Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 20 ga for deer hunting.

The 1100 Semi Auto in 20ga combined with a few boxes of 2 3/4 Rem Copper Solids and it's off to the races....

The semi 20ga.won't kick hard at all.It would be a nice deer gun with slugs!

olehunter sezs get the 1100 12ga . the semi auto will shoot softer than a 410 and kill better. and one day you might want to shoot some ducks or geese.

I read this thread and couldnt believe all the negative things said about the 410 shooting slugs.

One question, have any of you actually shot a slug in a 410?


I got a 1/8" barn door hinge, at home, that was shot with a 2.5" 410 slug at 80 yds. The lead didnt completely go through the hinge. It cracked the hinge and about half the lead was on one side and half the lead on the other.

Unless you are shooting armored deer, the 410 is plenty. In fact, years ago they didnt make a 3" slug, and I dont know if they do now. They make a 3" buckshot, got 3 stacked on one another.

As for accuracy, I have no idea. Dont know if they make a rifled barrel for the 410. The hinge was shot with a smooth bore single shot. Took 3 shots to hit the hinge, but all were within about 3". One of the other two shots went through 5 3/4" boards and into the hill behind the barn. The other went through 4 3/4" boards and into a barn pole about 3"-4".

Dont ever underestimate a 40 caliber lead slug traveling aroung 1800 ft/sec.!

(Called dad, it was a 1/8" hinge not 3/16")

I shot a couple does with them in the 60s but never found one.

Winchester advertises their 410 slug rounds as 1/4 oz (109 gr.) at 1800 fps. That's getting pretty anemic. There are lots of deer shot with 100 gr bullets, but at a lot higher velocity.

Yesterday I bought a box of Winchester 20 gauge 3/4 oz. slugs. Doing a bit of math that makes the projectile about 328 grains and the box claims 1600 FPS.

Now I'm not a big caliber shooter by any means so I can't tell anyone off the top of my head what combination this duplicates but I'll bet its something like a 444 or 45-70 or some other long time game getter that no one would hesitate to shoot a deer with.

I'd rather shoot them through an 1100 than the BPS 20 gauge pump I have any day.

Also bought a box of Remington 5/8 oz. slugs to try. Only 273 grains of lead in those.

I didnt mean to imply that the 410 is better than the 20 ga., of course it's not.

I was just saying that the 410 is a lot more gun, than everyone was saying.

All the stories about deer being shot and getting away... were probably bad hits to begin with, meaning the accuracy of the shot. The slug barrel is a vast improvement.

Simply put, you put a 1/4 oz. lead slug going around 1800 ft/sec throught the vital area, and you will get your deer, hog, etc...