bigwilly1198

Just polling for some opinions. Where I hunt its mainly thick northeastern woods and I have been using my 300winnie for the past few years but the only issue is that its more setup for longer range (obviously) with a 4.5x-14x scope on it so my FOV at 4.5x isnt the best for thick woods hunting. The farthest shot would be less than 100, with the average 20 yards or so. So I do have a 870 12gauge remy with a smooth bore with iron sights. Now would you choose a shotgun with rifled slugs and iron sights over the 300 winnie with a scope since the farthest shot will most likely be 50 yards (max 100).

I'm thinking I might switch it up this year since I feel the shotgun might offer a quicker shot placement... Thoughts? Will the slug do much more damage than the 300WM?

kevin1

I hunt similar conditions with a 20 gage smoothbore with fiber optic rifle style sights and rifled slugs. Your 12 gage shotgun is a much better choice for that application, and considerably more pleasant to shoot than that howitzer you're using. Scopes are nearly worthless at short range, and if sight aquisition becomes a problem because of low light conditions refit the gun with fiber optic sights. Slugs are absolutely better than high velocity rounds at ranges under 100 yards, and much safer.