OT - Advice on my new shotgun for deer or ....

[Sandman]

Good evening,

When I was younger growing up on the farm all I knew was firearm hunting and I took every opportunity to get out and burn some powder.

As I got older and started my career, I wasn’t able to hunt as much as I wanted to due to family and work commitments. Around 2001 I was given an opportunity to hunt a large property but the only condition was that it had to be bow only. A buddy of mine loaned me his Horton Super Mag. I fumbled around for several weeks like a teddy bear playing with his *&&^ and on a very cold snowing day in December I somehow was fortunate enough to harvest a broken beam 4 point. Well I was hooked and other than a couple rifle moose hunts I have never looked back I have owned 11 Excals since then and currently have 5 including an original Wolverine (retired).

Fast forward to 2021 when I retired now the world slowed to a gentle pace and it feels like I am missing some prime deer hunting opportunities. I also would like to hunt turkey with a shotgun.

Well, I pulled the trigger in late December and bought a Benelli SBE3 (left hand) 12 Gauge 3½;





I love the feel of this gun and thought it would be a great deer gun as well with a slug barrel. Well to my disappointment a slug barrel (LH) for the Benelli is at least 9 months with no guarantee that it will be available then.

So with that info I am thinking I will just pull the trigger on a good deer slug gun. Looking for some assistance on a good recommendation? I am not a polished gun guy I am more of a get em wet and as dirty kinda guy.

Thanks in advance,
Cheers,
Chester

[artifact]

I have a 12 ga, Browning A-Bolt shotgun with the 5" rifled choke that will cloverleaf Lightfield slugs @100 yds..
Having said that, if I were looking for a new slug gun I would be looking at the Savage 220 20 ga., a buddy of mine has one and loves everything about it, he has shot deer in Ohio at well over 100yds. with it. This same buddy also had a 12ga. H&R Ultra Slug gun and a 12ga. Browning A-Bolt like I have, he prefers the 20 ga. Savage over either one of them, I believe the 220 is also available in a LH version.
The Ithaca Deer slayer and the Remington 870 with a rifled barrel or rifled choke tube are a couple other options, if you already have a Ithica 37 or an 870, it may be as simple as buying a rifled barrel or installing a rifled choke tube and go from there, but the receivers may or may not be drilled for scope mounts.
Multiple choices, but I would at least take a look at the Savage.

[OhioXBowhunter]

Good luck on any left handed shotgun they are hard to come by went through that years ago with my son, my suggestion would be a Browning BPS shotgun bottom ejection slug barrels easy to get.

[AJ01]

The Browning BPS is a fine shotgun. However, I don't know about finding a "Slug Barrel" for it.
The bottom eject makes it great for Lefties!!
My youngest is left-handed. I feel your pain, as this younger generation would say.
I'm sorry Sandman, but the world wasn't made for left-handed people.

The Remington 870 is probably your best bet. Why? Sheer mass production.
Millions have been made since 1950 when it was first introduced.
It comes in a plethora of configurations. Extra barrels and accessories are plentiful. And it's easy to work on.

Thousands of these are in use every day all across America and other countries by law enforcement and the military.
If cops and soldiers can use them, they must be pretty bullet proof.
I was a firearms instructor for many years at a large Metro department in the Lower 48. Might be hard to believe, but most cops are NOT gun nuts. Just the opposite. Most can't tell a trigger from a safety without someone teaching them.
That's why the Military and Law Enforcement use the acronym K.I.S.S (Keep It Simply, Stupid).

To me, simplicity reigns. The 870 fits the niche'.

Just the thoughts of an old man in East Texas.

Oh, and BTW...you don't have to drill and tap the receiver of an 870 for a scope mount. Numerous companies make scope mounts that use the 2 pins in the receiver to hold a picatinny rail system in place.

[grouse]

Ithaca pumps are also bottom ejection just like the BPS. I have a 12 ga. BPS and a 20 ga. Ithaca model 37 featherlight. Of the two I prefer the Ithaca because it's so light and pumps more smoothly. Older model 37s are a little hard to find and, (as stated before) may require modification to accept a scope and a choke tube but they are not overly expensive. That said, a BPS would work fine.

[Boo]

In slug guns I've had an SBE, M2 (20 gauge), Mossberg (bolt), Browning Silver and a Savage 220. The Savage has survived the nit picking. It has everything needed to kill deer to 200 yards and does it well. All the others had things I didn't like about them that nagged at me until I traded or sold them. The only one I might have kept was the Browning.
The 20 is the way to go. The 12 gauge doesn't offer anything substantial other than recoil. I was using Winchester Partition and will be switching to Federal Trophy Copper if I can find enough of them. The Winchester has enough umph to down a cow elk at 180 yards.

[Al in Mi]

If your in a state that allows straightwall rifles, look into one of them.

[xcaliber]

I’m with Boo, hard to beat the Savage 220 for deer hunting.

[Boo]

Thing about your situation. The SBE excels as a goose and turkey gun. I've had one for well over 20 years. It gets beat up, muddy and abused but it keeps working with usually one cleaning a year. Mine is drilled and tapped for a scope but I can't imagine putting a scope and removing it for deer. But I checked on a price for a barrel and found the same issue you did. The extra barrel not only was going to take nearly a year (maybe more) but the price was bananas! It's almost the price of a dedicated slug gun!