As I snugged the butt of my Browning A-5 shotgun, which I primarily used for quail hunting with my father, up to my shoulder, a voice in my 11-year-old head kept saying, “You shouldn’t be doing this.” Of course, the other voice in my head — the seemingly much louder one — kept saying, “C’mon, just pull the trigger.”
Undeterred by the quieter “good” voice, I settled the brass bead on the vent rib on the center of the cardboard box acting as my target. When I squeezed the trigger and touched off the shotgun slug in the chamber, three things happened. First, the gun rocked me back so hard I was barely able to stay seated. Second, the muzzle blast combined with the recoil gave me a flinch that took me years to overcome. Lastly, the box went scampering down the creek bank where I had placed it.
I looked around guiltily to see if anyone had witnessed the episode. Up until that point, I hadn’t really done anything too dumb yet, and was likely still in the clear. When I touched off the second round, however, I learned a thing or two about the old chestnut, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
The target shooting describe above was the result of having a father who loved shotguns and bird hunting, but believed rifles were just too dangerous. Being a typical country kid in the early 1970s, and a voracious reader of outdoor magazines, I wanted nothing more than to kill a whitetail — the holy grail of North American big-game animals. At the time, whitetails in my part of Oklahoma were about as rare as the proverbial hen’s teeth, but one could always dream.
My dream ended — at least temporarily — when I made my way down to the box and saw that my shooting had resulted in a two-shot group of about 16.0 inches. And no, I didn’t put the decimal in the wrong place! To put a further nail in the coffin, after the second shot, I had promised my shoulder — and my already damaged hearing — that I’d never shoot another shotgun slug again as long as I lived.
The Rise Of Slug Guns
I was able to keep that promise for the next 40 years until I found myself sitting in a tree stand in Iowa with a Remington slug gun on my lap and a rifled slug in the chamber. I had shot the gun at the range the afternoon before and knew exactly what it could do. That gun/slug combo was deadly accurate, with 2- to 3-inch groups at 100 yards easily doable. Visions of big bucks danced in my head as I watched the sun come up on that chilly morning.
Despite three days of hunting him, I didn’t kill the big buck I was after on that trip. I did, however, kill a big doe with one well-placed shot at well over 100 yards, completely replacing my earlier memory that had tainted my opinion on slugs and slug guns.
Thank goodness American gun and ammo companies pushed the envelope to where now, purpose-made slug guns are nothing like those of yesteryear. These new shotties are basically works of art, are extremely accurate and are useful for much more than just short-range hunting.
With a little bit of research, I learned that firearm manufacturers had made a number of advancements in slug guns over the years. Rifled barrels gave deer hunters the ability to kill game at close-to-rifle distances. And with some restricted states allowing deer hunters to use shotguns only, other improvements followed.
Butt pads were improved, barrel production tolerances were tightened, and optics-mounting capabilities crept into the equation. At the same time, ammunition manufacturers were using better materials, more efficient propellants, more consistent primers and better rifled slugs in their final products. Taken together, all of these factors made slug guns capable of easily killing deer out to a couple hundred yards — unheard of some 50 years ago.
All that said, let’s take a look at three slug guns that your customers might want to consider hauling to deer camp this fall.
Browning Maxus II Rifled Deer
A longtime top-tier shotgun maker, Browning is much better known for its bird guns than its slug shotguns. But the Maxus II Rifled Deer might change that. This 12-gauge autoloader with a precision-rifled barrel is designed primarily for use with sabot-type slugs. This shotgun is chambered for 3-inch shotshells and utilizes the Power Drive Gas System as found in many other Browning shotguns, with the benefits of reduced recoil, extreme reliability and blazing-fast follow-up-shot capabilities. A cantilever rail with Weaver-style slots atop the action makes optics mounting simple, and the company says the gun will hold zero for any installed scope when the barrel is removed for cleaning and reassembled.
Features of the Maxus II Rifle Deer include a 22-inch, thick-walled rifled slug barrel, tubular magazine, gold-plated trigger and composite stock, which is shim-adjustable for length of pull and cast. The shotgun weighs just over 7 pounds and is available in two camouflage patterns: Mossy Oak Bottomland and Ovix. Note that this isn’t your average slug gun, so it doesn’t carry an average price tag. With an MSRP of $1,949.99, the Maxus II might be a little on the high side for some slug gun shoppers, but I’d say it’s worth that price.
Mossberg 500 Slugster
The Mossberg 500 Slugster has been hauled into the deer words for over 50 years, and it’s killed plenty of good whitetails along the way. Interestingly, Mossberg introduced three new models to the Slugster lineup in 2025, and all are likely to turn a lot of heads for those in search of a top-quality slug gun at a reasonable price.
The new pump-action Slugsters are available in 12- and 20-gauge, along with .410 bore, all with 3-inch chambers and five-shot capacity, owing to the tubular magazine beneath the barrel. The guns feature windage- and elevation-adjustable rifle-style sights mounted on the barrel, along with a receiver that is drilled and tapped for mounting optics for those who prefer a closer look at their quarry and a better aiming point.
The Slugsters have black synthetic furniture, and the metal finish is matte blue. The 12- and 20-gauge models have a 24-inch fully rifled barrel with a 1:36 twist. On the .410, the 20-inch barrel has a smooth bore and a shortened buttstock with only a 13-inch length of pull. Best of all, these pump slug guns have an MSRP of only $533.
Winchester SXP Extreme Deer
To many, the name Winchester is synonymous with deer hunting because of the company’s storied rifle line. The Winchester SXP Extreme Deer pump-action slug gun easily deserves its place alongside the company’s rifles. The company calls it a “100% deer hunting machine,” and a look at the features hints at where they came up with that evaluation. Along with the fast-pumping rotary bolt action, this shotgun features a 22-inch rifled barrel for accuracy with sabots and conventional slugs, as well as a pistol grip stock to provide the user with a solid, secure feel when it’s time to fire a shot.
Fit is a major focus of this slug gun, as two user-interchangeable combs and height-adjusting spacers allow the user to tune comb height for perfect eye-to-sight alignment with their choice of sighting systems. A 3-inch chamber lets hunters use 2¾- or 3-inch slugs, and a Truglo fiber-optic front sight and adjustable rear sight offer a fast, natural sight picture for those wishing to use iron sights. Rounding out the package are a drop-out trigger group for easy cleaning and an Inflex technology recoil pad that directs felt recoil down and away from the shooter’s cheek. MSRP for the SXP Extreme Deer is a very reasonable $619.99.
