Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

Slug Gun

socker1485

socker1485

Member
I am looking at investing in a new slug gun. The past few years I have just been using a smooth bore with stock bead sights, and I like to be a little more accurate past 50 yards.

I was thinking about getting a Remington 870 but am torn between getting one with a rifled cantilever barrel and mounting my red dot, or just going with a regular rifled barrel and getting a scope mount that goes on the gun receiver.

Anyone have any experience with either of these? This would be a slug only gun for me
 
For a dedicated slug gun there is nothing easier than a cantilever barrel and scope/red dot. I've never had mine lose zero and its been beat on pretty hard.
The best thing is that your receiver stays clean with no scope mount or saddle mount in the way if you want to throw a bird barrel on it.
 
If you are going slug gun only, I would buy the best one out there and in my opinion that is the savage 220. These guns shoot unreal and the accutrigger is outstanding.

I would say cantilever out of the choices you stated. They work great too.
 
Last edited:
Cantilever for sure. Even if you decide to put a regular barrel on it some day as a scatter gun again it is an easy swap back and forth. I hunted for several years with an open sight barrel and mounted scope. Final switched to canitlever and wish I had just started that way.
 
Cantilever for sure , saddle mounts move. And IMO stay away from red dots and holo sights. We had holo sights on all our slug guns switched them to all good red dots and now besides my wife we shoot 2-7 power leupolds. Every year sighting in ,the red dots and holo sights would be way off. And I mean everyone everytime. And the last couple years we have had the scopes the zero has been almost dead on from one year to the next . And yes we had trigger jobs done and barrels pinned on all of them. I will shoot open sights before I'd ever shoot a red dot on a slug gun again.
 
Liv4Rut said:
If you are going slug gun only, I would buy the best one out there and in my opinion that is the savage 220. These guns shoot unreal and the accutrigger is outstanding.

I would say cantilever out of the choices you stated. They work great too.
Click to expand...

I would second the savage 220, but its not a do all gun for deer drives. Depends on your style of hunting. Stand hunting I say go for it!

If you plan on using a scope, Cantilever barrels are much more accurate than reg rifled barrels. There's no play between the barrel and scope, because the scope is attached to the barrel. B-Square mounts are nice also but over all not as accurate.4" groups opposed to 2" as an example. I used to use a b square on my 870 until I made it a strict open sight push gun. Shot many deer with that setup, but couldn't compare to my buddies cantilever barrel on his 870.
 
If I had to chose between open sights or canti for shotgun season I would choose open sights. Unless you are stand hunting then I would go with the savage as stated above. I own a 870 with iron sights and a 1187 with a cantilever barrel. During deer drives its tough to beat open sights. You might miss on the first shot but with open sights you have the ability to see where your slug hits and adjust from there. This year I'm pulling the scope off the 1187 and mounting an eotech.
 
For the most part I still hunt on Saturday and then on Sunday if we still don't have all our tags filled we will do a few very small drives on small parcels of private land that we can hunt. So I would want a gun that can be very accurate when still hunting but still be good for a few drives.

I was thinking about halographic sights but after reading I am thinking maybe a scope would be my best choice. Any other opinions on that?
 
I honestly have two guns an open sighted 870 pump when I'm driving and a scoped browning gold when on stand. But an open sighted gun is a a great one gun option.
 
H&R ultra slugger 20 GA with a Nikon prostaff 3X9X20 makes a good stand and light carrying gun. Suoer accurate dependable set up.
 
Honestly I like the saddle better than remingtons cantilever. Ive seen the cantilever break, screws strip out. I've seen them canted from the factory to the point where there wasn't enough windage adjustment. So I had to reset it and loctite it again. You'd be amazed at how many threads grab. Hardly enough. As far as play you can move a cantilever a lot vertically. Ive seen people snag the scope on stuff and bend the mount.

A saddle has ZERO play as its fixed to the receiver using the 2 receiver pins. If its strictly a slug gun I'd recommend pinning the barrel.

