Savage 220 ???
 

Looking to change my deer hunting slug gun from the Rem 870 12g to something in the 20g range. More comfortable to shoot at the range and something I may be able to get my son into when he gets old enough. The new Savage 220 caught my eye being that it is a bolt action and was curious if anyone here has shot one or any other thoughts on the Savage.

Fantastic sluggers. You wouldn't be wrong in any way getting one. Every one that I have shot were good shooters and all those I know that has one swears by them. Very accurate and while they still put a bit of thump to the shoulder, they are a far site better than a full load 12 gauge slugger. I personally have no need for one as I went back to inline muzzleloaders here in IL but if I were to go back to sluggers I would probably grab one up rather than a 20 gauge barrel on my TC.

Camp Lejeune here doesn't allow hunting on base with Rifles, Muzzle loaders are ok but I already have one that is good enough that me and my father share since we don't get as much time to hunt at the same time. So thinking of upgrading the slugger for now, plus the 5yr old will be old enough to shoot one in no time and would prefer him getting comfortable with the 20 vs shocked by the recoil of the 12.

Well they do still have some kick so don't set the little fella on one TOO soon. They only weigh around 7.5 pounds so they are fairly light and still have a bit of a kick. Granted they aren't as hard kicking as the 12 gauge but they will still wake a fella up. If the little one will be growing up and learning in a non CF area where ML'ers or SG's are the only options, I personally would suggest getting a nice inline. You can tailor a reduced load like a 220gr pill over say 70gr BH 209 and still have a very good whitetail dropper out to 75 maybe even 100 with a good reduction in recoil. You can also build him up using a ML'er. Gradually increasing the charge and bullet weight's. That's the beauty of a ML'er. Working a new shooter up rather than them having to deal with a hard punch right off the get go.

As far as for yourself, as I said earlier, you wouldn't be going wrong at all with the 220. Great accuracy from just about every slug brand I've seen them fed. It seems most I've seen likes those Federal power shock 3/4 ounce the best but some like the new superformance hornady slugs with those monoflex bullets. I think the bullets in those are 250 grain. The trigger in those are pretty nice as well. Most SG triggers aren't the best feeling because shotguns are typically used differently and a different "pull" is used. Savage uses their accutrigger in the 220 and those triggers are pretty good. I'm a "trigger snob" of sorts so to get my "okay" on a trigger says a little something. A good trigger is always needed for accurate shooting.

Buy it, you'll love it.
-Jake

I've owned one for 2 years. Deadly accurate with 3" Winchester slugs. Most accurate slug gun I have ever owned.

I love mine. I plan to get a few more deer with it this year. It's the best slug gun I've ever shot!

You boys are making this future purchase pretty exciting.