My little sister has been using an 870 with a 20 gauge slug barrel for some number of years now. Her bullet of choice was the Remington AccuTip. If she pulled the trigger, there was a dead deer on the other end. She has now caught the muzzleloader bug and her 870 is collecting dust. Has approximately 50 yards more range to play with than her slug gun. I have not seen a report yet that said an AccuTip wasn't accurate out of a Savage slug gun and they seem to drop deer quite well. Around here that 8 point you shot would have been yearling size. The deer in this state have some pretty beefy bodies and they don't drop that easily. So if a bullet performs well on deer around here, you can pretty much rest assured they will perform well on deer in any other part of the country.