Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Good optics for a slug gun???

Any suggestions? I just want something clear with really nice eye relief.

Leupold FX-II Ultralight 2.5-20mm with the heavy duplex. 4.9" eye relief.
Actual Magnification N/A 2.30 x
Linear Field of View (ft/100 yd) 39.50 ft N/A
Linear Field of View (m/100 m) 13.20 m N/A
Eye Relief (in) 4.90 in N/A
Eye Relief (mm) 125.00 mm N/A
Weight (oz) 6.50 oz
Weight (g) 184.00 g
Objective Clear Aperture (in) 0.80 in
Objective Clear Aperture (mm) 20.00 mm
Elevation Adjustment Range 147.00 moa
Windage Adjustment Range

Zeiss Conquest 3x9x40. Mine has held zero and has 4" eye relief.

Between me and the kids we have 9 slug guns in the house, with some having 2 barrels, 1 being a smoothbore slug barrel and the other rifled, for a total of 12 barrels/scopes for said guns.

7 of the guns are 12 gauge, 2 are 20 gauge. Guns include an Ithaca 37, Remington 11-87, 2 1100's, 2 870's, and 3 Winchester 1300 pumps.

One is scoped with an old school El Paso Weaver V4.5 variable 1.5X4.5 power, one is scoped with a Denver Redfield Widefield variable 1.5X5 and the other 10 barrels are all scoped with a Bushnell Banner 1.5X4.5 variable with a duplex recticle.

That particular Banner model is well suited to a slug gun. Generous eye relief, about 4 inches I believe, crystal clear optics, and at 1.5 you can easily get on a deer 10 yards away and moving swiftly. It never ceases to amaze me that they can put together such a good scope for the price, definitely I feel the most bang you could get for your buck in a slug gun scope.

Additionally, we have shot them often, from the bench, in a Leadsled, and in the field at deer and have had zero failures of any kind with the scope. It would be(and obviously is) my scope of choice in putting together a slug gun, either smooth bored or rifled.

Here's my daugher in her treestand last year with her 'pre 77' 1100 20 gauge smoothebore slug gun and a Bushnell Banner mounted on it. She did shoot a small buck that day, but don't have a pic of it with the gun. Distance was about 45 yards.


Son with a small buck taken with the Ithaca 37 12 gauge (1963 vintage) and smoothbore barrel and Bushnell Banner at 35 yards. He has also taken a doe with that barrel/scope combo at 128 lasered yards.


Here is a 12 gauge 870 smoothbore sluggun with a receiver I drilled and tapped and installed a Weaver pivot base and a Bushnell Banner 1.5X4.5 sitting on it.

Nikon Monarch 1-4x.....

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I have a Leupold 4X on mine and am more than happy with it. The only thing I'd consider changing is swapping out the duplex for the heavy duplex. That said, that 'improvement' isn't worth the $60 to me.

Any of the lower powered Leuoplds will work. I like heavy duplex. 33mm max.

While I do not hunt with slug guns, ever, or even own one, I have owned about every lower powered Leupold and Weaver Classic ever made. They all have served me well on big bore lever guns.

I recently put a new VX1 2-7x33 HD shotgun scope on a 35 Remington brush gun. Very impressed with it in every way. Hard to beat for the price.....