in my opinion, you can't beat a remington 11-87 with fully rifled slug barrel and cantilever scope mount. It is a smooth operator and after 6 years of abusing mine in the field, I have never had a problem with it. I put a bushnell trophy series 1.75-4x scope on it, and it is the sweetest deer gun I can imagine. I got mine for about 600 dollars about 6 years ago. They are probably more now. good luck, and let us know what you get.

Rob