what's the appeal of bolt action shotguns?

My first shotgun was a Steven's 16 gauge bolt , still have it and shoot it every now and then, it was my days and I cant remember what he paid for it. But it started my love of shotgun shooting and love of the 16 gauge.
 
In my WMU you cannot hunt deer with a rifle. Therefore we use Shotguns with rifled barrels.

I had a Mossberg 500 with a rifled barrel and wasn't satisfied with the accuracy (5 moa). switched to a Savage 212 and get 2 MOA or better accuracy.

So as far as modern applications go. The appeal is a more accurate solution for areas that are shotgun only. Apparently the Savage 212 and 220 are both quite accurate.

There is also a turkey version which is smooth bore, not sure if I'd want that over a conventional pump or semi for turkey...
 
MeeeLawrd………awl-yewwal ain’t a trew cgn’r lessen yew’add or own one awf these Fuddly ker-pows.
Had one nawt long ago wid the long bawrill.
Buddy found owt I’adder an jest hadtuh havver.
I can see’im shewt’in dem chitters widder. ☺️

Oh, don’t furrgit tuh looky up and say thanks sometime ahh jour’d oui. 😉
 
For me I just find the concept of bolt-action shotguns to be hilarious. Especially if it's fully rifled.

It should be considered a rifle, yet it's not!
I can shoot shot shells from my pistol. It doesn't change it to being a shot gun.

But most slug guns, have a smooth bore cousin. Mainly it still uses a shotshell Vs a metallic cartridge.
 
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I've owned a couple of bolt action shotguns

One was a converted 98 action, called "Geha" It was accurate enough but very slow to operate. I ended up using it exclusively for shooting slugs.

The other was a JC Higgins, which I drilled and tapped for a scope mount. It was used exclusively as a slug gun and would shoot slightly under 4 inches at 100yds.

I never did warm up to either of these shotguns, but that was just me. Both of them did everything they were supposed to do well.
I had a “Geha”; I still regret selling it! 😢😭💦💧🌊‼️
 
I think the appeal originally was the price. You get 3 shots in a Steven’s 58 and they used to be cheaper than pump actions. There was a company in Germany that built single shots on mauser actions because they were banned from manufacturing rifles or something at the time and those things were super cheap.
 
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