watched a hunting show yesterday and this guy had his daughter hunting her first deer. Last evening of the hunt, after what he claimed to be 10 hours in the stand, a pair of doe walk out. Dad get daughter set up to shoot, daughter says the distance looks long and asks her dad to range it. Comes back at 150yds, she says she doesn't want to take the shot because she has never shot the gun out past 100. She is about 10 years old. He tries to talk her into taking the deer, she doesn't want to and is starting to cry when another doe walks out a 50 and she takes that one. But it got me to thinking, as someone who never hunted with slugs, what is the effective range on a 12ga slug?

With a smoothbore barrel 150 yards would definately be pushing it. However, given the rise of shotgun only states manufactures have been advancing slug gun and ammo technology. That would be within the range of a properly set up gun with a rifled barrel and good ammo (provided of course the person behind the trigger does a good job).

As a side note, Browning is re-introducing the 12 gauge A-bolt slug gun next year. It was certainly before it's time during it's initial introduction but I imagine it will be a success this time around.

Not to hijack, but on the same note, I got a Benelli Super Black Eagle for my birthday this year. I have shot it a number of times now and freaking love it. My buddy has gone deer hunting with his dad's old 12 gauge, but he puts a different barrel on it, I assume a smoothbore barrel. Is the barrel on my Super Black Eagle a smooth bore barrel or do I need to get an additional barrel for it if I want to do some deer hunting with it?

Yes...I would say 150 would be pushing it, but then again I've never considered myself a confident long-range shooter. My 12g slug gun, scoped and rifled barreled with recoil porting, still abuses me quite a bit, but I feel I can hit the vitals out to 100 yds. I've yet to try the considerably more expensive high-end slugs mentioned by other posters, but in my case I doubt they would tighten my groups to any great extent.

From the Brenneke site,

A modern slug shotgun, with rifled barrel and high performance saboted slugs, is the top choice for hunters who must hunt with a shotgun, as it provides rifle-like power and accuracy at ranges over 150 yards (140 m).

I've shot slugs for deer before and I would not trust a shot over 100 yds. Of course where I was hunting (Deleware) it was difficult to get a shot over 75 yards anyway.

[This message has been edited by Msgt USAF Ret (edited 12/6/2010 5:44p).]

I had no idea they made sabot rounds for shotguns.
That could change things considerably.

I'm not a slug hunter but was getting ready for the Fort Benning 3 gun match a couple of weeks ago and tried out a 100 yard group with my Benelli M2. Just under a 2" three shot group off a bench at 100 yards using a smoothbore barrel, Winchester Winlite slugs, with a ribbed barrel with a bead front sight. I was pretty surprised at the accuracy.



I don't know how repeatable that 2" group was but I was regularly hitting a target roughly the size of a deer's vitals at 100 yards offhand in practice with that same setup. With a rest, a proper hunting slug, and knowledge of what my drop was at 150 yards I wouldn't hesitate taking a shot on a deer.

That girl gets my respect for knowing her limits and not shooting. She should never have been pressured into shooting, especially to the point of tears. Bad example for someone on TV to set.

Sorry, but I don't know anything about shotgun slugs.