Im New. Help!
 

Hi all. I live in Northern VA and this will be my first year deer hunting. I was given a nice Bow and I am a pretty good shot, but I want to get into gun hunting too. I'll be mainly hunting on Marine Corps. Base Quantico at first. In terms of guns, slug guns are what I have to use. I found this :

http://www.gandermountain.com/modper...n&merchID=4005

Is this a good slug gun? What else do I need? Tips? Anything on slug guns and hunting tips in general will be helpful. I am on a tight budget this year.

Thanks!

It's a very good slug gun but it will kick the snot out of you. A friend of mine had one. It was very accurate.
The best way to learn about your quarry and the land you are hunting is to spend a lot of time scouting. There's no substitute for woods time. Use binoculars from a good lookout spot if you're worried about spooking them. Learn the travel routes, food sources, bedding areas to be able to plan how to ambush them this fall. Good luck.

Welcome to the forum. You will find a lot of good advice here.

That is a good slug gun. With today's newer ammo, the 20 Ga is all you need for deer out to 150 yds and even a little more. Don't worry about recoil. You don't feel it when shooting game, and these are not guns that you shoot for fun anyway.

I'm not a single shot guy. I like a repeater of any kind over a single shot for hunting, assuming acceptable accuracy. If you hunt an area where shots will not be over 75 yds, you can do just fine with a smoothbore and rifled slugs. MUCH cheaper to shoot. My Mosseberg 500, smoothbore slug barrel with rifle sights, will shoot 2" at 50 yds with a couple brands of rifled slugs.

Also, the gun is more of a general purpose gun with other barrels. I hunt turkeys and rabbits with it also. If you go with a smoothbore pump, I recommend a 12 Ga over a 20.

That's good to hear. Does it matter what sort of scope I get? Do they make scopes specific to slug guns or will a rifle scope do?

Any decent quality rifle scope is fine. Certain scopes are marketed as "shotgun" scopes, but they are not made any "stronger" than standard scopes. Find a decent scope that suits your hunting situtations and don't worry about the rest.

I shot a Bushnell Banner Dusk/Dawn 1.5-4.5x on a Marlin 512 Slug Gun for years with zero problems, and this is a relatively low end scope. Cost around $75 as I recall.

If you are thinking scope, you probably are not thinking smoothbore pump. But if you are thinking rifled Bore pump, then be sure to get a gun that has a slug barrel with the cantilever style scope mount, as opposed to the receiver mount.

Good advice. I posted the gun I will be purchasing above. It has a scope rail.

that is one of the best slug guns out there i have one with a thumbhole stock in 20 ga. and look at a full field 2 by burris. and good luck

I would look at the Nikon Slugger without the bdc reticule.
It will give you 5" eye relief
Excellent choice of gun
Welcome
daddus

I would look at a stoeger m3500 that shoots 3 1/2 inch shell. make sure it is a twelve gauge.