If you want a shotgun that gives similar performance of a rifle, I would be looking at a rifled slug gun, with a pinned barrel. I shot a remington 870 sps shurshot superslug gun, and had no problem hitting 200 yard targets, once I determined the correct crosshair placement. It had a vortex diamondback 1.5x5x32 scope on it, and when the scope was set at the low 1.5x setting, the field of view was so wide, that a deer running at 25 yards or so, would of been easy to locate quickly when looking through the scope. It has a medium heavy fluted 24"barrel that is pinned to the reciever, and the reciever is drilled & tapped, so the scope mounted really solid to the reciever. The gun weighs around 8lbs, but it does'nt feel heavy because its got good balance, and the grippy rubber inserts with the pistol grip shurshot stock is really nice, and shoulders quickly, if a fast moving deer presented itself out of knowere then you would be ready fast to take a shot.
These guns are around $600, and the sabots are'nt cheap, but you don't target shoot with a benchrest with a slug gun, so the price of ammo is'nt really a big deal if you only buy a few boxes of sabots every season to double check the sighting on the scope, and a little bit of practise.
The nice thing about a really accurate slug gun that shoots sabots, is that the gun really is a jack of all trades, and can be used to hunt other animals than just deer. After your familiar with it, you can hunt coyote out to 200 yards, or even take it moose hunting. I'm sure a 12 gauge sabot would have no problem dropping a moose thats 150-200 yards away, if you do your part, unlike a lever action 30-30 that is really only usefull for deer hunting within 150 yards max.
I'm sure the savage bolt action 12 gauge slug guns would give similar performance because I think they are similar, with the barrel pinned to the reciever & drilled & tapped in the reciever for mounting optics.
With all of that being said, if you hunt deer in a part of Ontario that allows rifles, then I would buy a .270 or .308 bolt action rifle. A 24" barrel is'nt difficult to bushwack with compared to a 20" barrel...its only 4" longer. If your looking for a short barreled rifle however, then take a look at a scout rifle, like a ruger.
Another option, is a nice handling, light, semi auto rifle. At the deer camp I hunt at during the fall, about half of the hunters use a ruger mini-30. It is very light, and compact, and fires a 7.62x39 cartridge, which gives similar performance to a 30/30 lever action, but its semi auto, so its a favorite at our hunt camp with the old timers that have diminished eyesight, and have adopted the spray and pray method of hunting......they spray, and I pray that the deer is'nt between them and me..lol.
