Not dissing anyone here...specially lilred....Just to TRY to change your minds... Shooting slugs in a shotgun will never ruin the barrel. Heck y'all..slugs are a lot softer than most of the good high performance loads that you shoot through a shotgun barrel. The only thing that may happen is you will lead the choke area up a bit and ruin the pattern in a tightly bored gun. A nice tight (oversize) bore brush and some shooters choice will fix that up in a jiffy. Remember...steel shot is a lot harder than a shotgun slug...and it won't ruin a barrel made to take it....so the old saw about ruining a shotgun barrel with slugs is just a bunch of horse patooties. Heck buckshot leaves almost as much leading in the bore as a slug. Now as to the buck for deer. It'll kill 'em..has for years. If that is what ya grew up shooting well go ahead and shoot it. BUT keep your ranges short.( Like GOB says...20-30 yds is great.) That means under 50 yds or so. And only use 00 or 000 on those longer shots. I have used buck on a few( maybe 20) deer and it really does kill em if you can put some of those ol blue whistlers in the boiler room. Personally most of the deer I have shot were at short brushy ranges...meaning under 50 yds. And yes there were a few I missed I woulda probably killed if I were using buck...but not so many as you would think. If ya learn to shoot 'em slugs work just fine in the thick brush as well...aw heck...actually better than buckshot. Too many deer just run off with buckshot in 'em. And I do know of what I speak. I have shot an awful lot of deer...10-15 a year over a period of 35 yrs...and slugs are easier to kill with than buckshot...even in the thick brush. Now y'all read that right... I said easier to KILL with...not necessarily easier to hit with
