.223 for deer?

[LightningBG]

Sounds to me like you need to try some different brands of slugs in that shotgun to see which one it likes. And make sure your scope is tight.

There just isn't that much that can be wrong with a shotgun for it to be shooting 11" groups.

[LightningBG]

With regards to velocity and the required ft/lbs to humanely put down a deer....

The shorter barrel is going to have a significant effect on velocity. Would be wise to figure out what kind of energy you're really putting out there before buying a gun or bringing it out in the field.

In this particular scenario, you're losing 17% velocity simply by shortening the barrel.

[HandGunner]

Sounds to me like you need to try some different brands of slugs in that shotgun to see which one it likes. And make sure your scope is tight.

There just isn't that much that can be wrong with a shotgun for it to be shooting 11" groups.

not much you can shoot out of a smoothbore shotgun. we've shot mostly winchester rifled slugs out of it mostly. they all seem to fly the same

[picksbigwagon]

you need to try the federal tru ball slugs then. All of the smoothbore deer hunters I hunt with use those. I have a rifled barrel 12 ga. so I can't but I tried them in a 20 ga last summer and they were giving me nice groups at 50 yards, from a 20" barrel browning BPS

[TooTallTom]

HandGunner, I don't know if you happen to have a 12ga 870 laying around, but there's a fully-rifled barrel for sale in the classifieds on here.

http://hsolist.com/classified.php?n=2073

That would be quite a bit cheaper than buying a whole new gun.

[LightningBG]

not much you can shoot out of a smoothbore shotgun. we've shot mostly winchester rifled slugs out of it mostly. they all seem to fly the same

There also isn't much that can go wrong with a smoothbore shotgun. Try some different slugs. There are probably 5-10 different brands available.

[TooTallTom]

One of the guys at work swears by Brenneke slugs. There's also a company called Dixe Slugworks that makes slugs to simulate the old "bore" rifles that were used on big game in Africa.

[hockeybc69]

first time checking this post....

It went from a speedy little .223 discussion to a big lead chunk discussion???

[TooTallTom]

Yeah, but luckily it has stayed a shootin' deer discussion (mostly).