[zeus1gdsm]

Picked up my mossberg 12g from Rawhide a few days ago. and I have decided to seriously hunt this year but i need a decent system for it...

Ive come down to this:

get a rifled scoped barrel for the mossberg sight it with a 3-9x scope using sabots or the like and use that.... cost round $180 plus rounds

OR


Get a savage or thompson center in .308 3-9x scope etc... which would run closer to $400-500 or saiga ( more likely i would get a saiga if i went this route for an extra 100)

being cheap the shotgun option appeals to me. but my question is this: Would a rifled slug gun be fine for our area? figuring on 50-75yrd shots. what about deflection due to branches / leaves I know the .308 would shine there but i dont know about slugs.


In reading online i have read there are many states where only shotguns are allowed for hunting and plenty of deer are taken. SO obviously the slug gun would be fine, but I was just curious what personal thoughts were here in NY.

i need enlightenment.

 

[RayKnobs]

My mossberg has a rifled barrel, a aimpoint knockoff, and I shoot copper solids.

I have fired it three times in the woods and have killed 3 deer with it.

 

[Evild]

For years people hunted deer with bird barrels and bead sights and took game. This is how the guys I learned to hunt from did it and still do it. You don't' need any thing else to take take deer. If you can't put 3 shot gun slugs into a 3" circle off hand at 50 yards, you need to shoot more. a 308 at that distance is totally unnecessary and a shot slug slug will deflect less off of branches..

 

[Culvercreek Hunt Club]

not to bust chops but based on the prices you are stating...you must be looking at some very cheap glass. I would go the 12 guage route if it ws my only deer gun. The areas you are around...some could be shotgun only. Check the regulations. You may be on the border. I can lt tell from just CNY.
The 12 ga will pack some recoil so cheap glass may not hold up like you want. the 500 in a cantilevered rifled barrel with good optics and rings with the right diet ow sabots is very capable of 150 yard softball groups and more than enough killing power. Unless you are sitting on a field edge it will do anything you are asking in the NY woods. Even in rifle country.

 

[mbopp]

I developed my "deer shotgun" before rifled barrels were allowed. It's an Ithaca 37 12ga D&T'd for a Weaver scope base. The barrel was a 28" vent rib that I cut 2"off of, effectively removing any choke. It'll shoot Federal Foster slugs into a 5" circle at 75 yards, and that's all I ask from a smoothbore.
And my other deer gun? A T/C Contender in 357 Herrett. I've had that since handgun hunting was first allowed in NY.

 

[JIMMAGU]

Shotguns have killed a LOT of deer in NYS. I have claimed my share, and have never used a rifle out of the 20+ I've been afield. Not to say that I wouldnt have, as there are always shots you could take that are more than the range of your shotgun. I just have not yet felt the need as I hunt a lot of bow season and by the time firearms season rolls around it feels like an 80 yard shot is halfway around the world!

Also I saw a member of our club shoot a doe at 30 yards with the 30-06 or maybe it was a .308 and you could have put your boot through the exit wound on that deer. I'd bet that the entire front shoulder of that deer went to waste. I've had my broadhead ruin a lot of meat when I got into the shoulder of a smallish doe and I cant imagine how that must have looked when they skinned & butchered.

 

[zeus1gdsm]

Good im glad that is the consesus... id much rather swap barrels then buy a whole new gun not that i would mind another lol

i had a feeling the shotgun would be just fine as my father used one all through the 70's and 80's with no problem.. just wanted to get an idea what y'all thought...


as far as glass is concerned i recently picked up a barska 3-9x40 scope. 40 bucks online. seems to do just fine for my saiga .223 (yes 12g is much worse i know) as far as managing recoil. and if it cant handle the recoil well i can take a 40$ mistake lol.




would a pistolgrip/buttstock be recommend or just a regular monte carlo