augmike

I have a 12 gauge Mossberg 500 pump and would like to add a scope for deer season.I hunt in western NY where theweather can range from 65 degrees and sunny to nasty snow storms during the season.I have never hunted with a scope.Any thoughtsor tips are appriciated. I am leaning towards a red dot. Any thoughts on this would be great, such as manufacturer, type, magnification or not, price range. Can I also use this for turkey? Thanks

longrifle1000

Usually with slug gun it isn't a matter of if the scopewill break, but when. I have used scoped slug guns for 12 years now, and have had 8 scopes fail. I have never used a red dot though. Usually the dot is 4 MOA or bigger. That means at 100 yards the dot covers 4" of the target. Not the most precice aiming. But, if you are only talking 50 yards the dot would be fine. What might work for you might not work for me. Best thing you can do is try it out. I would suggest contacting the scope manufacturers and inquire if their scopes will take the repeated recoil of a 12 ga slug. Could save you some money in the long run. Good luck

uncle matt

I have a Simmons Pro-Diamond 4X shotgun scope on a 12 gauge H&R Ultra Slug Hunter for the past 8 years or so. Never had a problem with it. Got a 20 gauge Ultra for a son and of course went with another Simmons. Not a Pro-Diamond, just a 4X. No problems with his 20's scope either.

johnch

I have had a Millit 30 mm red dots on my slug and turkey guns for years .
I have never had one fail, I have 7 or 8 on differend guns
It has a 3 min dot ( 3" at 100 yds)
Witch ever red dot you choise , put a extra battery in your wallet or pack .
I forgot to turn it off and it got dim.

Any of the $100 or more red dots should be fine.
Most red dots fail during the sighting in perod

Johnch

teamster284

here are a few links to scopes specifically designed for shotguns.............

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/pod/standard-pod-wrapped.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/pod-link.jsp_A&_DAV=MainCatcat20712&rid=&i ndexId=cat20760&navAction=push&navCount=1& amp;parentType=index&parentId=cat20760&id= 0027638

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/pod/horizontal-pod.jsp?rid=&indexId=cat20760&navAction=pu sh&navCount=4&cmCat=null&parentType=in dex&parentId=cat20760&id=0012798
last one is shot gun scope

just do your research

Paul L Mohr

Sorry to bring this back to life after a month, but I stumbled on it searching for info on a HR ultra slug gun.

If you can afford it the leupold would work great and has a great waranty if it breaks. I have owned two bushnell Trophy scopes and they work great for this kind of stuff. I had one on my muzzle loader for while and have one on my new HR 12 guage. I have a friend that has one on his 1187 slug gun. The ones we have are lower power like 1.75 to 4 with the circle-x. Great little scopes for turkey or short range deer. Cost about a hundred bucks usually.

The simmons shotgun scopes are nice too. And I think cabela's has a few under their name as well.

The only scope I've ever ruined was on a high powered pellet rifle. Ripped the thing apart. I had a leupold pistol scope go bad on me once as well. Other than that I've never had a problem with a scope for $30 to $400. Except for optics and fogging.

BSA makes a decent cheap red dot if you want one. I've had one for years that has been on a bow, pistol and turkey/slug gun (mossberg 500 12 guage). It's held up pretty well for the price. Putting one a bow is about like throwing one on the ground repeatedly so it should handle recoil ok. And it held up to 3 inch mag turkey loads as well. There are better ones for sure though.

The only thing to keep in mind when getting a scope for what you want is it has to have decent optics and a good build quality. Cheap scopes won't be very clear which means they won't work well in low light and they tend to fog up in nasty weather. Like what you would have deer hunting during shotgun season. Nothing like pulling your rifle up, taking aim and having the scope fog over from the heat of your eye! I've been there, it sucks. Most scopes in the 100 dollar and up range will not have this problem though. This is the probably the only reason I would suggest a leupold. If you had any problems with it (which I doubt you would) they would take care of it. And they will not come apart no matter what type of gun you put them on unless someone screwed up building it. Which can happen to any scope manufacturer. I personally don't care for them for what they cost, but I'm poor.

If you have a cabela's any where near you go there and check out the scopes. If you get one there they have the best return policy I have ever seen. If you return it in the box with the receipt you will get all your money back. Basically you could test a scope for the season and if you didn't like it you could take it back and your money back. Simply tell them you didn't care for it, they don't care why. I tried 4 scopes looking for the right one on my .17HMR. They told me the same thing when I bought my laser range finder. I said that is a lot of money for something I don't even know if I need or would like. The guy said buy one, take home and use it for the season. If you don't like it just bring it back and get your money back. That's a pretty darn good deal. I liked it so much I kept it any way, which I'm sure they were counting on.

Paul

ccm352

I really do like the Simmons Pro Diamond. I think its a good scope. I have it on my 11-87. Holds good groups at 50 and 100 yards.