Yes, but....there is a certain amount of luck involved. Deer are....well, crazy sometimes. I enjoy all the planning and set up but I always 'miss' something. Then again, sometimes it doesn't matter.

Spend a whole month in full camo with cover scents in a 'perfect location' where trails criss cross, game cameras are always clicking on game and never get a good shot....while someone else, in their white T-shirt, with body odor, eating donuts in noisy wrappers, talking on their cell phone, kicking the inside of the blind when stretching will bring home a trophy. It happens. All you can do is prepare the best you can then pray.

Having only lived in states where buckshot was not legal for deerhunting, I don't fully understand your issue.

If you couldn't hit the deer with a slug, how were you going to hit the deer with buckshot? Was it a situation where you were just going to point and shoot in hopes of hitting the deer? If so, you probably shouldn't have been taking the shot with a slug or buckshot.

Funny, Saturday I knew we would be putting on some drives, so I brought the rifled slug gun and a smoothbore. I figured if i was a driver I would put the slug gun in the truck and take the other with buckshot, and thats exactly what I did. I won't damage the rifling, but with the pattern you might as well use a wrist rocket.

That would be true if you were after that big buck. Reading about analyzing the situation and actually coming up with a strategy, based on all information gathered and scouting, is much different. Pus you stated you were involved in a population control hunt, much different that trying to outwit a big, mature buck.

Like others have said, take one gun that you feel comfortable with and go on your hunt with your highest priority being a quick, humane kill.

I understand where you are going. A few weeks ago I had two deer jump up not 4' in front of me and I couldn't get them in my scope fast enough but if I had my 12 guage smoothbore with me I could've done the 'point and shoot'. As close as they were I'm pretty sure I could've put one down. The next trip I took my slug gun and sat in the stand for a few hours and then went back to the truck and got the smoothbore with buckshot and roamed around hoping to jump one like I seem to have done a bunch of other times when I had something in my hand with a scope on it. Of course, it didn't happen!

Shooting at a jumped deer with buckshot can be lethal with a crossing shot but can leave a deer to linger a long and painful death if shot in the rump or gut. For buckshot to be humane you need to hit him with a decent pattern. If the gun you're using patterns well and you hit the deer square in the ribs, you would have also hit him with a slug. A lot of hunters think that you should use shot on moving targets because that's what they use on rabbits and pheasants, for that way of thinking to work on deer you would need a shell that holds 300 buckshot pellets, not 12. My suggestion for you is if you use a scope on your slug gun, use one that has a low end of 1 to 1 1/2 power, that way it will be easier to aquire a running target. Another thing to think about is that if the deer is quartering away from you and you do wind up hitting it in the rump, the slug will travel lengthwise through the body and still strike it's vitals. It will be messy when you gut him out, but he won't suffer with buckshot in his rump. If i'm not mistaking I think they call that a Texas heart shot.

BTW, buckshot (or any shot for that matter) through a rifled barrel will have a spin imparted to the shot column. Not only will the patterns be doughnut shaped, but they expand so rapidly that you'd shoot a circle around your intended target.

Ok I was clearly talking about picking a gun! I wasn't talking about anything more about hunting or tactics to kill a deer.
Just pick a gun and use it

Nato...The gun you are talking about is what I call my scout gun...When I'm on one of the farms and checking for sign or acorn drop, etc, I'll carry my slug shotgun...

Now, mine isn't rifled nor does it have a scope on it, but it will keep foster slugs inside a 5 inch circle at 100 yards and put 6-7 Winchester #1 Buck into a 10 inch circle at 40 yards...

Mine happens to be a Remington 1100 with the rifle sights that I bought back in the 70s...I also carry this gun or my Browning
B-80 in 3 inch Mag when I suspect the dog hunters will be dropping their dogs off on my property...

Any good shotgun with a vent rib could be equipped with an add on sight and this option also lets you load one slug and then followup with buckshot...In this way, if you have a shot at a standing deer, great, if not then you can get rid of the slug and follow up with buckshot...

Either way, I'd leave the "buck" shot at home. I've never seen it put a deer down quick but I've sure found enough wounded ones that were shot with it.

I regularly carry two guns. I used to carry a ML for shots up to 300 yds and also an 11-87 with open sights to catch any running down the same ditch I sat on (within 40 yds typically). After awhile the slug gun started staying home and was replaced with a peep-sighted ML, which is the current double setup I carry.

If the gun throws a tight enough pattern with buckshot to be shooting at deer with, and you can hit a deer with it, you could have hit it with a slug. Deer aren't pheasants, no wings to break, anything outside the vitals will just be a painful gangrenous death.

for a few years i carried a slug gun and a muzzle loader, after awhile i noticed that i never even thought about using the shotgun so now i carry only the muzzle loader. My thinking was if im walking and kick up a deer i would want my shotgun with its additional shots, now i just scream at the deer if there running and about half the time they will stop and give me a nice shot for my M.L. I know for me as i matured as a hunter it wasnt as hard to just let the ones that dont present you with a good enough shot go.