RE: need input on new shotgun
I've got a Mossberg 500 and it works good enough for me.
IT's not a specialty deer gun (20" wide open bore), but it'll keep 3" at 50 yds with just a red dot and no magnification and 2 3/4" 1oz Rem Sluggers.
If I was to buy another shotgun intended for deer hunting, it would still be a pump, but it would have a rifled, cantelivered barrel. No question about it.
In the mean time, the gun I've got can cover any shot I'll make in the dense cover I have to hunt.