Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Smooth or Rifled barrels for shotgun only areas?

Do all shotgun only areas for deer allow both Smoothbore & Rifled barrels?

I'm not aware of any that proscribe rifled barrels. The best thing to do is always consult your state's rule book.

In PA and NJ they do.

Yes in New Jersey.

New York also. you can use either.

When I have a question I cant answer by read the regs online of the particular state Im search I always email that states DNR or wildlife dept and ask.
Depending on what it is I print the response and put it with my gear. i have had a few times the regs needed clarification.

Before Iowa went to straight wall legal, only stated that it had to be a shotgun, firing a single projectile, between 10ga and 20ga. Could use any action type, smooth or rifled, and full bore or sabot style. Guess I never wondered about rifle barrels in certain areas. I’m guessing that it would be like some muzzleloader states only allowing full bore projectiles. Be interesting to see what ppl say.

Yes in Warshington.

Ny was shotgun or muzzleloader hunters choice for awhile, I always went with muzzle loader for the extended range. Some of the new shotguns will shot as far if not farther now days

When I was stationed in VA I hunted a lot of shotgun only areas. It never specified as to smooth or rifled and I used both with success shooting both buckshot and slugs

Southern MN either is fine

If you have a gun with a straight barrel and the right choke, you can go to about a hundred yards with a smoothbore and good slugs, Brennekes being the gold standard. If limited to shotguns where I regularly hunt, I’d naturally go for the best option, a rifled barrel. For occasional use, a saddle mount or red dot on a smoothbore will get ‘er done.

The notched, full-diameter holes Brennekes cut in a target are impressive. Have yet to use one on a deer; only Fosters thus far. A lot of the sabots slugs seem to be breechloading versions of ML loads, not that there’s anything wrong with that……

Those who’ve followed the TSS wars on the Turkey forum have seen this target made with my Henry .410 and Brenneke slugs fired though a Skeet tube, directed with a prism sight. 50 yards. That red square is 2x2”. Probably wouldn’t hunt deer with this on purpose, but I’d surely take a random opportunity poke with it.

For a smoothbore the Federal Truball slug loaded with a ball in the bottom of the slug is the most accurate slug I have used.

I have some of those in 20 and 12. Loaned some to my neighbor last season, but no shot was offered him. He couldn't find any anywhere.

Just had a notification come through today on some 20ga Brenneke KOs from Midway. Picked up enough for my limited use.

I always figured smooth bore slugs were 50yd shooters until I bought some of the Tru-balls, wow what a difference.
No wonder the police departments use these in smooth bores. They are a 100yd slug because of that ball in the base.
I am rifle zone here, but it's slugs in south MN in case i need to fill more tags,

I grew up in Upstate NY and the southern tier always was slug only .. they finally changed it to rifle as well.

I was also in Delaware - they allowed buck shot there, but I never used it.

Then IOWA … yep slugs only.

then I came, to Kansas and I’m all rifle all the way.

Yep. In NJ you can use either (or rifled choke tube) but the gun must have a site on it.

Had great luck w shotguns when my state (IN) was old school.

Mossberg 500s w WW 2 3/4" fosters seemed the best in smoothbore. Slug performance in the critter was the determiner of yardage IMHO, so was a 150 yard max.

Rifled bbls.....better acccuracy, better perf on critter.
Cost more, required more cleaning. Had a tuned 870 that I really liked.

They all kicked LOL

Outside of the recoil and limited platforms.....Id still.not feel handicapped hunting at home w slug gun.

PCR and now reg rifles legal on private ground. Farthest shot 75 yards. Hell have used shotguns, MZ and handguns at double that distance LOL

Rifle allowance justets me use cool rigs. Woods hunting,
Shot distances still 75 and in most times. Field.....cutrent spot offers only one shot for safety and its 150 or less.

In Ohio you can use either. Good Foster slugs are plenty accurate to 75 yards, which is a long shot in the deer woods. Before they allowed straight walled cartridge rifles I used an H&R trophy slugster (rifled barrel) with Federal Barnes expanders. I could kill a deer at 150 yards all day long.