That said I shoot a Savage 220 with a 2-7 power Redfield and the accuracy is just plain stupid. The gun is very light and the recoil is minimal. Load up a couple extra clips and you should be ready for anything.
 
Personally I would take a scoped gun over any other combination out there for stand or drive hunting. Running deer with a scope has never been a problem for me. I find it fairly easy. I grew up rabbit hunting with a scoped .22 and pellet gun though and shot countless rabbits on dead out runs. I think it helped a lot for deer hunting. I have also shot a lot of deer on drives with a muzzleloader when you only got one shot, you make it count.

I do not like the remington cantilever barrels. The ones I have seen the cantilever bolts onto barrel which I do not like. I do like the one piece hastings barrels. My dad has one on his 11-87 and that is a sweet shooting gun.
 
My go to slug gun is a Browning Gold 12 gauge slug gun with a browning manufactured cantilever slug barrel with a Aimpoint 9000sc 2x scope. Since the mid 80's I've used rifled barrels exclusively in Remington 870's and1100's and a Savage 220 and a benelli SBE. Some with rifled sights but most with cantilever barrels. I even have a 20 gauge Browning Gold with a Aimpoint 9000sc 2x scope for my kids to use. This combination is by far the most accurate slug gun I have tried. I have contemplated buying a Browning A-Bolt or a Tar-Hunt but I like the versatility of a semi-auto and have found the Browning Gold slug guns to be extremely accurate. I have the 12 gauge sighted in at 125 yards and the 20 gauge sighted in at 100yrds zero. Both guns like the Federal Barnes Expander 2 3/4" non ballistic tip slugs the best and both shoot less than 2 1/2" groups. They no longer produce the Browning Gold slug guns, but nice ones can be found on Gunbroker.com, I would recommend you buy a fully rifled barrel if you buy one instead of the smooth bore barrel with a rifled choke tube. That's just my two cents.
 
I would concur that the Hastings barrel is far superior than the Remington or Mossberg barrels.
 
Oh yeah - I also currently have a scoped 20 gauge H&R slug for the kids and it shoots well for a break action single shot.
 
Liv4Rut said:
Personally I would take a scoped gun over any other combination out there for stand or drive hunting. Running deer with a scope has never been a problem for me. I find it fairly easy. I grew up rabbit hunting with a scoped .22 and pellet gun though and shot countless rabbits on dead out runs. I think it helped a lot for deer hunting. I have also shot a lot of deer on drives with a muzzleloader when you only got one shot, you make it count..
Click to expand...

X2 on scoped guns for running deer. Far more accurate than open sights and easy to shoot a deer on the trot. Obviously it extends your effective range also..Only time I ever use the 870, or 11-87 is when i already have a tag filled and let someone use my sbe2 (scoped/rifled barrel), or if I'm in thick brush. Although i havent used one in a while, I honestly loved the smoothbore with sluggers for close range and thick brush. I use to shoot em like I was shootin pheasants.. and I still keep one in the truck if I need it.

It takes a lot for me to grab an open sighted gun over a scoped gun regardless. And I'm usually doing the drives.
 
For a slug only gun I have and strongly recommend, a 12 gauge Remington 870 Express with a TarHunt DSG (designated slug gun) conversion topped with a Leupold 2x7. Custom barrel pinned solid on receiver & receiver mounted scope base. If you're going the rifled barrel & scope route don't forget to spring for a "trigger job" too. It's very hard to take advantage of a slug gun capable of 200 yard accuracy with a factory shotgun trigger.
 
Savage 210 12 guage, fully rifled barrel and scope for me. Misses are mostly the user! :D But would like to try the Savage 220 with removable clip (mine is top load). I use mine on deer drives, but don't like running shots. Personal preference I guess, and don't have the experience with it like some. I'm more of a still hunter tho. For a brush gun, I'd probably like something a little shorter and lighter, and probably open sights.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom