Hello all

Back again now that hunting season is all over. Used the CZ550 .458 wm to great success this year on deer as one would imagine. Lets say lighting kills don't really describe it. And as a side note I shot the biggest deer of my life with her this year. Enough of that though.
I have been given a new area to hunt next year..with the caveat that it is a shotgun only part of town. No problem says me. Sure I need to buy a shotgun (leaning towards a Mossberg 535 combo in camo with the 24" rifled barrel, and the 26"(?) turkey barrel) Maybe this question should be in the shotgun area, but I am pretty much planning to use this as a rather large bore rifle. And since many of the big bore rifles are for close cover or dangerous game my needs might be met better by setting this up as a DGR/Brush Rifle. My questions are pretty forward.
On game performance should be phenomenal at the close wooded distances this area provides. My question is accuracy with say the dixie style slugs, and some of the more common sabot rounds from winchester/federal/remington etc. I am pretty clueless as to where to start looking for rounds. Anyone with actual experience with any of these on game? How they shoot out to about 75 yards or so?
I am leaning towards a ghost ring, and replacing the factory blade with something like one of the fiber optic jobs like my bow sights. Seems it would make a real nice close cover rifle with some real knockdown power with an appropriate slug. Kind of a poor mans Not So Dangerous Game Stopper? (NSDGR?)
The other choice would be a scope of some type as the receiver is drilled and tapped from the factory. Now I get really confused as to what to look for. This shotgun is going to weigh in at about 7 to 8 lbs all up. So recoil should be pretty vicious. What scopes should I look at that would hold up to this abuse? I would prefer a scope to a point for the light gathering abilities they provide, but am worried about it being shot to bits inside of a month.
Any advice guys? Close cover, maybe a far shot of 75 yards, handy in the woods as I tend to ground stalk deer. Fairly accurate (meaning minute of whitetail out to 75 yards or so), and good on game performance. Again all of this up in the air the gun, the loads, the sighting system..just lookin for advice.
Thanks ahead of time

NHbwana

A while ago on this forum someone posted comments on a rifled Browning 12 ga sabot slug..IIRC Win 3" Partition giving 1" @100 yds with this potent round.Any deer ,black bear or other non DG would take notice !! Ghost ring sights or a shotgun 1x4 like my Leupold.

Shooting a rifled shotgun is Lots of Fun !! I am also in a shotgun only area and have them scoped. Shotgun choice is a personal matter. Bolts, Pumps, Singles & Auto all abound, but a good standard rifled barrel, like the Mossberg 535 will do the trick.

Slugs are another issue - get good sabot slugs - Remington, Federal, Hornady, Winchester, etc. all make good ones. Try a few & see what works in your gun. My Remington guns like Remington Copper sabots, out to 150 yards or so. Great groups at 100 yards, 3" or less is not unusual.

I like scopes for most all of my shooting - fast & accurate with my now getting older eyes. A good Leupold 1 X 4 would be great for your use. Low power to keep it an open field, but the 4X when you get a longer shot. Many manufacturers make good low power scopes, but be careful of the cheapies. They will fail in a short time under the slug gun recoil. I use mostly all Leuplods on my slug guns, anywhere fron, 1X4, 1.5X5, 1.75X6, 2.5X8, 3X9, and 3.5X10 are some of the scopes on my ever increasing slug gun collection. Truthfully, for my mostly woods hunting, the 1X4 shines & get called on the most.

Shotguns with slugs will rock you some, but a good rest, and maybe even a sissy pad to site in with will help. Be sure the bench you use is tall enough so your shoulder can flex with the recoil. Too many folks bend down/lean into the bench & absorb all of that pounding - a lesson I learned the hard way.

Hope this helped. Ask if any other questions come up.

I've tried them all for our close cover whitetails in short-range seasons. Once you get to the Winchester Supreme Partition Gold, you will love them and never leave. Get incredible accuracy in both 870 with Hastings rifled barrel with 4X Leupold, and a Benelli SBE with 3x9.

A 385 grain Partition at 1900 fps tells a deer "STAY DOWN", and they listen!!!!!!!!

I have a Remington 870. I replaced the factory rifled barrel, it shoots Buckhammer slugs in to a very tight group at 100 yards. I wanted a faster twist barrel for the newer sabots. I bought an American barrel out of Cabelas for it. It is the fastest twist barrel out there as of right now. It shoots all of the different sabots that I have tryed out great. Winchester Supremes are great, my hunting partner uses only those. They are about $20.00 per 5. I used the Hornaday sabots on Iowa whitetails this year and the shoot great, at #12.00 for 5. Good luck.

Living in a shotgun only area, I have quite a bit of experience with rifled barrel shotguns (though have found some very effective alternatives recently in handguns and muzzleloaders). 12ga slugs are VERY effective at putting down whitetails and can be extremely accurate. Being a rifle shooter, a bolt action slug gun is a nice alternative. The Savage 210 is quite nice for the price. With the fixed barrel it is incredibly accurate. The fixed barrel also being the down side if you are looking for multiple duties. I have shot the 2 3/4 and 3 inch Winchester Partition Golds as well as the Hornady SSTs with great success both in terms of accuracy and on game performance. Accuracy pretty easily within 1.5 inches at 100 yds. I have a Leupold 2-7x on the Savage. My other rifled barrel slug gun is a Benelli SBE2 (double as my turkey gun) which I usually shoot with open sights for drives or brush hunting. And yes, the slugs do pack a good wallop of recoil but coming from shooting your .458 WM I am not too concerned about your lack of tolerance.

Slug guns are a great tool. Most people consider the shotgun to be a pattern only shooting tool. Granted groups are rarely as tight as rifles, but they are very much capable of taking game at a fair distance.

My first firearm as a kid was a Mossberg 500A 12 gauge cylinder bore with rifle sights. Shooting rifle sights and rifled slugs it was very capable of hitting a paper plate at 100 yds. and many a whitetail fell to that beloved first gun.

My current 12 is a rifle barreled bolt gun. Marlin 512 Slugmaster with a Bushnell 1.75-4X scope that rarely leaves 2X. Just this past weekend I shot a large doe whitetail at 150 yards. It was a kneeling shot to a broadside standing deer. One shot to the lungs, ran 20 yards and tipped over. Now granted I shoot my 12 gauge a lot and am very familiar with its trajectory at these distances. Good sabot slugs are the way to go. They are not cheap but they fly true and perform well at the end where it counts.

I really like the scope on the slug gun. I was very hesitant putting one on at first. We do a lot of deer drives in our area and I feared the "limited" field of view who lead to swinging into another hunter. I was far from the truth, a low mag scope gives better sight picture than iron sights and does not hinder my shooting abilities. With a low mag scope, I can shoot with both eyes open, it is very easy to track moving targets. Scope also helps when those longer shots present themselves, under the right conditions. If all your shooting is at extremely close ranges and you feel 75 yards is your limit of range, then iron sights are the may be the way to go.

Just my two cents, hope it helps.

WunderDog, I too live in a shotgun only area and shoot a Savage 210. Accuracy and dependability are both outstanding. I've found that the 210 when used with Hornady SST slugs is dead on at 200 yards, and absolutely deadly on whitetails.
Best regards, Brad Starcevich

NHbwana,

I've taken 3 NH bucks in Unit M and can tell you a few things:

You should definitely consider the scope over the irons. Many of the deer in this densely populated part of the state don't venture around much until late in the day and early in the morning and the scope gives you extra shooting time over the irons. 5 years ago, on the last day of the season I went out in the afternoon with my peep-sighted Savage instead of one of my scoped guns. Just before the end of legal shooting time a group of deer stood about 40 yards in front of me on the trail but I couldn't pick up the sights in the low light that was available. The buck I shot this year was taken in less light and was easily targeted in my 1.5-5x scope. One shot kill.

12 or 20 guage, doesn't matter which. I've switched from a 12 to 20 guage because they both knock deer down easily if you place the slug well. Like another poster said, the Winchester Partition Gold sabots are very good. In my H&R 20 ga. Ultra Slug Hunter they easily group under 2" at 100 yards with little recoil and the 260 grain .50 caliber bullet leaves the muzzle at almost 1900 fps. How many dearr can stand up to that?

I don't like pump guns for deer hunting. Frankly, they make too much noise. In my experience the biggest factor in taking deer in thick woods like most of NH is keeping as quiet as possible. I used to carry a pump gun but they just rattle too much to be super quiet with IMHO. Yes, you can concentrate and make sure you don't touch the moving parts that make them rattle but with other types of guns it's not an issue. I know many people are very successful with slug guns and some may say the noise they do make is almost non-existent but if you are serious about hunting don't you want to minimize the noise as much as possible?

Just passing on a little of what has worked for me. YMMV

Exactly why I don't use a pump slug gun, they are just too noisy. I put a Bushnell Red dot sight on my Savage 210, and love it. It's 1x (no magnification) allows me to keep both eyes open, for an unlimited field of view. Best regards, Brad Starcevich

To be honest, the pump action was my first choice simply to allow me the turkey barrel and use one gun for double duty. I do realize they can be more "clangy", but it's either that or an auto. And well..I have never had much luck with auto shotguns. Once you get into different loads I wonder how well they handle them also. I do like the idea of the savage though, my reluctance to buy a dedicated deer slug gun then a Turkey gun has steered me towards the Pump though. I can be convinced to change though, still in the preliminary stages really.
As a side note the one thing the savage has going for it is a really strong action. As I am contemplating doing some handloading and working out a couple of ideas for an alternative to the rather expensive factory sabots.
Thanks for the help guys..and keep it coming.

NHbwana

The H&R with an additional turkey barrel will barely set you back 3 bills.