I have to agree with eldequello on this one in all respects. Every gun is different. My friend and I both had Mossberg 695 slug guns, mine liked Winchester Partition Golds and his shot Remington Buckhammers best. I was jealous because the Partitions were $14 a box and the Buckhammers were $9 a box and didn't recoil half as much. That's just what my shotgun shot the most accurately. So to tell someone to go buy a couple of boxes of $17+ slugs just because your gun likes them isn't very helpful either. Advice to buy saboted slugs was given.

I do, however, always find responses like Rifle Loony's irritating. If you are going to bash someone else's response, then at least add something helpful to the original poster. Otherwise, don't post at all. I know I am opening myself up to an angry response but I said my peace.

Hamkiller, as far as slugs go, your barrel is rifled so you will need to buy saboted slugs. Unfortunately, it gets expensive to find which round your gun likes. I spent over $150 on my search. (get back to that in a bit) I would start with the cheaper ones first, such as the Winchester Super X. If they dont shoot well, work your way up to the Win Partition Golds, Rem Buckhammers, Lightfields, Federal Barnes Expanders, Hornady SST's, etc. I wouldn't go buy all of them at once. First, that is very expensive and second, your shoulder will hate you.

Before you sit down at the range to start shooting, make sure EVERYTHING is setup and tight on your gun. One of the scope mount screws was loose on my Encore and it resulted in a day and about $60 in ammo wasted.

For a scope, there are two groups on this. One side says it's a shotgun so just put a cheap scope on it. The other side says put the best scope you can afford on it. I sit in the middle. I wouldn't recommend a Tasco but then I wouldn't tell you to run out and buy a Zeiss or Swaro either. I also hate the shotgun scopes with their smaller 32mm objectives and circle-x reticles. I have the following scope on several of my guns.
http://www.bushnell.com/general/riflescopes_banner_71-3947.cfm
The extended eye relief is nice for a shotgun. Some of the higher velocity rounds are real kickers. I haven't had any problems with it and you can pick it up for under $100.

Dude we are talking about an H&R/NEF slug gun here, not a mossberg 695, or anything else. Had that been the question I'd not have said a peep as I've never run one of those.Others besides myself have stated that a certain slug performs the best out of any of them in our H&R/NEF's and THAT simply is a good place for him to start, considering it's same/same per gear offering. It's his decision to muddle through $150 worth of trial and error, as you did,if he wants to...but were it me I'd be grateful for a consolidation of experience to draw from rather than some "buy a bunch of stuff and try it" BS. Some things are simply self explanatory.....

Out of the seven posters so far that put actual experience into print, 4 said SST's did best, 2 said another type did best and one was undecided. The rest just want to gripe about how I post. Take that FWIW......

I'd be shocked if SST's didn't do well for him, in that particular slug gun........

Should add that it took me exactly one box of SST's to decide a switch from the old winchester sabots I'd been using.

SST's, BTW, are saboted, and put deer down like a freight train........good stuff.

Dude, you missed my point. I said that my friend an I both had the same model of slug gun. Whether it be a Mossberg, H&R, etc., every gun is different. Sure, SST's shoot well out of a lot of guns but not all. They were absolutely horrible out of my 12Ga Encore. I know, I know. It's not an H&R blah, blah, blah.

No, you are missing MY point....

Making someone aware that there'sthe chance ofa lot of trial and error is okay, that prepares them for theworst case scenario, but hammering down a common consensous of experience just because you THINK there's a chance it wouldn't work is reckless advice.

Like I said, were it me I'd want to hear what worked best from everybody elseand try that first, not be told to just gobuy a bunch of stuff and try it. He probably already KNEW that was an option..........

I agree with Rifle here. If i ask a question such as "Which slug should i use" and a majority of the people say SST, the first one i'm going to try is the SST. Why spend all that money on several different boxes of ammo when he could possibly buy one brand and that'd be it? If someone asks me directions to a place, i'm not gonna say well there are several different roads out there, just pick one and you might get there.

I asked this same question when i got my slug gun and my top 3 answers were SST's, Lightfields, and Barnes Expanders. Those were the ones i looked for first. I bought a box of each. All three fire well out of my gun, i didn't have to spend any more money.

The Hornady SSTs in 12ga. are known not to be the best, but they are fantasic in 20ga.

Another thing here is the barrel twist that should help someone to narrow down the choices. Barrels with 1 in 28" twist rate (H&R Slug Gun 20 Gauge) will typically shoot the "faster" velocity slugs better and barrels with the 1 in 34" twist rate (H&R Slug Gun 12 Gauge) will typically shoot the "slower" velocity slugs better. A "faster" slug would probably be up in the range of 1800-2000 ft/second (examples are Hornady SST's, Remington Corlokt, Winchester Supremes). A "slower" slug would probably be around 1400-1600 ft/second (examples are Remington Copper Solidor some of the first sabots that came on the market). Figure out the barrel twist. The manufacturer who makes each individual barrel should know this info. If not, maybe someone on the forum will know.

I personally have a H&R Ultra Slug Hunter Deluxe and also have found that the SST's shoot well. I haven't tried the lightfields, but you bet your butt I would have if the SST's didn't work as good as they do in my personal gun. I listened to people and what they originally had to say about rounds they were shooting out of the USH. Their advice really helped me and most likely would get someone started in the right direction if they didn't know what they were doing. I previously had a Remington 870 barrel that was a 1 in 34" twist rate. I was using all the hot to trot fast loads and wasn't getting any results. Once someone told me about the twist rates and what to try I was right on, touching holes and loving my gun. Before I didn't know what to try I was spending dollar upon dollar on slugs using trial and error. I was able to save some cash. Lord knows we could all save some cash with gas prices how they are.

I think people should settle down a little here. This place is herefor us tohelp each other out, not rip on each other.

I sure wish we could use rifles here, rather than slugs.....2.5-3MOA......? I just love a rifles accuracy.

Though they do say slug states have better deer quality, limited range...helping bucks live longer etc...., and not taking those 200-500yd shots though I wonder what anyone is doing shooting at something they can't see/identify the quality of....also if they are just winging lead into the air.

I well remember living in Indiana once ages ago. We had to use shotgun slugs. A legalalternative was the muzzleloader. Since in those ancient days, before rifled shotgun barrels, Foster type slugs were the only alternative, I selected the muzzleloader, because these ARE rifled, and at that time, much more accurate than the average shotgun shooting Foster slugs thru a smooth bore.

Using patched round balls, there was little controversial about the ML. Except for perhaps patch thickness and powder charge size.....

Good post, and insiteful to boot. More of that outlook is what weneed.

The original question was about the 20 gauge H&R's so suggesting SST's wasn't off base.....