ok how far would you shoot a deer with the following

a rifled barrel with and with out a scope

and a non rifled barrel with and with out a scope

Rifled barrel with a scope: 100-150yards depending on situation
Rifled barrel without a scope: 50-70yards

Nonrifled barrel with foster slugs with a scope: 75-100yards assuming 4MOA accuacy or better
Nonrifled barrel without scope and just bead: 30-40yards
Nonrifled barrel without scope and rifle sights:50-70 yards.

I agree with bigcountry.

The above are MAX ranges for me, if the whole deer was visible! Without scope ranges would depend on how good the iron sights were!

Depends on how well you shoot and how the gun likes the slugs. I have seen smooth bore guns that shoot well enough to kill deer at 100 yards in the right hands and fully rifled guns with expensive slugs that are not accurate enough to kill one past 75 yards.

As a general rule I would agree with bigcountry's post though.

I know my A-5 with clamp on sights and a smooth bore with the right slugs will group about 4 or 5 inches at 100 yards if I have a rest. Rifled slugs are good to about 100 yards in my opinion if you get them there accurately. Modern sabot slugs are good ballistically out to around 200 yards if your gun can shoot that far with them (good luck on that). Again my opinion nothing more.

For the average joe I would say rifled barrels with sabots are a 100 yard gun, with either scope or open sights depending on how well you shoot and can see. And smooth bores with rifled slugs are usually a 50-70 yard deal, providing you have sights on it.

Paul

i would think in the right hands 200 yards is possible with a rifled barrel and those new fangles polymer tipped bullets