25-30 yards max. A rifled barrel and some practice should get you out to 125-150 yds with slugs. Smooth bore slugs, I dont know, maybe 50 yds? Depends on how far away you can put ALL your shots in a 5" circle. Thankfully they still let us use our rifles in NC. Lots of the boys in shotgun only states have switched to smokeless muzzleloaders like the savage. They can shoot up to 300 yds with practice, 200 yds out of the box, just point and shoot.