Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Good slug gun scope? Suggestions?

LOL!

Magnumdood: Picture it!

Here is the Deerslayer, it comes with the rail base.

http://www.ithacagun.com/deerslayer3.html

I have a Holosight on my 20 gauge slug gun. It's mostly for the kids and the Holosight works great for a beginner to experienced hunter. I have a Swarovski PH 1.5x6 on my Savage ML for those fading light shots in the timber. I'm going to be getting a Savage 12 gauge bolt action slug gun in a month or so and picked up a Zeiss 1.8x5.5 on closeout for it.

When the slug gun or muzzle loader is the primary long gun in the state you live or hunt, good optics are just as important as they would be on a centerfire deer rifle. Just like anything else in the shooting industry, the new slugs make 200 yard shots as easy when matched with the right gun as they are in a rifle. Same with a good ML, and even futher then. A good scope just makes sense. I believe you would be well served with the 2x7 (with dots?)or 4X Leupold. For the optical quality involved and low light capabilities, I wouldn't give up my Zeiss.

I gotta say I really like the looks of those Ithica's! I'm going with a 12 gauge in the Savage as the ballistics are a bit better for the 12 than the 20 as reported by the ammo manufacturers from my reading. Not much but a little. I could sure see trading off the 20 Youth 870 in favor of a new Deerslayer in a few years after my youngest outgrows it. Might not wait that long.

2 good scopes for slug guns at a reasonable price are the Weaver K2.5 and if you want more power , the Burris FII 2x7 .

slg - great looking outfit. Mine is an old 37 with the smooth bore Deerslayer barrel. It will shoot Fosters just as accurately at 100 yards as my Winchester 1300 will shoot sabots, so I can only imagine what your outfit will do. Best, John

Stoney- my fav. was a 2X7 heavy duplex shotgun scope from Leupold I had on Betty Lou for 6 years. Parrallax was set from factory at 75 yards. Never a hiccup. You can't believe how those crosshairs jump out in the woods. When she came up, deer went down.

The Shotgun scopes have the parallax set at 50 or 75 yards usually and for rifles it is set at 150. Otherwise, same:same. You can have the parallax reset in either direction if you want to. For a slug gun parallax is not an issue I would worry about.

Irons....

Schmidt&Bender 4x36 - Here's mine on my Tar-Hunt 12 gauge.

For many years I hunted a section of MN which was shotgun slug only. I first had a 2.5 Weaver on a side mount scope system using Weaver rings bolted to a 12 gauge Rem 870 action by replacing some pins in the shotgun. Worked great out to about 75 yards which was max range for the old Foster style slugs and smoothbore. Later I got a rifled barrel from Hastings for that gun which had a rib mounting system attached to the barrel. I put on a 2x7 Leupold shotgun scope with HD cross hairs and was able to kill animals to 135 yards with Lightfield slugs. Longer than that and the drop was just too much to consistently hit the target and energy just wasn't there. For 12 gauges with a rifled barrel and a stable mounting system, I recommend the 2x7 Leupold. If you use a smoothbore, 2.5 is all you need since max range will be about 75 to 100 yards. I also tried a 1x4 Leupold shotgun scope but liked the 2x7 better. Since your gun is a 20 gauge, your range might be less than 135 yards even with a rifled barrel. I think a fixed 2.5 power with HD crosshairs might be best for your gun.

Now thats a nice shotgun rig! Your scope and tar-hunt is worth more than your whole house of berber carpeting Its laying on.

Please don't tell the little woman that though - LOL!!!

Yep!