Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Slug Gun or Muzzleloader

The quality is far superior to that of a Savage, price is higher also
Mine is an original model when Browning reintroduced them they missed the boat by not making them in 20 ga

Thanks for the reply. As a Browning owner I understand about the pricing, don't mind it if it shows in the quality.

true, but why would you use that crap? ruins guns, cost an arm and a leg, lousy accuracy.

I would NEVER use anything but smokeless powder in my Savage Muzzleloader.

the very first load tried in my savage muzzleloader gave me 1.5" groups at 200yds when started at 2100+FPS. Like to see a shotgun equal that.

My shotgun will shoot a 5 shot 3" group at 200 yds . I'll take the extra 1 1/2" and the 7 minutes less time it takes to do it

If you're talking about smooth bore shotguns, I agree with you. I have a scoped H&R Ultra slug Hunter with a fully rifled heavy bull barrel. It really is a 12 ga sabot rifle more than it is a shotgun,
Muzzleloader more accurate than a dedicated slug gun????? that's just crazy talk. A slug gun properly set up will shoot small enough group to easily take deer at 200 yards. If your ML
shoots tighter than that it doesnt matter anyway, a 2 inch group has absolutely no benefit over a 3 inch group at 200 yards
Some areas will allow slug shooting but off limits to rifles.

Crazy talk? No, not really. Why would say that? What possibly would make a slug gun more inherently accurate in your mind than a simple in-line ML?

Look a few pages back, you'll see the last 3 shots I took with my ML at something that didn't have a heart beat. 3/4" at 150 yds. Let me guess, your H&R will do that well or better, right?

Never Needed more than one shot at any range.

It also only cost me about $.50 per shot and I get about 155 shots per pound of powder. How many shots can you get for a $50 bill? $2-$3/shot for a modern shotgun sabot round doesn't give you many.

My gun also recoils like a 308.

anyway you look at it, the Savage muzzleloader is cheap to shoot, as accurate as a modern rifle, and deadly at any sane range.

Close enough for me

What this all boils down to is use what you are comfortable with,heck I use every thing(slug gun,in line,traditional and pistol),I'll hunt with my shot gun, muzzleloaders or pistol durning the regular shotgun/rifle season

They all work depending on how you hunt and what you wanna do

Agreed.

Everyone has their likes /dislikes for different reasons. I would NEVER use a slug gun, but that is just me. 5 Shots in 3" @ 200yds is more than good, admittedly. Just not my cup of mud........

slumlord is trying to talk me into a savage 220 for hunting on ft Campbell

I like my cva Kodiak promag in .45

I also like his savage smokeless


fords and chevys
blondes and brunettes
Winchesters and remingtons

it is all what works out best for you as the shooter



I like fords,brunettes and winchesters

I think its all good. Just another reason to buy a new gun. One thing I really like about muzzleloaders though is there is not any FFL crap and still get a nice powerful weapon.

I've used both a shotgun and muzzle loader in Iowa. For me, the only advantage of a muzzle loader was small increase in range.

But 99% of the time, a quality shotgun, with quality slugs worked well. With the advantage of having multiple shots available over the muzzle loader.

Where I hunt in Iowa (Jackson County) almost all shots were less than 100 yards.

How about receiver mounted rifle scopes when the barrel is separate? I am wondering how accurate a set up like this can be on a slug gun? I guess the cantilever barrel mounts are better, but those things look flimsy as well.

i've shot shotguns with mounting cantilever and receiver no problem never had them get move.I've tried the saddlemount so you don't drill the gun.I personally don't care for them i like a more solid mount.

So scope on the receiver, barrel separate shoots as good as cantilevered scope mount.

That hasnt been my experience, nor my observation of a few friends and family members.

Never cared for cantilever mounting, don't care for removable barrels on a dedicated slug gun either

I will use both as required. Given a choice, I will take my Ithaca Deerslayer.

For serious deer hunting the rifled barrel, a scout scope and Winchester or Hornady Sabots is usable to 200 yards.

For does in rangeland with some draws a smoothbore Deerslayer barrel with a 2.5X Scout scope works for deer to 100 yards and pheasant inside 30 yards. 12 or 20 gauge works just fine.
Ditto if I have filled my tag and am not allowed to hunt with a CF rifle larger than .224 cal.

This isn't the best state for Muzzle loaders. The rain makes it tough.