Shotgun slugs versus muzzle-loaders

[fabsroman]

If you are looking at 50 yard shots, I don't think you are going to have much to worry about with either as far as effectiveness and accuracy are concerned, unless your o/u does not have screw in chokes so you can screw in a rifled choke tube.

I have my Benelli SBE set up with a fully rifled slug barrel with a 3-9x scope on it, and I'll choose it over my muzzleloader any day for deer hunting. The main reason being the ability to fire 5 rounds with it and the fact that I use two recoil reducers on it when deer hunting. I'm a small guy and don't do well with recoil.

The muzzleloader is just as accurate as my slug gun, but it is a PITA to load and the recoil is insane. I've been thinking about getting a T/C Encore for a while, but haven't been doing enough deer hunting the past 2 years to justify the purchase.

Now, if you want to shoot out to 150 yards, I would suggest the muzzleloader for you over your o/u, or a new shotgun (e.g., Remington 870) with a fully rifled barrel. I can use both my shotgun and muzzleloader out to 150.

I use the Barnes X bullet in both guns, so the performance on impact is about the same. The Barnes X bullet is loaded into shotgun rounds by Federal and is available in sabots for the muzzleloader from Barnes. There are plenty of good bullets available for the "slug" gun or should we now say "sabot" gun and the muzzleloader, so effectiveness should not be an issue as long as you can get the bullet on target.