my first gun was a mossberg 12ga mdl 500 combo with a 28" bird barrel and a 24" smoothbore with rifled sights, got my first deer with it and every kind of bird you can think of, made a triple on grouse and got a few rabbits and pheasant shooting from the hip. eventualy got 2 - 24" rifled barrels one with a cantilever for a scope and one without for open sights and put a millet orange front and white outline rear ( adjustable) on it and am still using it today at times ( bought it in 1976) made my longest shot on a deer with that open sight app 85 yds. my only beef with the shotguns is that the trigger pull is crap compared to a smith worked bolt action. never used buckshot for hunting though. the slugs slap em down hard and leave a blood trail a blind man could follow, if they move at all. but shooting slugs from the bench is no fun. if you have a choice I'd go with a rifled barrel and use slugs, many good ones to choose from my gun likes the fed prem with barnes expanders. sorry for the long post . and as always its just my opinion.
Good posts guys. Thanks for the info.
I have a 10 gauge as well, but it is way too heavy and long to be a practical gun to hunt with. My dad killed a deer at 120 yards with it years back
I like to use my 870 20 gauge with a rifled slug barrel and sabot slugs.