Ron

Here in IL, just has to be a shotgun, either type of slug, scope or no scope, hunter's choice. Muzzleloaders too, any configuration and projectile. Handguns have to be a straight wall pistol cartridge (limited by length) developing at least 500 ft lbs of energy, no single shots using rifle cartridges. But if I'm coyote hunting, I can use anything I want! Guess they figure there's a lot more deer hunters than coyote hunters (and there are!).

Idaho doesn't have any shotgun only areas that I know of. In some more populated areas, there are some 'short range weapons' areas. Short range includes shotguns of any kind, bows, ML's, and handguns.

Either in Michigan. Rifled with sabot slugs more accurate and effective at a bit longer range. Both are fine at short range. Currently shotgun slug barrels are in good supply at LGS because of the advent of legal use of straight wall pistol cartridges in rifles. Popularity of .44 mag and rifled shotgun barrels has waned with the arrival of .450 Bushmaster and .350 Legend chambered rifles/carbines. A LGS operator up in the Thumb convince Ruger to chamber Ruger American rifles in .450 bushmaster and they've sold like hotcakes.

Main reason I think is superiority of stock rifle triggers over unaltered shotgun triggers. I have a rifled slug barrel for my duck hunting pump gun but the 8-9+lb trigger is detrimental to accurate shooting.

With the accuracy and extended range of a rifled barrel it's hard to see why anyone would want to hunt with a smooth barrel.

Maybe the added accuracy and or range not required by some.

Know lots of folks that think 100 yards is far and shooting offhand over 50 to be some superhuman feat.

Foster slugs are a bit cheaper to shoot LOL and if one likes to blast their rig in the offseason.....

Aagaardsporter accurately summarized the Michigan situation.

Prior to 450 Bushmaster legalization about 3-4 years ago, shotgun only meant lobbing footballs. Then saboted slugs in rifled barrels changed the game dramatically, increasing distance and accuracy out to legit 200 yards.

Started shotgun hunting in Michigan before going out to Iowa, where rifled barrels and saboted slugs were an expensive way of shooting at running deer. After blowing through alot of $$$ ammo (basically $4/trigger pull), changed up my game and went to smoothbore with rifled slugs. Saved me well over $100 in ammo annually.

All my rifled shotgun barrels have cantilever scope mounts, allowing those shotguns double-duty as bird guns as well. My absolute favorite rig is a Beretta 390 12-ga with Hastings Paradox barrel and Eotech XPS 2 red dot. Head & neck shots out to 100 yards all day long.

I hunted for a lot of years with an Ithaca M37 with a 26 inch vent rib barrel and fixed IC choke. It had a red fiber optic front bar and a middle brass bead. That thing could shoot Remington and Federal foster slugs such that I could break coke bottles with it at 75 yards. Killed a lot of deer with it. I still hunt with an M37 Featherlight with a rifled barrel and and factory fiber optic sights. I've pretty much shot up my hourglass shaped sabot slugs. I bought some Hornady sabot slugs. Going to see how they do.

I never believed in a dual purpose shotgun
High comb stocks, scopes and trigger jobs.
Set up for specific task and left that way.

A lot of hunters only have one trusty shotgun and it's a smoothbore. Here in Virginia, we still have buckshot only areas, so they need a gun that will hunt squirrels, rabbits, and deer with buckshot or slugs.

Not too long ago, one of the most coveted quota hunts in Virginia that produced really, really nice bucks was a hunt on the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, and that was buckshot only. Now it's slugs only.

I have owned Ithaca 37 Deerslayers in both rifled and smoothbore barrels. They were both equally accurate with the right slugs.

I have found that slug guns tend to be individually picky about ammo. One Rem 870 might like Sluggers while another of the same likes WInchester...For a new slug gun, I buy a box of several different brands and types

Local chain store got Sluggers.
I have a smoothbore Benelli clone.
If not raining try the 2 3/4" tomorrow.
Did not buy the rig to be a hunting slug gun, but hey, if it does a good job........sweet!

Trigger is pretty lousy, but I'm gonna be doing a break in w shot shells too. So blaze through 100 and then see how she does w Big Green's punkin balls.

My pref has always been Winchesters, but nobody has any right now.

I used a smooth bore double barrel 20 gauge. We envied the guys using rifled shotguns but it wasn't enough for many to spend the money on a rifled barreled gun.

kwg