New Hunter here, questions about shotguns
 

Hey all, this is my first post on this site so I am going to introduce myself first. My name is Jon, married with a 7mth old. I live in CT and I have always been into the outdoors, but have finally decided to start the hunting adventure.

I have a few friends that hunt and I have been getting a ton of recommendations from them, problem is they all are somewhat contradict each other.

As of right now I am only going to be going with either on gun, or one bow. I havent decided which I would rather start out with.

I am interested in hunting deer, goose, duck, ect. One of my buddies recommended a 12 gauge shotgun with different barrels that way I could do them all with that one gun. One friend said thats not a good idea and I should get a rifle. One said go with a bow. Hahaha

So, with just a rifle or bow i am obviously stuck to just deer, and the shotgun setup I can do them all.

What would you guys recommend? I am a CCW holder and I carry most of the time, and I am interested in getting a shotgun to add to the collection for home defense anyways.

Thanks for all the help and info you have to offer! I searched on here for days, but didnt find exactly what I was looking for.

i think shotguns suck for deer hunting but then again ive never used one. i say use a 30-30

Get a Remington 870. They make barrels for everything Ill want to hunt. I shoot a Remington 887 with rifled barrel for deer season. 2 inch groups at 100 yards.

Shotguns dont suck for deer lol. Sure theres a little more kick, but theyre fine.

Remington 870 is a decent gun. Get one with 2 barrels. One rifled and one smooth bore.

I would say the only problem would be if youre gonna put a scope on it. Scopes are great for deer, but you would have to take it off everytime you wanted to go duck hunting etc. I dont see many bird hunters with scopes lol.

And for a bow, you could always do like me. I use multiple weapons. I have a bow for bow season, I use shotguns for firearm season, And a muzzleloader for muzzleloader season. Sometimes I use the Muzzleloader for firearm season though.

The ONLY thing I dont like about the 870 is I have had problems before when I would shoot a shotshell everything would jam up and I couldnt get it to unload because of being locked up.

First thing I would do is check the area where you will be hunting to see if a rifle is even legal to use. My home state of Michigan has a dividing line for rife and shotgun use during deer season because of population density. I live in the shotgun only zone, and love hunting with mine. Just try different ammo and find the one that your gun likes best. Also, you can look for shotguns with cantilever barrels that will allow you to put a scope on your slug barrel that can be removed easily when you want to hunt with the other barrel.

I recommend a combo shotgun that comes with a smoothbore barrel that accepts different choke tubes, and a rifled slug barrel with a cantilevered scope mount.

With the various chokes you can hunt all small game, turkeys, ducks and geese, etc. The slug barrel is obviously for deer, but other big game too like black bears, boar, heck even moose.

If you decide to stick with gun hunting you can buy other guns for more specific purposes, but the combo shotgun is the cheapest way to get into it, and is still a gun you will hang onto for its versatility.

Mine is a Mossberg 500 that came with a smoothbore slug barrel/iron sights. It is good out to 75 yds for deer. These days most combos come with a rifled barrel. The remington 870 is another good choice. Pick one of each up and see which you prefer.

If you're looking for just 1 gun to do it all then keep in mind that regardless of what you choose it will be great in certain situations and lack in others. My opinion is to get a smooth bore shotgun. They can shoot all loads that you will need for all 3 types of hunts.

Deer - you'll need a slugger type ammo (pre rifled). Accuracy is not as good but it will do the job

Bird - with bird loads the groups wont be as tight but once again it will do the trick.

My first shotgun was a 12ga Mossberg 500 Ducks Unlimited and it did well for deer, pheasant and quail hunting

Shotgun
 

I take it you are not experienced with a shotgun. You have to pump it hard enough to eject the empty case and load a new shell.


The ONLY thing I dont like about the 870 is I have had problems before when I would shoot a shotshell everything would jam up and I couldnt get it to unload because of being locked up.[/quote]

question asked to me and Im more of a bow hunter myself....if deer hunting with a remington 20ga....shooting slugs...what kind of choke is best...modified? full?...anyone help on this one...a buddy shot and missed twice thinking he may have had the wrong choke in for shooting deer slugs????