Hi Guys, This past season was my first deer hunting. I hunted with a bow and also borrowed a 12 gauge Mossberg 835 from a friend. The Mossberg had the rifled barrel with a cantilever scope mount. My friend has shot multiple deer over 100 yards and his longest shot has been 180 yards that he said was a "hail marry". I shot a deer at 30 yards. This is the limit of my experience shooting slugs and I have zero experience with shooting rifles.

I am looking to buy my first shotgun for deer hunting. My goal is a 150+ yard slug gun. Where I will hunt rifles are not an option. I have the following questions that hopefully some of you guys will have the experience to answer.

1. Depending on the slug, a 20 gauge slug will drop below 1000 ft.lbf of energy at around 120 yards. Is 1000 ft.lbf a reasonable minimum for deer? Would you be confident with a 20 gauge a distances greater than 120 yards?

2. The savage 212 has a 1/35 twist rate. Because of this relatively slow twist rate can the 212 shoot high velocity rounds and be as accurate as the savage 220 at 200 yards?

3. The mossberg 500 has a 1/36 twist rate. How accurate can this gun group at 100 yards? Can it shoot high velocity slugs? Has anyone tried?

My son purchased the camo 220 and was successful in harvesting a nice Ohio 8pt. I was very impressed with the 220 when sighting it in. I will be getting myself one. I would have no problem with shooting the 220 out to 150yds with a decent scope on it. I would have to range shoot out beyond 150 to know it's performance. Remington ballistic tips were used.

Thanks for the info!