Smoothbore slug gun with rifled barrel extension
 

So I have recently had a browning bps 12 ga. Slug gun handed down to me by my father who had won the shotgun in a raffle well over a decade ago, the gun is a smoothbore shotgun with about a 20 inch barrel length and fixed iron sights, however it has a 3 inch rifled extension at the muzzle, does anybody know about these extensions? Did they come standard? Does that last 3 inches of rifling really make a difference? And should I use rifled slugs or sabots when I am deer hunting?
If anybody has some advice for me I would greatly appreciate it
Thank you

Back on the 1990's, Browning made a version of the BPS called a "Game Gun". The deer version had a smooth bore, iron sights, a higher comb on the stock and a long rifled choke tube designed to shoot saboted slugs.
It was set up so you could take the rifled choke tube off, replace it with a turkey choke and use it for turkey hunting as well. Keep in mind it takes old style Invector-type choke tubes.

The one I have owned and my wife has hunted with for a long time has performed very very well. Every year I shoot it to check zero and at 100 yards it will shoot 1.5 inch groups with a Simmons pro diamond 4x32 scope. I have not adjusted that scope since I put it on there well over 10 years ago. In the spring (with no scope adjustments) I change to a turkey tube and she is good to go for turkeys. She has killed a lot of turkeys with it, the farthest was at 65 yards with old school #5 turkey loads. I didnt realize it was that far or I would have stopped her from taking the shot but it knocked it straight down.
To say the least I have been very happy with this gun over the years!

I have a Mossberg Flex 500 Turkey/defense combo. I bought a rifled choke tube for the 24" turkey barrel this year, and it worked great. With Brenneke Black Magic Magnum slugs, I was shooting 3" groups @ 100 yards. I didn't try sabot slugs because they are awfully expensive. Might try a box or two this spring to see how they do.

Okay thank you, so I guess I'll be using sabots, And as for turkey hunting, where could I get these older invector choke tubes?

Any choke tube labeled as fitting Winchester/Weatherby/Mossberg/and or Browning Inv. will fit.

I've always wanted to see a side by side comparison for different slugging options:

1) Rifled barrel w/ Sabots
2) Smoothbore barrel w/ rifled slug
3) Smoothbore barrel w/ rifled choke w/Sabots
4) Smoothbore barrel w/ rifled choke w/rifled slug

Naturally, a person would have to have an exhaustive volume of ammunition brands and firearm brands/models, such that individual firearm or load performance wouldn't skew the data set. Which I suppose is why it hasn't been done.

I don't do much slugging, but I desperately wish I had a justification to own a Savage 212 for that purpose. I have a couple rifled barrels, but can't say the last time I used one.

Not to mention that person would have to have a VERY good shoulder surgeon. :eek2:

"..............but I desperately wish I had a justification to own a Savage 212 for that purpose." NoMercy

+1

I like that one with a good 3X-9X on it !

I sort of did that. Most of my deer hunting is done on private land with a rifle but there is some public land near my home which is shot gun only. Not wanting to spend more money on a new gun that might be used a couple of days each fall and not every year, I took my 11-87 which I bought for turkey and thought that I could use it for deer as well. So I mounted a scope on it, bought a rifled choke tube and got some sabots. Before I fired the sabots I decided to use some rifled slugs to make sure that the scope was on the paper. It shot well with the rifled choke, cloverleaf at 50 yards and a bit bigger at 100. The sabots were not as consistent. So I went with the old style slugs and have killed 5 deer with it. The money I save on sabots lets me buy more slugs for practice. And, since I am using a 1 oz. slug which will put a serious hurt on anything it hits, I happily trade good shot placement for ballistic theory. And, oh yes, the 11-87 is now only used for deer hunting because I got a deal on a Bennelli which is now my turkey and goose gun.