Turkey/Deer shotgun Need some direction

Kingofalderwood

Kingofalderwood

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So we’ve moved to an area where there is no rifle season for deer. and there’s turkey everywhere!
I’ve never used or have been interested in shotguns until now.
What would be a good shotgun for turkey and deer? I’ve seen these combos guns like the Mossberg 535 and 500. Are they worth it or is there a better way?

Thanks for any direction folks.
 
Any shotgun that goes bang and has a full to extra full choke will work just fine for turkey. For deer the same gun with a smooth bore barrel stick on sights and good foster slugs.

I shoot a Winchester 1300 deer/turkey have 3 barrels for them I love them. This year's hunt is going to be my new to me Winchester model 12 heavy duck (barrel was cut down to 27.5, threaded for winc chokes and vent rib).

My wife's gun is a smooth bore 1300 with the turkey barrel. Shoot both deer and turkey.

I hunt with guys that use their waterfowl 28" guns every year for deer and every year they bag a deer. Hell the oldest guy in our group shoots an old wingmaster with a 30" plain barrel and guess what... Shoots deer every year.

So basically shoot what you want to shoot. They all go bang.

Sighting in and practice is what you have to spend your time doing getting comfortable with each gun.

Heck this year sighted in my wife's gun with Remington low recoil slugs original sight in at 50 yards was 10" high. This is how it was she shot it. I went back out with it and sighted it back in to shoot 2" high at 50. I forget to tell her and she didn't practice with it again before the hunt...

She shot under a 4 pt buck at 10 yards because I forgot to tell her the gun was shooting flat.
 
Another vote for a Mossberg or Rem 870 combo.

One gun ... two barrels ... !!!

Here is my 870 Police with a rifled Hastings barrel and scope .....

870_Police_Magpul.jpg


And here the same gun with a Hastings smooth-bore cantilever barrel with choke and a red dot ...

870_Police_Magpul_RedDot_Light.jpg
 
At this point most my rifles have iron sights. The 300wm is really the only one scoped.
I'm leaning more towards the Mossberg because its already tapped for a scope if I so choose one day. They do have a kit with two barrels. One is a smooth bore for turkey and the other is rifled for waterfowl. Im thinking I could use the rifled barrel with slugs. Just remove the choke. Any thoughts on that?
 
Smooth bore barrles are used for small shot shells to shoot small game and birds.rifled barrels are for slugs.both Remington and mossburgs have barrles with choke tubes for shot and the option for a rifled barrle with scope mounts for slugs
 
Kingofalderwood said:
At this point most my rifles have iron sights. The 300wm is really the only one scoped.
I'm leaning more towards the Mossberg because its already tapped for a scope if I so choose one day. They do have a kit with two barrels. One is a smooth bore for turkey and the other is rifled for waterfowl. Im thinking I could use the rifled barrel with slugs. Just remove the choke. Any thoughts on that?
Click to expand...

Rifled barrels are not for waterfowl, that is a slug barrel. And there wont be
a choke on a rifled barrel. Turkey and watefowl hunting require smoothbore barrels
 
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Kingofalderwood said:
At this point most my rifles have iron sights. The 300wm is really the only one scoped.
I'm leaning more towards the Mossberg because its already tapped for a scope if I so choose one day. They do have a kit with two barrels. One is a smooth bore for turkey and the other is rifled for waterfowl. Im thinking I could use the rifled barrel with slugs. Just remove the choke. Any thoughts on that?
Click to expand...

Hmmmmm ....... OK, a couple of clarifications:

1.) Rifled barrels do not have chokes and are designed to shoot slugs ....mostly sabot slugs. Most people hunt large game out to 100 meters or 150 meters with those. Some people get levels of accuracy with rifled barrels to reach out to 200 meters or even further ...

2.) Smoothbore barrels have chokes and are designed to shoot shot ... and to hunt small game ... turkeys ... waterfowl .... and they can be used to shoot buckshot at larger game to maybe 30 to 50 meters. Those barrels can also shoot rifled slugs accurately out to ca. 70 meters .... or a bit further ...
 
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0faustus0 said:
Kingofalderwood, can I ask you a question.....at what maximum distance are you intending to shoot deer with a shotgun?
Click to expand...

I am asking because that will determine what setup you would need to hunt deer or large game animals.

