Why do you use a slug vs a rifle for deer?

[Drilling Man]

  Long range means different things to different people.  The last 15 bucks i've shot were all between 100 and 200 yards away.  I don't consider 100 yards long range for "me", for "me" long range starts at about 200 yards away.

  DM

[kevinsmith5]

I live right across the road from the Croatan Forest Wildlife lands where hunting is shotgun and ML only.  I can walk across the street into heavy brush from my house with my slug gun or Huntsman and take a deer any day of the season (Oct. 10 to January 1). It's heavy brush and swamp land, even on a deer stand 16 feet up I couldn't see past 50 yards.

Of course I can also drive over to my brothers farm and take longer shoots with my rifles, but I have to gt up way earlier and it has to be an all day event.

[dpastordan]

I was an Army brat growing up.  The Army post's my father was stationed at were shotgun slug only.  We also lived in Illinois for a time - shotgun only again.  My father only used a J.C. Higgins 12 gauge pump with foster slugs.  I began with a Savage 311 double barrel - my first gun I used for deer hunting. Until I was in the military at Fort Bragg, NC, which has areas for shotguns and areas for rifles.  When I missed a deer with my 12 gauge, I went to Sears and bought my first .30-06.  My grandfather used a 12 gauge that was his father's musket from the Civil War (converted to 12 gauge shotgun by the local gunsmith).  He was in rifle country in Wisconsin and killed over 30 deer with it.  I live in Maryland now in shotgun only country. 

For all my deer hunting with shotguns - I have not shot a deer yet with one.  Yet, with rifles I have killed deer.  Longest range has been 70 yards.  Seems like the deer are more scared of my shotguns than my rifles.   

[Forestclimber]

The local jail food is terrible here.

[Mack in N.C.]

dm....yeah dont feel sorry for us......feel sorry for these nc deer when they get hammered with a 12 ga slug......................i use rifle more than shotgun but i have only 2 long shots in all my years of hunting......1 was 120 yds with a 30-30 and 1 was last year at 90 yds with a ml............i avg 3 deer a year for 20 years or so.....some years it 5 or 6 but if you take out those 2 long shots my longest has only been 40 yds or so.................i hunt alamance co and chatham co mostly but where i live i wake co you have to be 8 ft up  atree to use a high powered rifle......so, if i am walking to a stand in the afternoon and a big buck pops out and is looking at me i cannot legally shoot him witha rifle unless i get the buck to stay still and climb up 8 ft...............i have a cut over i hunt in chatham co and slug guns ar ethe way to go ...if o a deer steps out into a lane you had better drop him there as  if he runs you will be crawling into a thicket wher e you cannot see 10 ft in front of you..............i shoot an ithaca smooth bore with a 24 inch barrel and a bazooka would not drop them any faster...................mack

[spikehorn]

Just got back from a weekend in the northern zone of N.Y. where it is rifle season. my son connected on his first buck with my 308 bolt action, and the next day I put one down at 160 yds. with my new heavy barrel H&R 308. Like I said I use whats leagal for where and when I'm hunting

[sachel.45]

i use a rifle we have some shotgun only places that id like to try. i can say one thing though i've always thought that the remington 870 slug guns have always had the deer gun look. since i just got a remington 870 i may have to get a slug barrel for it and try it out

[alleyyooper]

I myself question the banning of many center fire rifles Like the ones in pistol cals here in Michigan. I also question how a 12ga with a rifled barrel can still be called a shot gun?
The laws are some time so crazty mixed up you just know the people who make them don't even have a clue about rifle and shot gun ranges and the balistics. If I am not mistaken the old 30-30 is slower than the new 12ga. 3 1/2  magnums, also looseing enegery faster.

Al

[SHOOTALL]

In Va the weapons allowed for hunting are decided by each locality . You are correct they know very little but then when has that ever stood in the way of passing laws .
Most slugs i have seen are under the vel. of a 30-30 but weigh more and tend to carry farther after hitting something .
The slug gun today is light years ahead of what it was 10 years ago . There are smooth bore guns shooting better than the first rifled slug guns did just a few years ago.
Some places here you can hunt with a rifle if elevated 10 above the ground . Guess it makes the law passers feel warm and fuzzy . There are as many places that i can be 10 ft off the ground and still be shooting up hill as there are flat places , go figure !
How about teaching gun safety and enforcing laws when unsafe pratices occure ! Oh but that might hurt some feelings and lose a vote boo hoo !