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I live in Pa and would like to take my dad whitetail hunting at an outfitter in Illinois for his 60th bday. Im thinking the first gun season in 2016 is the date. Can you make some slug gun recommendations? I hunt with rifle here and he uses buckshot in NJ. Can muzzleloader be used in 1st gun? Any tips would help and be appreciated. Also recs on outfitters. Thanks!!

My Recommendation is go to Kansas or Nebraska or even Kentucky. You might get disappointed here even with an outfitted hunt. As far as weapon, muzzleloader is legal here as well as slug guns. Good luck in whatever you choose.

Thanks! I will check those states out also!! Im assuming you get more reach out of a muzzleloader. How about slug gun recommendations. I have a savage 220 and that’s good for my needs here but Im limited to 75yds or under on a good size deer. I was looking at the 12ga model or even the Remington super slug

I can shoot 150 yds with ease out of my Mossberg with rifled barrel and winchester 385 gr. partition gold sabot slugs.

I bought the savage to replace my model 500. I think it has a bad barrel but Mossberg wouldn’t stand behind their product so its been sitting in my safe for the last 6yrs

I ve used the same 835 since I was 19. I have tweeked it over the years with scope and slug technology advancements. I have hunted Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Maine and Saskatchewan with it. Zero failures. Best gun I ve ever owned. Yours must have been made on Monday.

HAHAHA Something like that. When I first got it it shot awesome groups at 75 and 100yds. But the more I shot it the worse it got. Now at 20yds and my Leupold elevation maxed out it hits the dirt 5’ in front of the target. I bought my dad an 835 and the only issue he ever had was buck fever!

One tip.. Avoid rifled lead slugs in their rifled barrels. Lead fouls the barrel quickly and accuracy goes away quick. I used the big rifled slugs for hole size in Canada for bear and usually have to clean fouling every 4 or 5 shots.

I only shoot Lightfield Sabots. It has a rifled 24” barrel

Same barrel length as mine. Sometimes slugs make all the difference, I ve tried a bunch to find the right one for my gun. I sighted a Mossberg 500 this fall for a buddy and the Winchesters had a 1 in group at 50 and 3 in at 100.

I was touching holes with the Lightfields when I got the gun but after 3 seasons its done

Something’s amiss. I ve shot hundreds of slugs through my barrel. Can’t believe they won’t look at it.

Matt are you sure it isn’t the scope?  Leupold is a big name…but they aren’t immune to problems.  I have one in the safe now that went haywire while it sat on my wife’s 11-87 12ga.  It was a cloverleaf maker with lightfields at 100yds….then she hit a deer in the neck at 75yds.  I wrote it off as buck fever.  Then the next time she gut shot a doe at 20yds.  That really wasn’t like her at all.  Then she liver/gut shot another doe at 40yds…..and I knew something was up.  We recovered all three deer, but I took the gun to the range after the third one.  I should have gone after the first one, because instead of clover leafs….it was making more of a pattern.  And it never hit the same area twice.

It’s not the guns fault…but she is soured on it now.  She got a 12ga H&R ultra slug, and wont shoot anything else now.

I had a cabelas scope on it originally and when I maxed it out and shot it blew the internals up in the scope so I returned it for another cabelas. I had the same issue with that one so I bought a leupold. after it happened with that scope I returned it to leupold where the scope was checked and returned stating there were no issues. I put the rear sight on the barrel and shot open sights with the same results. Im looking at the savage 12ga browning abolt or rem super slug

If you have a 220, why don’t you want to use it?  Some of them are tempermental.  But if you find the slug your gun likes, then it’s easily a 150yd gun.