For example, if you want to reach out to the maximum distance that a shotgun will allow ... then you will need a shotgun with a rifled slug barrel and with a scope that has a bullet drop compensator reticle ... and with that setup you can reach out to 100 maybe 200 meters .... some people reach out to 300 meters ... but that is definitely the exception ... and pushing the limits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD6ZBruKXGI

But if you set your limits to 50 meters ... nearly any shotgun with a smooth bore barrel and decent sights (rifle sights, ghost rings, etc.) will do ... combined with an accurate foster slug ....

For myself, I limit my range to 100 to 120 meters with my rifled barrel .... because that barrel (and with the sabot slug ammo that I am using) will shoot 2 inches high at 50 meters and will shoot 2 inches low at 120 meters .... And I am sticking to that range because I don't have a bullet drop compensator reticle and I feel confident with that distance .... 2 inch high and 2 inch low are still within the boiler room .... No need for fancy hold over calculations.

Just to give you an idea, my ammo would shoot 23 inches low at 200 meters .... and that is a big big drop that I am not comfortable with.

Winchested gave good advise .... in order to get to know your setup and it's limitations you will probably have to sight it in and practice shooting that setup at different distances ... and test different ammo to see what works.

Kingofalderwood, does that help?
 
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0faustus0 said:
Kingofalderwood, can I ask you a question.....at what maximum distance are you intending to shoot deer with a shotgun?
Click to expand...
In the past Ive gone out as far as 90 yards. Most have been 50 to 75 yards. In the area where I live now and another where I plan to hunt it won't really change. I was looking at the ballistics for slugs and I don't think Id really want to risk much more that 75 yards anyway.
Your third post was spot on for me. Your first post with regards a smooth barrel for waterfowl make me question the knowledge of the salesperson I talked to. They specifically called the second barrel a waterfowl barrel and it was rifled and had a choke. Maybe they just weren't thinking... Anyways, I may just cough up some extra coin and get two shotguns, one smooth bore for turkey and birds, and one rifled for deer and zombies. LOL!
 
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I use a Remington 870 SPS Super Mag Turkey/Predator with a Leupold vx-1 1-4x shotgun scope for turkey hunting. A few addons like timney trigger mod, limbsaver pad, volquartsen extractor. I love this thing.
 
Great!
Just one more hint .... rifled slug barrels are very ammo sensitive ... I had to try quite a couple of different sabot slugs from different manufacturers till I found the ammo that my barrel likes.

Some of the sabots that I tested gave me groups of 10 inches at 100 yards .... others gave me 4 inch groups .... and others did not even hit the paper at that distance .... :-(

Till I found a round that works out of my barrel .... I can now shoot 2 to 2.5 inch groups at 100 yards.

And at $2.- to $5.- the round .... I spent a little fortune in the process .... Sabot slugs are pretty expensive ....
 
Kingofalderwood said:
In the past Ive gone out as far as 90 yards. Most have been 50 to 75 yards. In the area where I live now and another where I plan to hunt it won't really change. I was looking at the ballistics for slugs and I don't think Id really want to risk much more that 75 yards anyway.
Your third post was spot on for me. Your first post with regards a smooth barrel for waterfowl make me question the knowledge of the salesperson I talked to. They specifically called the second barrel a waterfowl barrel and it was rifled and had a choke. Maybe they just weren't thinking... Anyways, I may just cough up some extra coin and get two shotguns, one smooth bore for turkey and birds, and one rifled for deer and zombies. LOL!
Click to expand...

Changing the barrel on a 870 or 500 is a 2 minute task. Buy an older 870 with a smoothbore with chokes and a rifled barrel (or a smooth bore slug barrel with rifle sights).
 
Here are a couple 870 12g combos you should look at, 2 and a 3 barrel combos. Both come with a rifled slug barrel, the 3 barrel is nice in that it comes with a 28” ribed barrel and a 20” barrel with fibre optic rifle sights. Both the 20” & 28” are threaded for chokes, you get a mod and x-full (Turkey) choke in the 3 barrel combo.

https://www.reliablegun.com/en/remi...12ga-3-23-fully-rifled-deer-cantilever-barrel

https://www.reliablegun.com/en/remi...ly-rifled-cantilever-matte-black-synthetic-st
 
Oh and I can't forget the most important advice for a shotgun buy is to buy one that fits you. There are 100s of threads on shotgun fit here so do a search and learn. Especially if you plan on shooting flying and or moving targets.
 
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