A very accurate gun,unfortunately theweight is a large drawback.

For example....My good friend Patrick, (pictured below with his H&Rand abuck he took last week while we were hunting),was just talking about the fact that he ishappy with its performance but constantly regrets having to carry the gun for any distance. In fact he was talking about going back to carrying his Ithaca Deerslayer on drives in order to avoid the H&R.

I was in the sport shop earlier tonight and had the chance to shoulder the H&R 12 and yes it's heavy. The owner of the shop says he prefers the 20 over the 12 because of the weight.

Drakeman,

It all comes down to what you want to compromise on the most with the H&R, with the 12ga you compromise on the weight, with the 20ga you compromise on downrange trajectory, velocity, and energy. It just matters what is most important to you.

I chose the Savage over the H&R'sbecause I didn't want to compromise on any of those things. The one thing I did have tocompromise on is the cost of the gun. I am happy I decided to pay the extra hundred and fifty dollars for the Savage. Based on recent sales of used Savage 210's on various auction sites I am confident I could recoup ninety five percent of myoriginal purchase price if I were to sell it today. In the long run the cost difference is negligable.

Most slug guns work fine, just takes a lot of practice with different ammo. Good fit is important. Personally I don't understand why groupings at 100 yards with a slug gun is important. I've been deer hunting for 15 years in Iowa and with several hunters over the years and50 yards is the longest shot I would take with open sights, but I've never used a scope on a slug gun.

The H&R's don't need to be that heavy either. They have a steel bar in the stock, just take it out if you don't want the weight. And from what I understand with the H&R's the 20 guage is actually the better gun. They seem to be a bit more accurate and have more flexability because you can swap out different barrels on them.

Had money not been a concern for me I would have bought the savage. Same way with my Muzzle Loader, which JCC also has[:'(].

And where I hunt my longest possible shot is 150 yards, I hunt over a meadow that butts up against a small woods and a large corn field. To the far corner of the property to my blind is 147 yards. And deer tend to walk right down the fence line on the other side and hop the fence near the far corner.

Paul

Just ran across this post. I am going to assume that the deerslayer is a smoothbore. Iv'e used slug guns for over 30 years. It is very true that different guns like different slugs. You have to try until you find one that works. The sabots will not work with a smoothbore. One slug that I have seen work very well in a lot of guns is the Winchester super X 2 3/4". That slug worked very well for me in my smoothbore remington 1100 with rifle sights and a scope that was custom mounted to the reciever. At 100 yards I would print groups of 1 - 2" very regularly. Sometimes with holes touching. I used Ironsighter rings so that I could use the rifle sights in case the scope was fogged up. I'm sure that I harvested more than 40 deer with that setup, at ranges from 20 to 125 yards. Unfortunately my favorite gun was stolen about a year ago. I just replaced it a week ago with another 1100 synthetic stock with a rifled barrel and cantelever scope mount. Now I will have to go to the more expensive saboted slugs.
I prefer to use the gas operated semi auto because it takes some of the kick out. Also you already have a bullet chambered for a second shot. I have had several people that I know over the years miss with the first shot and the deer still be standing there, but then spook when they had to rack another round into the chamber. There are lots of good slug guns out there but I wouldn't give up on yours yet without trying some other ammo.