What do you think of using a Remington 870 for deer hunting? With/without a rifled barrel, what is the effective range?

I have shot several deer with my 870 using Remington rifled slugs (5 bucks a box). At 50 yards I was hitting bulls eye with a smooth bore. I have never shot beyond 50 yds, my 870 is strictly short range.

My dad has killed at least 100 deer with an 870 Wingmaster 20 gauge (smoothbore with fixed full choke), shooting Remington Slugger rifled slugs. The gun also has just a typical vent rib with a bead. He was an instinctive shooter with it, shooting deer like he was shooting birds, and he was an uncanny shot. Took deer as far as 125 yards with that setup. Now, I'm not suggesting that you try it, but rather that if you can make the shot, the 870 20ga smoothbore will do the job. My dad was, until he got into muzzleloading, a strictly one gun hunter. He had a crappy 22 for squirrels, and the Wingmaster for everything else. He bought it new when he was 16, and he still has it. So he KNEW his gun. He knew exactly where to hold for different distances. I would suggest to you that you get yourself an 870 combo gun with a rifled slug barrel with actual rifle sights. It'll give you much better accuracy, better range, and be much easier to aim accurately.

Mike

When I lived in upstate NY, thats all we could use was a shotgun w/deer slugs. All our shotguns were the rem 870. We put rifled barrels on them made by Hastings. 3" Mag BRI saboted .50 slugs. 50yds, tac driver, 75 yads still on a paper plate. Nothing beyond that was a ethicle shot IOHP. With a smooth bore 50yds was our limit.

I through a red dot scope on mine and its good out to around 100

75yds. is about tops with a smooth bore slug barrel w/sights, unless you want to consider how lucky your are. You can take it further if you top your 870 off with a good quality scope and spend time at the shooting range shooting a variety of slugs to find what works best for you.
After I bought a Hastings rifled slug barrel and scoped my 870, I was able to harvest deer past 150yds. without any diffuculty, but you need spend time at the range to find what your limits are.
I just recently purchased a Remington 23" heavy rifled slug barrel and I've tried 2 different brands of slugs for rifled slug barrels and neither of those 2 slugs worked in this barrel. In another words, no matter what you have for a barrel you need to buy different brands of slugs to find what works best. You can not go by what your buddies shoot....do your homework before you go hunting.

With a rifled barrel, is is a 100-150yd gun with saboted slugs. With a smoothbore and rifled slugs, about 100 yds.