope on it just want to get it on at a hundred.I saw an 870 rem. with a receiver sight just wondering if anyone had done this and if so how it worked.

Receiver sights work fine. had one on a SB hump backed Browning for years. A lower front sight would also work. The techs at Brownells 800-741-0015 can instruct you how to calculate what you need. What gauge and slugs are you shooting? you might try the hot Brenneke K.O. which starts out @1600 fps.

I did a little hunting and found Williams makes a receiver sight for shotguns. I put one on order I have plenty of time to experiment before next deer season.I was shooting Brenneke Classic Magnums They seem to give the best groups out of my gun. I will try the K.O.s see if they shoot as well. Thanks for the input.

Who says? Where is that documented? By what authority??

Sounds more like an old wives tale spun up by some monday morning quarterback that has little or no experience playing around with smoothbore slug guns.

As you are aware Trapperman, smoothbore slug guns are very effective out to a hundred yards and beyond. We have an Ithaca 37 Deerslayer(scoped), smoothbore like yours. Last year my son took a large doe at 129 lasered yards with it. One shot and a bang flop. He practices out to 125 yards regularly with it, not a difficult shot for him. Oh by the way, it's one of the old ones, 1963 vintage.

I've been playing with smoothbore slug guns since the 60's, never found one I couldn't get to shoot accurately out to 100 yards with some tweaking and the right foster slug for the particular barrel. We never even take a slug gun with a rifled barrel out unless we're sitting in a stand where a shot beyond 125 yards is possible.

In the late 70's/early 80's, when Hastings first came out with a rifled slug barrel, and sabot slugs weren't even invented yet, they recommended Winchester fosters in their barrel. But what really caught my eye, was, in their advertisements, they stated that a rigidly mounted scope or sights will improve accuracy 350% !!!!! What they were really saying, was that if you had a rigidly mounted set of sights, or scope, you really didn't need their barrel.

If you're not happy with a receiver sight Trapperman your other option is simply to find a taller sight elevator to raise your rear sight, should not be a problem to find one at Brownells or Numrich, I'm sure.

I know that the slug guns are effective to a hundred plus.My objective was to get the best out of my Ithaca without going to a scope.With the factory sights I was getting about three inches at a hundred. I figure a receiver can only add some sight radius. I will see what happens when I get the sight installed. Thanks for the info.What slug are you using in your smooth bore?

Sons Ithaca 37 seems to do best with Winchester fosters, and overall, in 90% of the smoothbores I've played with the Winchester fosters seem to give the best accuracy.

You can simply shim underneath your sight elevator to raise it as high as needed.

I would use black electric tape myself, wrapped on the barrel under the elevator. You can change it as much or little as needed.

The best shot I ever made with an Ithaca Deerslayer was 250 yards at a wounded buck. Held what seemed to be about 2 feet over his back--dropped him where he stood.