mtucker,

These guys hit the nail on the head.
My Winchester 1300 with the smooth barrel with "rifled slugs" can do the "old paper plate" thing at 100 yards, and when I was a teen-ager that's all I used and I killed at least 1 deer per year with that set up. I ALWAYS kept my shots at 75-80 yards or less though. As I got a little older and became a better shot then I bought a rifled slug barrel, a Leupold scope and some Winchester Supreme Partition Gold sabots and can now reach out there in the 150 yard range.

I believe you should ask yourself a three part question:
"How far am I intending to shoot, am I good enough to shoot that far, and am I going to scope my shotgun?"

I believe if you're not intending to shoot past that 75-100 yard range you should use the smooth barrel with some good sights like fiber optics (not just a bead) and the "rifled" slugs. That is a very adequite set up for that range and damn, with those slugs save you a lot of money versus the premium sabots.

And I also believe if you want to shoot farther than that you need to spend some money and get a good scope, some good mounts and the rifled barrel and PRACTICE PRACTICE before you try to make that 200 yard shot. IMO I think that if you buy a rifled barrel and spend 5 bucks apeice on slugs and don't intend on scoping your shot gun you've kinda wasted your money. It takes a pretty special person to be able to shoot 200 yards open sighted! So with out a scope you've "bottle necked" your set up. Again fellas, just my opinion!

Sorry if I rambled on!