I am in the unenviable position of not owning firearms to go deer hunting and I am not in the financial position to consider buying a deer rifle at this time.Last year a friend loaned me his 30-30 Marlin which is unavailable to me this season. I have two realistic options of getting loaner guns for the rifle season.
1. 12 gauge shotgun (unrifled I believe) with slugs
2. Older model muzzleloader (not inline) .45 caliber

Both gunshave open sights
I know that there are lots of variables in this equation but generally what would you choose to use in this situation? what would you consider a reasonable effective range for either gun?

Thanks for reading my post

Hands down the muzzleloader. More range and accuracy. A shotgun without rifling isn't all that accurate.

Effective range on a muzzleloader depends on way to many variables, loose vs pellets, quality vs not quality, bullet choice, shooter etc...

Just remember that a muzzleloader takes more practice because you'll have to have an intimate understanding of the trajectory (ie point of impact at different ranges.

Tom

Get the shotgun!
If you learn to shoot that traditional muzzle loader, it will lead to a hopeless addiction that there is no known cure for. You will be cursed with an affliction of spark, smoke, and soot for the rest of your life. All your available storage space will be filled with antiquated, and obsolete rifles, and shooting accessories. You will hord quanties of gun powder, and mix up strange potions of cleaning, and shooting agents. Your wife will try and have you committed. You may even go off the deep end, and hunt other things beside deer.

Of course the same may happen with the shotgun. You my freind are now hopelessly lost[8D]

early

go with the shotgun, easier to learn, and a smoothbore with the correct standard slug will do the job.....PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE

get the shot gun easy to reload and will get u your deer.

I shoot rifled slugs out of a smooth-bore winchester . It's solid out to 150 yrds . It's a slow round , aim accordingly . But it's certainly acurate enough for dropping a deer . I havn't had the chance to put a black powder gun in the closet ,,,, so I couldn't comment on those . Oh , my shotgun has a scope on it .

A rifled barrel will almost always be better than a smoothbore not matter what it is.Get the .45 ML and have fun.............Harold

If I could find a ML with 3 barrels, I would go with the ML..... I shoot an A-5 Brn w/fully rifled Hastings barrel & Winchester BRI sabots. I can place burned out flood lampson the mound of my 200 yd range and bust them @ 150+yds all the time.

Although I personally would choose a ML RIFLE every time over a smoothbore of any sort, unless you are proficient with a muzzleloader, or have the time and inclination to learn to shoot one effectively before deer season, I would suggest going with the shotgun.

Even with the slug gun, however, you need to go out and shoot it with the slugs of your choice at 25, 50 and 75 yards just to see where itshoots for you at different distances. A smoothbore will range from quite accurate and effective to hopeless when shooting slugs, and you have to SHOOT the thing to find out which yours is!

If your .45 ML is a round-ball gun, be advised that .45 round balls are on the ragged edge of having enough power for deer, and they have to be placed quite precisely!

This happened to me but it paid off this year. It takes a lot of practice and experimenting with a muzzleloader to get them figured out and the hang of it, but it is great fun. The funnest part is waiting for the smoke to clear just so you can see if you killed the deer or not lol. Fortunately it was a bang flop for me this year. I tried that slug thing through a smooth bore and from shot to shot at 50 yards I was lucky to hit the target. I dont have enough patience for that game.