I love using a shotgun for deer. I stopped using a rifle about 5 years ago. In my state you can use rifle in about half and shotgun in about half, I got a good slug gun to shoot in the shotgun zones and i was so impressed with it I use it everywhere now. With the barrels and slugs they make these days it is easy to rig up a 200 yard slug gun. And the 3-400 grain slugs lay the smack down on the critters.