ok if both were in season both legel in your area

and your shooting out say 50 to 75 yards would you take a rifle over a shotgun anyday or would you take the shotgun ince your oly out 50 to 75
say for the shotgun 12ga say for both smooth bore with rifled slug and a rifled barrel with sabots

or a 30.06

12 ga with rifled barrel and sabots

If 75 yards was my max, I wouldn't think twice about the shotgun. You'll get plenty of accuracy, and have a dual use gun if want. A 30-06 at short range just punches a hole and usually ends up with little expansion. If you must go rifle, I'd use one of the slower moving calibers, 30-30 44mag etc. I shot a deer at 52 yards with my 270 on friday and it looked like it was shot with an arrow with a field point. entry and exit wounds were small, and little blood trail. Just my experience though. If you want a total slug gun, the old browning A-bolts are at the top of the heap if you can find one.

I would definitley go with the shotgun rifled barrel with sabot slugs.

I'd take a rifle over a shotgun for hunting deer every time if I could!I hate slug guns. If I didn't have to use one, I wouldn't own one.[/align][/align]Of the choices and rangesyou listed, here is the order I'd take them. [/align][/align]Remington 7600 Carbine in 30-06 topped with a 2-7x32mm Shotgun Scope. I like thelonger eye relief and shorter parallax of a shotgun scope oncarbine/brush guns.My 7600 liked 150 gr. Remington Core Lokt ammo.[/align][/align]Any ranges past 50 yards with a shotgunI would prefer a rifled barrel and sabot slugs. I'm not saying smooth bores can't shoot past 50 yards. I'd just rather go rifled/sabots myself.Under 50 yards it really wouldn't matter to me. If fact Saturday we were doing a drive ina verythick, brushy, hilly woodedarea at camp.I don't think I could have shot over 20 yards in thisarea. I wish I had my Ithaca Deerslyer smooth bore 12 ga. withopen rifle sightsinstead of having my dadsRemington11-87 rifled barrel20 ga., 2-7 powerscope and sabot slugs. Guess next weekend I'll have to bring both![/align]

I call BS on that...The faster a bullet is moving, the faster it expands...

I have a 1100 slug gun, have had it since '75...I still use my .243 in the woods, doesn't matter if they are 30 yards or 300, the .243 will drop them...The trick to using a high powered rifle in the woods is to have a good scope, adjusted properly so you can avoid brush...You might also consider using a stouter bullet because at close range and the higher velocities the bullets will come apart quicker, not a problem with good hits, because the deer drop quicker as well...

10-4.....Good Buddy!

I ALWAYS take a rifle over a shotgun. But things are a little different today, as the rifled barrel "shotgun" with sabots is in actuality a large-bore rifle. Having a rifled bore is what makes a gun a rifle, after all!

I asked myself the same question this year before deer season. I wasplanning on hunting in a treestand in northern Minnesota where shots were between 20 and 100 yards. I debated on bringing my Rem 870 with rifled barrel and 2-7x 32mm Nikon scope, or my new purchased Rem 700 XCR .30-06 with Sightron 3-12x 42mm scope. I decided on the .30-06 and I'm glad I did. I ended up shooting a 260 pound eight pointer that had a 21" spread at a distance of about 70 yards. The buck dropped righton the spot, which to my good luck happened to be in the middle of a logging road.I was hunting alone that weekend and was able to drive my truck down the logging road and pick up my deer. If he would have ran off into the heavy woods after being shot, I don't know how I could have retrieved him alone. When I had it weighed at the local registration station, I was told it was the largest deer brought in this year. I was hunting on the last weekend of rifle season.

Last year while hunting the same area I shot a buck weighing about 200 pounds right in the vitals with a Hornady SST 12 ga. slug. The deer ran over 100 yards in heavy woods. It was a heck of a work-out for my brother-in-law and I to pull it out.

I will definitaly use the .30-06 for all future whitetail hunts if possible.

See attached photos

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff75/huntingthenorth/DSCN3862.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff75/huntingthenorth/DSCN3878.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff75/huntingthenorth/DSCN3891.jpg

NICE buck! Pretty country too! Congratulations!